The Mata carries a different radius in different places along the ski. Underfoot the sidecut is short, so the smallest lean tips it on edge and it comes around fast, turn after turn without much effort. Toward the tip and tail the shape opens up and softens, so when the snow turns hard, chopped, or uneven it stays calm instead of catching.

Down the middle, a strip of titanal and a layer of rubber do two jobs at once: the metal grips the ice and loads up energy, the rubber soaks the chatter so none of it reaches your feet. Push hard and it fires back. Ease off and it rolls quietly from edge to edge. That range is what lets a first-year skier and a lifer both have fun on the same pair.

This is the ski for the days you ride the lifts. Firm morning corduroy, where it locks onto an edge and lets you draw fast, clean turns straight down the fall line. Busy afternoon pistes, where the short radius lets you thread between people and pop off every roller. When the snow softens at the edges of the run, or a little fresh falls overnight, ninety millimeters underfoot carry you through it without giving up the grip. It is happiest inside the resort, turning an ordinary lift day into something you want to ski lap after lap. For the deep days and the big lines outside the ropes, the freeride line is waiting. For everything the resort itself offers, this is the one.

We wanted one thing from the Mata: a turn that gives back more than you put in. So we cut the radius short underfoot and ran titanal down the spine, then took prototype after prototype onto the Chamonix pistes to find where the snap lived. Too stiff and it fought us on tired legs. Too soft and the energy leaked away.

The rubber was the last piece, the thing that kept all that pop and still made a ski you can throw around from first chair to last. When you roll it on edge and feel it load and let go, that is exactly what we chased on the bench. Now it is under your feet.