Skis are funny things, they all look remarkably similar however all skis are not made equally, I have been working with Dynastar for a number of years now so have been lucky enough to ski on most of their back country focussed skis since the Cham 97HM.

I skied on nothing but Mythic 97’s for quite a few years and was pretty distraught when they vanished from the range and were replaced by the MTour 99 last year. I have skied a lot on the MTour 99 and really like it, its super light for its size and very stable and easy to ski what more could you want from a touring ski.

While lightweight is fantastic for touring it does not always create the best ski for skiing hard off lifts in chopped up variable snow, enter the MPro 99. I first clicked into these back in December, we were in Tignes and it had just snowed a meter over the previous 24hrs. I probably took the wrong skis our and should have taken the MFree 108, but I was too keen to get out the door and just grabbed the first skis in the locker. Heading up the lift with untracked snow everywhere I was a little concerned I had gone to small but as soon as I dropped into the first turn we were away. I am skiing on the 186cm version, which is long, but with the tip and tail rocker this feels like a 175cm ski on hard snow but has plenty of float and lift in the soft stuff. The tapered rocker just rides to the surface all the time without wanting to take me across the hill side and 99 under foot was a powder ski not that long ago

Now let’s be honest if you can ski you can enjoy most skis in powder the interesting thing is how they perform in chopped up crud, crust, hard snow and on the piste. The MPro 99 is the heaviest and probably stiffest ski I have used for a long time and it is amazing in all the conditions described above. It blasts through crud and chop then grips incredibly well on hard snow, steeps and even on the piste. We haven’t had much snow in the Alps this season so I have skied more firm snow than I have for many years and the MPro just laps it up. I have generally avoided piste skiing in recent years but with the kids learning to ski I have skied a lot of piste as well, the MPro holds an edge better than anything else I have used and Kate (my wife) regularly chooses hers over her piste skis.

I always find deciding on a binding a difficult choice, I have been skiing on exclusively pin bindings in recent years but I decided to try the Atomic / Salomon Shift this time. It would allow me the flexibility to tour uphill (short tours as they are heavy) but have the ease and security of an alpine binding the rest of the time. I am really pleased with the combination and for me it is the ultimate, lift accessed side country combination.

Bruce, March 2022