Both had posted videos showing the broken shovels, which I have been unable to find again online. Schirmer broke his digging out a cornice to enter a steep ski line, while Townsend broke his while chopping snow blocks around camp. In both cases, it looked that the shovel blade cracked near the metal edge, a small, but potentially catastrophic failure.

I received a production version of this shovel and reviewed it on POWDER last winter. While I was impressed by it, I was also somewhat hesitant about potential breakage. I was unable to replicate any of the catastrophic failures Schirmer or Townsend say their experienced, but did manage to chip the carbon around the metal edge by slamming the shovel onto my concrete garage floor a few times. In the case of an avalanche rescue, snow in a debris pile does set up quickly, but it’s unlikely that the shovel would subjected to that kind of extreme blunt-force stress. In my case, the shovel was still usable. I repeated the same test with an aluminum avalanche shovel I had in the garage, and the metal blade edge bent in a similar fashion.

I agree with all the commenters pointing out the fact that the mild weight savings from using this product don’t necessarily outweigh the risks of having a potentially useless lifesaving tool in a real emergency. Like any safety tool, it’s up to the user to educate themselves on proper functionality and gear limitations and decide what their own risk tolerance is (and, more importantly, communicate that with their partners). As both Searle and Smiley point out, it’s a very niche product that makes sense in a very narrow window of realistic use cases, and shouldn’t be bought as a complete replacement for an everyday-use avalanche shovel.

The online debate re-erupted after IFMGA mountain guide Mark Smiley posted a video about the new shovel on his own Instagram channel, where Townsend, Schirmer, and Chamonix-based IFMGA Guide and athlete Dave Searle chimed into the comments with their own experiences. The athletes shared their concerns about the shovels breaking (Searle’s snapped while he stress tested it in his garage), and Meza responded defending his product, and pointing out the fact that the athletes broke prototype versions of the product. Schirmer then continued calling out the designer for his response at the time the product initially broke in the field. The exchange, and further comments from dozens of users, can be read on the comments of Smiley’s post.

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Following the online exchange, Meza emailed POWDER to provide the brand’s official statement on the matter, which is shared below:

PurePeak statement on the Instagram discussion, production process and product safety

At PurePeak we would like to address the recent discussion on Instagram concerning our avalanche shovels, following comments by Cody Townsend and Nikolai Schirmer about reported shovel failures. We are committed to developing and producing reliable equipment for mountain environments, and we take feedback and reports concerning our products seriously. We would therefore like to clarify the timeline, production process and applicable safety standards.

Product testing and timeline explanation

During the initial production phase, PurePeak manufactured three shovels using prototype moulds made from gelcoat and carbon-fibre laminate. Two were sent to Cody Townsend and Nikolai Schirmer and are the subject of the current discussion. Our records show that the shovels were shipped to Nikolai on 17 September 2024 and to Cody on 2 October 2024 — approximately two years before the Instagram discussion in October 2026, rather than one year as stated in one of the Instagram stories. Nikolai reported that his shovel broke while he was digging through a snow cornice. Although the public discussion included claims that a shovel broke on the first day or within the first one or two days of use, correspondence from January and April 2025 indicates that Nikolai had used his shovel throughout the season and that it had worked well for other tasks before the breakage. The exact number of days of use is not established by the available records.

Changes in regular production

For regular production, PurePeak switched to production-grade aluminium moulds, which allow the manufacturing process to operate at higher pressures. These process conditions can influence the quality of the finished product. However, the precise cause of the issues reported with the two prototype-mould units has not been established. Potential contributing factors could include mouldrelease agents, temperature, material, or human error, but none of these has been confirmed as the cause. PurePeak subsequently manufactured 500 shovels using the regular production process. According to our records, no comparable failures have been reported for these production units.

Product safety and UIAA Standard 156

Safety is central to the design and development of avalanche rescue equipment. PurePeak’s regular production shovel is certified to UIAA Standard 156 for Avalanche Rescue Shovels. This standard, developed by the UIAA (International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation), establishes safety requirements and testing methods for shovels intended for avalanche rescue and training. The certification is an important part of the product’s safety framework. It does not, however, remove the importance of taking reports of product failures seriously or assessing the circumstances of any reported incident.

We remain committed to maintaining the highest standards of quality and safety, and ensuring the satisfaction of our customers.

