Stöckli's Nela 86 is the everyday-width half of the redesigned 26/27 women's freeride Nela pair, and an honest read starts with what nobody can tell you yet: how it actually skis. This is a first-year model - Stöckli's own word is "completely redesigned", and it carries a new article number, 41040428 - and as of mid-2026 no third party has published an on-snow test of it. Everything below about ride feel is design intent read off Stöckli's mechanism texts, plus one catalog-based preview whose author had not skied the new line. The old line was the 88 and 96, and the 88 lives on as the Nela 88 Classic - so reviews of the old 88 describe that ski, not this one.

What the spec sheet does establish is the direction of the redesign: light and accommodating. The workbook lists 1,425 g at 155 cm, 1,490 g at 162 cm and 1,554 g at 169 cm. Stöckli never labels whether its weights are per ski or per pair; per ski is the reading that survives - the same workbook column resolves per-ski elsewhere in the line, and 1,425 g cannot physically be a pair of skis. Under the Titec Pro-treated Titanal surface (sheet count unpublished) sits a poplar, beech and paulownia core, and two weight-and-suppleness technologies do the character work: Softflex thins the individual layers so the ski bends with less input - Stöckli aims this squarely at lighter skiers - and the Thin Glass Laminate trims a quarter of the fiberglass weight while keeping its stiffness. Polywall sidewalls, slightly softer and more elastic than phenolic, handle damping and impact.

The geometry backs the same brief. The sidecut holds 129-86-112 in every length, with the radius climbing from 12.5 m at 155 cm to 15.5 m at 169 cm - tight for an 86 mm ski, which points at quick, medium-to-short turns rather than long arcs. The Powder Rocker tip is there to ease initiation and add lift in soft snow, and the Freeride Tail builds the tail zone from a polymer at a new rocker angle, lighter and softer, which Stöckli pitches as more maneuverable. The one outside signal agrees on direction: that catalog-based preview reads the new Nelas as snappier, more energetic and a bit less stiff than the generation they replace.

Within Stöckli's women's range the choices are clean. Powder-first skiers belong on the wider Nela 93, which carries the same construction package and the line's official powder-day positioning. Groomer-first skiers belong on the Montero AW, the brand's women's all-mountain piste model. And the Nela 86's deliberate lightness cuts both ways: less mass and less stiffness to hold against high-speed chop, so heavy, hard-charging skiers are outside its brief by design.

The ski comes flat in 155, 162 and 169 cm; Stöckli's workbook pairs it with Marker Squire 11 options, purchased separately. Quicker-turning and lighter skiers usually land on the 155 or 162, taller and faster skiers on the 169, and a technician handles the mount.