Every so often a ski maker screws up and makes a ski that’s considerably better than it needs to be. Salomon removed half the Titanal from its pricier (and wider) Stances to extend the Stance family down to the $549 price point, intending to drop the performance level to fit the target skier’s performance expectations.
Instead, it exceeded them. The Ti-C Frame Single Ti construction delivers a connected, carved turn that won’t wilt on crisp, early morning corduroy even when driven with an open throttle. It’s unlikely that many experts will slum it in the bargain basement where the Stance W 84 dwells, but they’d be gob-smacked if they did. For the intermediate who is its most likely operator, the Stance W 84 provides a performance ceiling that will most likely never be taxed.
The Völkl Kendo 88 has changed its name to Mantra 88, but it hasn’t stopped owning the top spot among our Power potentates. It’s accuracy on edge remains immaculate and its overall performance envelope is as ginormous as ever.
The Mantra 88’s kudos can be directly attributed to two upgrades instituted two seasons ago: Tailored Titanal Frame and Tailored Carbon Tips. Tailored Titanal Frame optimizes this keystone technology by making separate parts for each size, so smaller lengths aren’t saddled with out-sized components at the tip and tail. Tailored Carbon Tips liberate carbon fiber from the limited menu of options offered by prepreg laminates by stitching it into a fabric layer that can composed into any pattern the designer desires. In this instance, the carbon helps the tip to buffer shock so it stays in snow contact despite being modestly rockered. Together, the twin “Tailored” technologies make the Mantra 88 feel smoother, more balanced and more compliant overall.
Here’s how veteran ski tester and renowned boot expert Jim Schaffner summed up his experience on the Kendo 88 from a couple of seasons ago that remains germane today: “This ski has an amazing range of performance. Today the snow was a combination of old, compacted snow, new wind-blown snow, and solid ice where the fresh snow was blown off. The Kendo did it all with ease. Very good grip on the hard stuff, with a silky feel on the duff.”
Every ski in this genre has to be proficient off -trail, and the Mantra 88’s double-rockered baseline has no trouble heading into trees or moguls if that’s where the best skiing is. Of course, it can’t ride high on freshies like a Big Mountain behemoth, but it makes up for it with agility, zipping through potential choke points with confidence. The single most important quality an all-mountain ski can possess is total indifference to terrain selection. On this score, the Mantra 88 has no equal. It transitions from wind-affected crud to crisp corduroy as if those two conditions were the same. On hard snow, it’s so quick to the edge the skier can’t even tell it’s rockered and it’s so stable in crud you can relax, drop the reins and let the boys run.
The longest tenured member of the All-Mountain East genre, Kästle’s MX88, is also the rare iconoclast that derives its design from a Frontside archetype. It’s essentially a carving tool surrounded by an ocean of double-rockered options, most of which are spin-offs from a wider flagship model. That it continues to out-perform most of the field is a testament to just how versatile a classic, cambered ski can be.
I hasten to point out that the 2025 MX88 has a tiny bit of tip rocker, but it also has a new Hollowtech Evo shovel that keeps the forebody so quiet and connected, you’d swear the baseline was fully cambered. The MX88 serves as a reminder that any all-terrain, all-purpose tool has to be able to carve competently on groomers as the foundation of its skill set.
This year, Kästle tacitly acknowledged what the market seems to have already decided: that the MX88 is as wide as one can make a traditional, wood, glass and Titanal laminate and still get the nimble skiing reflexes off-trail skiing demands. The 23/24 season was the last for the MX98, a ski with off-trail dimensions but a Super G’s appetite for attacking the fall line. It never really fit the accepted profile of an All-Mountain West ski. Adios, my Austrian amigo, I’ll ski you in my dreams.
The same traits that keep the MX88 on line on hard snow prevent it from being deflected by piles of previously plundered powder. Despite being the closest thing to a true carving ski in the diverse All-Mountain East category, when steered off-trail, the MX88 doesn’t flinch for a moment. You can swing a high edge away from your body, secure in the knowledge that the ski will never shimmy or shake as it slingshots across the fall line. It’s for access to sensations like this that one takes the trouble to become an expert in the first place.
“The biggest problem in the Enforcer family is making a choice of the best one as an overall tool. I’m not sure you want to own multiple Enforcers; however, somewhere in that family is one that will best suit your style.” These are the pithy ruminations of the multi-talented Jim Schaffner, who can count among his many skills that of race coach, so he knows how to make a ski turn both ways. To expand a bit on Schaffner’s counsel, you can’t make a poor choice unless you make the unlikely mistake of getting the 104 when you never leave groomers or opt for the 89 on a heli trip.
By the way, this virtual interchangeability within a model family is rare. It’s more common for one shining star to out-perform its siblings, or for the family to be structured around descending price points, with only the top model receiving the optimal construction. While there are some slight adaptations among the new Enforcers, it’s along the lines of optimizing the basic design for a specific footprint, not deleting critical components to meet a perceived market dependency on a lower price.
So, what is the skier profile of the prospective partner for an Enforcer 89? We call the genre to which the Enforcer 89 belongs All-Mountain East for a reason: it inherently embodies the traits that are needed to navigate snow that tends to be hard on runs that are often narrow and relatively short. While hard snow surfaces are the norm, if prayers for fresh snow are finally answered, the all-terrain skier wants a ski that can handle it.
While the Enforcer 89 can’t match the flotation of its fatter family members, its combination of agility and stability travels very well in the cut-up chunder that powder quickly evolves into. It’s earned its place on the short list of the best all-mountain skis currently available.
The Kore 93 has been shattering preconceptions about what a lightweight, off-trail ski can do since its inception, and it’s only gotten better. In the most recent re-design, Head cut out the honeycomb Koroyd component in its core’s center section, replacing it with an all-wood mix of poplar and Karuba. Graphene remains the difference-maker, as Head can move it around the ski to change flex with virtually no effect on mass. Head tweaked its Graphene distribution across the Kore line in 2022, so that narrower models like the Kore 93 would have more bite on the firm snow they’ll be on half their lives, while fatties like the Kore 111 got an extra dose of drift and deflection.
Three seasons ago, I was blessed to hop on a 2022 Kore 93 just moments after dismounting a Kore 111. The conditions were hacked-up, wind-affected powder, nearly ideal conditions for measuring any ski’s off-trail chops. I was prepared for it to be very good; I didn’t expect it to knock my socks off.
Of course, the Kore 93 couldn’t match the flotation of the Kore 111, but it was otherwise so quick and stable I didn’t mind being a bit more in the snow than on it. Unlike the fatter ski, the Kore 93 was tight-radius friendly at all times, a real bonus in the trees where sudden cornering is critical. Back on the open trail, the Kore 93 was simplicity itself to guide from pillow to pillow in the track-riven slope.
I’d say the transition to the groom was seamless, as if there were no transition at all. At some point, you stop noticing how light the Kore 93 is and just enjoy the ride. There’s nothing to adapt to; you just ski. It’s the epitome of forgiveness and ease, the qualities for which it earned its highest marks.
The Kore 93 is able to serve skiers of all stripes because of its extensive size selection. Head is aware that the skier buying a 156cmm has a different bundle of needs and expectations from the guy who belongs on a 191cm, so the Kore 93 is calibrated by size to reflect this reality.