The roster includes regular Freeride World Tour contenders and some skiers who rip but have only recently returned to the competition scene, like Kai Jones. The names were based on the team’s selection criteria, which account for FWT performance and qualification for last winter’s inaugural 2026 World Freeride World Championships.

Similar to other U.S. ski teams, Stifel, the financial services company, has its name attached to the freeride squad.

“Stifel has been a committed partner to our athletes, and we are grateful they chose to stand behind this team from the start,” said Sophie Goldschmidt, president and CEO of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, in a release. “We are delighted to have the Stifel U.S. Freeride Team on board and can’t wait to see what these incredible athletes will achieve.”

Without further ado, here’s who could represent the red, white, and blue come 2030. Notably, though, this isn’t the 2030 Olympic team. The roster can change each season, and U.S. Ski and Snowboard will make its final Olympic selections in the lead-up to the 2030 Games.

Stifel U.S. Freeride Team Roster

Women

• Molly Armanino (Placerville, CA; University of California Santa Cruz; 5/5/1993)
• Lily Bradley (they/them) (Lake Tahoe, CA; Olympic Valley Freestyle Freeride Team; University of California Berkeley; 3/7/2002)
• Wynter McBride (Ogden, UT; Snowbasin Sports Education Foundation; 1/10/2000)

Men

• Kelly Hilleke (Glenwood Springs, CO; Aspen Valley Ski & Snowboard Club; 12/29/2005)
• Kai Jones (Jackson Hole, WY; 5/5/2006)
• Joey Leonardo (Edwards, CO; Montana State University; 3/3/2003)
• Toby Rafford (Sun Valley, ID; Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation; 3/23/2003)
• Ross Tester (Truckee, CA; University of Utah; 1/5/1999)

On the women’s side, Molly Armanino’s been an FWT regular since 2023. That year, during her first Tour outing, she placed second overall and earned a reputation for gutsy, fast skiing. Lily Bradley and Wynter McBride have both nabbed podiums in recent seasons. Bradley’s latest win came after they faced down a huge cliff at the 2025 Fieberbrunn Pro. 

Last winter, Toby Rafford and Ross Tester took second and third overall, respectively, on the FWT after remarkably consistent performances. Kai Jones—already a well-known film skier—jumped back into competitive freeride at World Champs last winter and placed third. Kelly Hilleke, a rookie, caught a raft of bad luck that included an unexpected ski ejection at World Champs but still proved, without a doubt, that he’s one to keep your eye on. Joey Leonardo, also a rookie last winter, earned second with a smooth and stylish run at the Val Thorens Pro.

In short, it’s a stacked crew. We’re stoked to see what they pull off this coming season.

Related: The Best All-Mountain Skis of 2027

Backcountry users who have completed their AIARE 1 or an equivalent avalanche education course, such as the American Avalanche Institute’s (AAI) Avalanche Level 1, will be able to take the new one-day course to review and practice their skills in the field.

The AIARE 1 Refresher will include an online component to review concepts such as terrain management, backcountry communication strategies, and rescue fundamentals before heading into the field for a full day on snow with an AIARE instructor.

Other topics covered will include usage of the updated AIARE field book tool to plan backcountry trips, applying the AIARE Risk Management Framework, and practicing companion rescue.

Researchers at Eastern Oregon University studied almost 1,700 students over three winter seasons and found that those who completed avalanche courses showed a measurable increase in the frequency of safe backcountry practices.

Skills such as decision-making in terrain selection, recognition of unstable conditions, and end-of-day debriefs were measured in the study. AIARE’s new course was developed following the study, in an effort to help sustain and deepen safe backcountry practices, decision-making frameworks, and rescue protocols learned by students through initial avalanche education courses.

“AIARE is committed to continually evolving our curriculum based on peer-reviewed research, best practices and what we learn about how people apply avalanche education in the field,” said Vickie Hormuth, executive director of AIARE in a press release announcing the new course, “The research reinforces that avalanche education can lead to meaningful changes in backcountry behavior, but education doesn’t end when a course is over. The AIARE 1 Refresher gives students an opportunity to ‘knock the rust off’ and practice critical avalanche decision-making in real terrain with an experienced educator.”

AIARE courses, including the new AIARE 1 Refresher can be found at find.avtraining.org.

Related: New Trail Map Released for Private Backcountry Ski Resort in Utah

Arapahoe Basin and Keystone Resort, two mountains known for being among the first to open, have turned on their snow guns.

