Due to apparent Pugski limitations on message size, it will be posted in two parts.
PART 1: INTRO, SHAPE, and DESIGN.
There is no free lunch, even for a Kastle's latest $1K+ all-mountain "sword."
So, for the past couple of weekends, I have been getting acquainted with a certain black-and-blue ski that seems to get a lot of excited buzz this season and consistently floats to the top of most of the tests and rankings this year, FX95hp. I have to thank Scott (@dawgcatching) for a lot of good advice and subtle encouragement. Scott is a known source of all things Kastle, from information all the way to the actual skis, and he probably knows the Kastle lineup as well as the guys back in Austria. I am evaluating this ski strictly as a daily driver, meaning that this is a ski that I would choose to ski 90% of conditions 100% of the time. At $1,199 MSRP, not many people would consider it as a niche ski in the quiver, so this is the ski that is expected to get a lot of snow time on any given season. I am 6ft, 190lb, and I am on 189 length. I am quite used to skiing a 187 Bonafide for the last 4 seasons, so that’s the ski that in my mind naturally falls into a reference position. Whether you agree with it or not, the Bonafide has been the benchmark all-mountain ski for the last few years, so it's a fair comparison despite the obvious price point differences (more on that later).
Design and construction. It's a Kastle. Fit, finish and materials are impeccable, the graphics are distinct, tasty and look very good on snow. You get what you pay for there. The construction is wood core with metal ( it's an HP) with partial rubber dampening under edges (unlike the full rubber in the MX series, this is according to the Kastle website of course). The shape is a lot more interesting, this is where a lot of action is happening for this ski. The two most remarkable features are the strikingly narrow shovel with a lot of taper ( a lot of that impression is visual though due to the hollow tech cutout), and the tail that is nominally flat but has a sizable upturn. The impression is almost of a five-point ski, more on that later. Despite the unique look, the geometry is actually very close to the Bonafide, just a mm here or there. Here is the overlay of the two ski silhouettes with the arrows marking the front contact points:
I only put it side to side physically with an old original Bonafide and there the contact point differences are even more dramatic. ( the 2016 Bonafide has more taper up front). The Bonafide the tail curves upwards almost imperceptively from the contact point all the way to the end, and for the FX it maintains healthy normal camber up to the contact point and then juts up significantly.
It is also rather interesting to see how modern all-mountain skis all seem to converge to a fairly common shape. Here is the comparison of the skis that I would consider the leading contenders to the all-mountain crown. The similarities in the shapes are unmistakeable, especially if you compare with with a mythic all-mountain charger from the previous generation, Kastle MX98, which in comparison looks almost rectangular.
See Part 2 for the skiing impressions and conclusions...
PART 1: INTRO, SHAPE, and DESIGN.
There is no free lunch, even for a Kastle's latest $1K+ all-mountain "sword."
So, for the past couple of weekends, I have been getting acquainted with a certain black-and-blue ski that seems to get a lot of excited buzz this season and consistently floats to the top of most of the tests and rankings this year, FX95hp. I have to thank Scott (@dawgcatching) for a lot of good advice and subtle encouragement. Scott is a known source of all things Kastle, from information all the way to the actual skis, and he probably knows the Kastle lineup as well as the guys back in Austria. I am evaluating this ski strictly as a daily driver, meaning that this is a ski that I would choose to ski 90% of conditions 100% of the time. At $1,199 MSRP, not many people would consider it as a niche ski in the quiver, so this is the ski that is expected to get a lot of snow time on any given season. I am 6ft, 190lb, and I am on 189 length. I am quite used to skiing a 187 Bonafide for the last 4 seasons, so that’s the ski that in my mind naturally falls into a reference position. Whether you agree with it or not, the Bonafide has been the benchmark all-mountain ski for the last few years, so it's a fair comparison despite the obvious price point differences (more on that later).
Design and construction. It's a Kastle. Fit, finish and materials are impeccable, the graphics are distinct, tasty and look very good on snow. You get what you pay for there. The construction is wood core with metal ( it's an HP) with partial rubber dampening under edges (unlike the full rubber in the MX series, this is according to the Kastle website of course). The shape is a lot more interesting, this is where a lot of action is happening for this ski. The two most remarkable features are the strikingly narrow shovel with a lot of taper ( a lot of that impression is visual though due to the hollow tech cutout), and the tail that is nominally flat but has a sizable upturn. The impression is almost of a five-point ski, more on that later. Despite the unique look, the geometry is actually very close to the Bonafide, just a mm here or there. Here is the overlay of the two ski silhouettes with the arrows marking the front contact points:
I only put it side to side physically with an old original Bonafide and there the contact point differences are even more dramatic. ( the 2016 Bonafide has more taper up front). The Bonafide the tail curves upwards almost imperceptively from the contact point all the way to the end, and for the FX it maintains healthy normal camber up to the contact point and then juts up significantly.
It is also rather interesting to see how modern all-mountain skis all seem to converge to a fairly common shape. Here is the comparison of the skis that I would consider the leading contenders to the all-mountain crown. The similarities in the shapes are unmistakeable, especially if you compare with with a mythic all-mountain charger from the previous generation, Kastle MX98, which in comparison looks almost rectangular.
See Part 2 for the skiing impressions and conclusions...