As a surge of colder weather and snow passed through Colorado Wednesday night, Keystone began its first snowmaking push. 

“The start of snowmaking is always one of the most exciting milestones of the year because it signals that winter is just around the corner,” said Kate Schifani, senior director of mountain operations at Keystone Resort, adding that she and her teams are “making the most of every opportunity Mother Nature provides.”

Arapahoe Basin followed a similar trajectory, with snowmaking starting at around 6 p.m. Wednesday night. Per their webcams, both resorts were still snowmaking as of Thursday morning.

But the opening day question isn’t settled yet. While avid skiers noticed that Keystone’s already selling lift tickets for Saturday, October 24, a rep for the resort pumped the brakes on the hype train in an email earlier this week.

“The ability to buy a single-day lift ticket two Saturdays from now doesn’t have any bearing on when the resort will open,” they noted. “If a customer did purchase a lift ticket now and the resort opened earlier, they would have the option of moving up their visitation date or being refunded the full amount.”

The response didn’t preclude the possibility of an October 24 opening. But it did reaffirm that we still can’t put a big red X on our calendars. Mountain weather, which is famously unpredictable, will have the final say on this one. Notably, last winter, Keystone finally revealed its opening day the very same day that it opened. 

Arapahoe Basin also hasn’t confirmed an opening date yet. 

At Arapahoe Basin and Keystone, clear skies and warmer temperatures are expected over the next few days. Colorado’s next notable chance for precipitation could arrive around the middle or the end of next week, meteorologist Chris Tomer said in his latest update. 

While you wait, we might suggest waxing your skis. In a perfect world, Colorado would cut the ribbon on the 2026-27 season this month. Only time will tell.

Related: The Best All-Mountain Skis of 2027

Kilde returned to the World Cup circuit last year after an injury and subsequent infection in 2024, but he opted to sit out the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.

He was making a push to return to full racing shape this summer with extensive training in Chile, but the Norwegian Ski Federation announced today that Kilde tore his Achilles in a training accident yesterday, October 14, 2026.

“Aleksander is now traveling home to Innsbruck (his base in Austria) for further medical examinations and assessment of treatment options with his trusted medical team,” says the Federation.

Kilde shared video clips of training at Chile’s Portillo and Valle Nevado in recent weeks, an annual pilgrimage for elite alpine ski racers preparing for the World Cup season.

The Federation didn’t specify where the injury occurred, but Ski Portillo closed for the season on Saturday, October 11, 2026.

He was presumably there at the same time, at least at one point, as his fiancé, all-time skiing great Mikaela Shiffrin. Shiffrin has not commented on the injury at this time.

Related: Phil McNichol Is Back After Nearly 20 Years To Lead The Stifel U.S. Men’s Ski Team

There was a time, not too long ago, that a torn ACL or other knee ligament meant the end of a skier’s career. That’s changed with advancements in surgery and rehabilitation, but as any skier with a knee injury knows, the journey doesn’t end after the last physical therapy appointment.

Many skiers wear bulky, oftentimes wrong-for-the-job knee braces over their base layers, but these braces are more about peace of mind than performance. Plus, does anybody like the feeling of a knee brace poking out from under their bibs or ski pants? No. The answer is no.

Enter Bracelayer, a brand known for its stabilizing compression apparel that provides support, stability, and freedom of movement, both on and off the mountain.

Instead of a bulky external brace, Bracelayer uses a proprietary layer in its baselayers called Tri-Tech to stabilize the knee. This layer consists of three sub-layers: compression mesh, perforated neoprene, and StabiLuxe™, Bracelayer’s antibacterial, moisture-wicking compression base.

For skiers, some of Bracelayers’ products use Thermal StabiLuxe™, a fleece-lined option that’s perfect for staying warm and protected out on the mountain. Research shows that keeping joints warm can prevent injury, making these products a win-win.

Still not convinced? Well, independent research conducted by the Canadian Sport Institute – Pacific found that Bracelayer’s compression technology reduces knee pain, improves stability in injured limbs, and does not restrict jump height, power, or landing ability.

Translation: Bracelayer’s technology works, and it could be the solution freeride, freestyle, and regular skiers have been looking for. 

Here’s a quick breakdown of the Thermal Alpine collection, which comprises four distinct products, each with its own benefits and use cases.

The KXV Alpine

The KXV Alpine is a streamlined design with an elastic waistband and ⅞ length, perfect for ski boots. This is your go-to for the majority of days on the hill.

KS1 Alpine Boot Cut

If you’re looking for a bit more, the KS1 Alpine Boot Cut features a ⅞ length, an elastic waistband, an adjustable drawstring, side phone pockets, and increased compression. They’re perfect for wearing on the hill and at après.

KS1 Alpine

The KS1 Alpine is the same as the Boot Cut model, but longer. It has an adjustable drawstring, side phone pockets, and increased compression.

KX2 Alpine

The KX2 Alpine is similar to the KXV Alpine but with a 2mm knee-support layer instead of a 1.5mm layer, providing more knee support. If you’re a skier with multiple knee injuries or lots of pain, the KX2 Alpine is the way to go. The increased compression is noticeable, but not restrictive.

The Verdict

Skiing with knee pain sucks. Plain and simple. Bracelayer’s various compression pants, however, have been proven to reduce pain, increase warmth, and provide unmatched stabilization without hampering skiers’ range of motion.

We’ll ski you out there this season, and know that we probably have Bracelayers on underneath our bibs.

Related: Welcome To The ’26-’27 POWDER Gear Guide

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2027 Rossignol Soul 102 & Soul 102W Specs

• Size skied: 188cm
• Lengths available: 150cm (Soul 102W only), 156cm, 164cm, 172cm, 180cm, 188cm (Soul 102 only)
• Sidecut: 135mm – 102mm – 125mm (180cm)
• Radius: 17m (180cm)
• Profile: progressive rocker
• Weight: 2,150g (180cm)

Shape, Flex and Construction

Rossignol’s Soul 102 isn’t just a pure mashup of the Sender 110 and the old Soul 7, though it does take quite a few design elements from both skis. The directional freeride shape features plenty of tip rocker, pronounced underfoot camber, and a relatively flat tail, all paired with a medium-short turning radius and a mount point that’s quite centered given the ski’s intentions. That should all add up to a predictable, approachable all-mountain performance that’s equally at home both on- and off-piste.

Inside, the ski features the same poplar wood core and beam of underfoot titanal that’s in the Sender 110, paired with Rossignol’s hollowed-out Air Tip taken from the Soul 7 (and also seen in the entire Sender series). There are also full vertical sidewalls, which, when paired with the medium-stiff flex, give the ski a very powerful edge grip on firm snow.

Of note is that the men’s and women’s models of the Soul 102 (referred to by Rossignol as the Soul 102 and the Soul W 102) are the same ski. They’re just available in different size runs and top sheets.

On-Snow Performance

Any all-mountain ski worth its weight should be able to handle a large variety of snow textures, terrain, and skiing styles, and the Rossignol Soul 102 certainly fits that bill. What surprised us most was how a large variety of skiers, ex-racers, dad-turn perfectionists, park rats, and freeride chargers all seemed to get along swimmingly with this ski, all raving about how easy to control, yet fun and powerful the ski is.

On groomers, testers loved the powerful edge grip and felt that the ski was very responsive–that’s the short turning radius and titanal beam talking. Off-piste, at moderate speeds, they felt the stiff-but-not-too-stiff flex helped take the edge off moguls and chunky snow, but loved that the slightly softer tips and tails allowed for more playful and creative skiing. The Soul 102 is not your average 2×4-stiff crud buster; instead, it offers a more bouncy, poppy, and lively ride.

One tester called it “a confidence-inspiring ski.”

Despite that, while testers agreed that the Soul 102 gets high marks on versatility, many pointed out that the same poppy and playful nature of the ski that makes it so fun and agile leaves it with a definite speed limit. At really high speeds, busting through crud, or even on nasty re-frozen moguls, testers felt the ski could get a little overwhelmed and felt chattery and too light.

“Anything firm requires you to be on it to engage the ski,” a tester said.

Comparisons

With so many similar skis in this category, it’s easy to draw comparisons. Perhaps the most similar ski (and one that comes out of the same factory) is Dynastar’s M-Pro 100.

Compared to the Dynastar, we found the Soul 102 lacks a bit of the “fun” factor that the M-Pro offers with how much energy it gives back to you through each turn. On the flip side, the Soul feels like you can be a little lazier skiing it, perhaps making it more approachable to a wider variety of skiers.

Compared to the über-stiff Nordica Enforcer 99, it’s clear the Soul 102 is much better suited to intermediate skiers who are not looking for a ski that requires loads of power and finesse to harness its full potential. Where the Enforcer has more “get up and go,” the Soul prefers to chill and cruise around.

What Type of Skier Is the Rossignol Soul 102 Best For? 

It’s all in the name. The Rossignol Soul 102 is happiest on those days when you’re just out soul skiing—arcing smooth turns on the groomer, bouncing off sidehits, and hunting soft snow in the trees. It’s not for all-out charging, winning freeride comps, or stomping the biggest, baddest airs you can find. Instead, this is an approachable, friendly, and versatile ski that will make a lot of different skiers happy if it were the only ski to grab on any given day.

The skis have evolved in waist widths, construction, and lengths, but the core purpose of the QST has not wavered. These are skis made for the common man that work equally as well under the feet of bona fide freeride pros such as Mike Douglas, Cody Townsend, Josh Daiek, Delia Quinn, and even ski racer Alice Robinson.

The QST 106, in particular, feels like the most approachable ski in a line of very approachable skis. Our testers reveled in how easy it was to initiate a turn, how stable it felt edge-to-edge, and how nimble it felt dancing through the powder-caked trees of Grand Targhee.

While not the stiffest ski of our test, the Salomon QST 106 stood out as a do-it-all ripper that could serve as a powder ski out East and a daily driver out West.

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2027 Salomon QST 106 Specs

• Size skied: 181cm
• Lengths available: 157cm, 165cm, 173cm, 181cm, 189cm
• Sidecut: 139mm – 106mm – 126mm
• Radius: 19.5m at 181cm length
• Profile: Rocker/Camber/Rocker
• Weight: 2000g (181cm)

Shape, Flex, and Construction

The first thing I always notice on the Salomon QST 106 is the tip. There’s an inappropriate joke somewhere in there, but I’ll move on before I get myself canceled. 

While not the widest of our test, the 139mm tip width is fairly wide for a 106mm underfoot ski. I find this to be particularly useful when charging through chopped-up snow and crud. While the tip floats, the dampness of the poplar wood core and the stiffness of the titanal binding reinforcements make it one of the easiest, if not the easiest, skis in our entire test to turn.

One of our testers described the Salomon QST 106 as the “perfect happy medium” between burly and forgiving. So much so that he surprised himself at how much fun he had on the QST 106.

On-Snow Performance

Owning a pair of Salomon QST 106s is similar to driving a Subaru Outback with all of the bells and whistles. It won’t be the best ski in any given category, but when it comes to reliably conquering and adapting to variable snow conditions and terrain, you would be hard-pressed to find something better.

Of all the skis I own, I find myself reaching for the Salomon QST 106s the most. Fresh snow? Check. Wind buff and sunny groomers? Check. Shit-f*ck snow and ice? Check, well, most times, anyways.

“There was never a moment of ‘oh, shit, I’m in the wrong situation for this ski,’” wrote one of our testers after a powdery day at Grand Targhee. “I could lay very solid carves on groomers without worrying about losing an edge. I could also make tight, hoppy turns whenever I wanted to.”

Our last day at Grand Targhee was the perfect time to test the Salomon QST 106. We started the morning with 20+ inches of untracked powder and ended with chopped-up, borderline refrozen mank by 4 p.m. Despite this, one of our testers opted to ski the QST 106 for nearly the entire day. “They’re the most approachable ski of the test I’ve encountered so far,” he said through huffs and puffs. We were on day six of skiing, and his legs were shot, but the QST 106 kept pulling through.

Some of my best days on skis over the last three seasons have been spent on a pair of Salomon QST 106s. Their ability to respond predictably, no matter what conditions I throw at them, keeps me coming back for more.

Comparisons

106mm underfoot seems to be a sweet spot for many big-name brands, and the Salomon QST 106 has its fair share of rivals.

With that said, the Nordica Unleashed 106 is burlier and not as approachable, and the Stockli Stormrider 108, despite having a very similar shape, is an enigma in and of itself, the burliest of the bunch.

The best comparisons I can think of, though not part of our test this season, are the Moment Wildcat 108 and the 4FRNT MSP 107.

What type of Skier is the Salomon QST 106 Best for?

The Salomon QST 106 is made for you. Seriously. 

As the most approachable ski in our test and yet considered one of the most fun among the best skiers participating, the Salomon QST 106 is a balanced mid-wide freeride ski for the masses.

I would hesitate making it my daily driver out East due to the 106mm underfoot, but if you think bigger is better, go for it. For Western skiers looking for a new pair that can do almost anything, look no further than the Salomon QST 106. 

Just don’t be surprised when you want to buy a new pair every year because you skied the absolute shit out of last year’s pair. I’m currently in that boat.

In one comment below Whistler Blackcomb’s post explaining the funky-seeming construction, one person wrote, “Bar will be going down on this one.” We feel similarly.

Images shared by Whistler Blackcomb are surreal. The full build comes in a sideways “L” shape, with the anchor stretching out above open space. Atop it is a shorter-than-usual lift tower that, when framed against the surrounding mountainscape, could’ve been ripped from the notebook of a mad scientist who’s taken a particular interest in ski lifts.

But it’s real engineering. The design emerged because Whistler Blackcomb had a problem: during site investigations, engineers discovered buried glacial ice beneath the planned foundation area. To solve it, they opted for a cantilevered design built directly into the adjacent rock face. To those wondering if it’s safe, Whistler Blackcomb addressed that question in the post. 

“Absolutely. Extensive geotechnical investigations were completed to evaluate bedrock conditions, and the structure was designed by specialized engineers, independently reviewed, and is subject to rigorous inspection and testing,” the resort said. 

When the snow starts falling, the protruding arm will remain visible while the rest will be covered and buried beneath the snowpack, according to Whistler Blackcomb. As for how unique this design really is, the resort added that the old Big Red chairlift used a similar approach.

“It is common in the world of chairlifts!” the resort said.

Still, it’s not every day you encounter what appears to be a floating lift tower and, for many of Showcase’s riders, bumping into one may be a first. After all, it sports “a look unlike any other lift tower on the mountain,” according to the post.

Set to open this coming season, the Showcase is a fixed-grip quad that replaces a t-bar of the same name, providing access to the glaciated upper reaches of Blackcomb Mountain. According to Lift Blog, the lift is made by Skytrac, a North American outfit that focuses on building fixed-grip lifts.

Once complete, Showcase will “provide faster, easier access to some of Blackcomb’s best alpine terrain,” the resort previously said, “making it significantly easier to lap the Showcase and Blackcomb Glacier areas.” 

Both the Blackcomb Glacier and Showcase areas are iconic above-treeline slopes with wide-open snowfields. After dropping into the backside area of Blackcomb Glacier, skiers can wind their way back down to the Crystal Ridge Express, a lower-mountain lift. 

Whistler Blackcomb noted that alongside the Showcase project, it’s working to improve “trail connections, skier flow, and access” into Blackcomb Glacier for an “even better guest experience.”

Related: Eggs, Bacon, Frozen Nose Hairs and Blower Powder With High Sierra Snowcat & Yurt

The ski area known for its lone chairlift and expansive heli-skiing isn’t planning to open until December 31, 2026, but that hasn’t stopped Mother Nature from dumping snow. And while an official snowfall total hasn’t been reported, it looks like the snow is stacking up by the feet, not inches.

Some of Silverton’s staff scored their first turns of the season from the top of the chairlift today, October 14, 2026. Check out a photo gallery from the storm, courtesy of Silverton Mountain, below. Keep reading for more.

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It’s hard to tell just how much snow is on the ground, but a face shot on October 14, 2026, leaves little to complain about. At least for now, anyway.

Snow is expected to continue to fall at Silverton through Thursday, October 15, before a brief lull in the pattern. Then, according to meteorologist Chris Tomer, another 17 inches of snow could fall on Silverton between Tuesday, October 20, and Friday, October 23, 2026.

OpenSnow agrees and forecasts more than 12 inches of snow for Silverton over the same period.

Silverton’s opening date of December 31, 2026, is firm, but the start of the season could be expedited at other ski areas in the region thanks to the early-season storms.

Wolf Creek, known for opening as soon as Mother Nature allows, is expecting to receive some snow from the storm, but probably not enough to open. Arapahoe Basin and Keystone, which regularly compete to be the first ski resorts to open in North America, on the other hand, have advanced snowmaking capabilities and will surely take advantage of the prolonged cold snap.

Does this mean Arapahoe Basin or Keystone could open as early as next weekend? Maybe, but a representative from Keystone confirmed to POWDER that nothing is guaranteed yet.

For the skiers looking to chase the storm and hopefully score a late-October opening day, keep an eye on social media for last-second announcements. Keystone and Arapahoe Basin have both announced spur-of-the-moment openings in the past, and we don’t expect 2026 to be any different.

The ski season is nearly here. Vote which Colorado resort will open first in our poll below.

Related: Stunning Photos Show Alta’s First Major Snowfall of the Season Collide With Fall Foliage

The resort announced that, starting at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, it fired up its snow guns from the top of the Arizona Gondola down to Agassiz Lodge. The resort said it’s “seen solid temps through the night and well into this morning” and asked skiers to “keep your fingers crossed for cold temps!”

While the skies are now clear and the temperatures are expected to crest just above freezing at Snowbowl today, the resort expects to continue snowmaking Wednesday night, and whenever temperatures permit, a rep said in an email.

Snowbowl plans to open on November 20, conditions permitting. Last season, after several feet of snow fell, the resort opened the same day, which, at the time, was a day earlier than planned.

For Snowbowl, the latest snowmaking push comes alongside the installation of four new tower snow guns near Big Spruce, aimed at improving coverage in the learning area. They’re part of a more than $1 million pre-season investment that also included the installation of a new 150-foot conveyor, Sunshine.

Like other Mountain Capital Partners resorts, Snowbowl’s advance tickets start at $9, with prices increasing with demand. If you don’t mind combing through the calendar, you can also find some $1 tickets. 

While it’s far too early to guess what a stretch of chilly October weather might mean for the season to come, there is cause for cautious optimism. As you’ve surely heard, El Niño’s here and it’s a big one. With that in the background, Arizona’s among the Southwest states forecasters say have higher odds for more than usual precipitation. 

Yet, the temperature question remains unanswered. In its outlooks, the Climate Prediction Center currently puts Arizona down for “equal chances” that they skew above or below average this winter. 

Our advice? If you’re planning to buy a pass or a ticket, do it—winter’s just around the corner either way and, as last season taught us, you can absolutely make the most of a tough situation even when the conditions don’t cooperate. Otherwise, it’s best not to count the flakes before they’re on the ground, but snow dances are encouraged.

Related: Review: 2027 Völkl Revolt 101

Parking is limited in Little Cottonwood Canyon, and while Alta’s parking reservations have mitigated some overcrowding and traffic woes in recent years, many skiers have been frustrated by the number of no-shows on a given weekend.

Alta skiers, it seems, have a tendency to book a scrupulous amount of parking reservations for weekends in the future, only to not show up, and ultimately hurt another skier’s chances of scoring a reservation. That will change in Winter 26/27.

“Missed a parking reservation? Your first no-show is a warning,” writes Alta in its updated Parking Information webpage. “After that, a $100 fee applies for each no-show.”

Alta requires free parking reservations for passholders and $25 reservations for non-passholders, Friday–Sunday & Holiday Periods from 8 a.m.–1 p.m., starting on December 11, 2026. Reservations are made with the skier’s license plate number. License plates with reservations that aren’t scanned in Alta’s parking lot, presumably, will incur a fine.

Fines for no-shows could lead to some headaches for Alta Ski Area, namely in emergency situations in which a skier has more pressing matters to attend to than their parking reservation, but the warning on the first offense should mitigate some of these issues.

A representative from Alta provided further information about how canyon closures will be handled: “In the event of a Highway 210 road closure or significant delay in opening that prevents skiers from arriving at Alta, fines will be waived. Additionally, in the event of a canyon closure with significant delays, paid reservations will be automatically refunded within 7-10 business days.”

Palisades Tahoe, California, uses a similar system, and while some bad actors show up without parking reservations every weekend, the threat of a monetary fine has encouraged skiers to cancel their reservations when they know they can’t make it. Palisades typically opens up these canceled reservations on Friday evenings, allowing for spur-of-the-moment skiers to secure a reservation hours before the lifts start spinning.

It’s a bit messy, but it largely works.

Fines for no-shows aren’t the only changes coming to Alta Ski Area’s parking reservation system for Winter 26/27. The ski area also announced the following updates:

• A maximum of four (4) active—free and paid—reservations per account at any time.
• If available, same-day reservations can be made and don’t count towards your limit of four.
• Skiers will receive a parking reminder SMS text message 24 hours before their parking reservation starts.

Do you agree that skiers who no-show parking reservations deserve to be fined? Vote in our poll below, and click here to read Alta’s full parking information page for Winter 26/27.

Related: Stunning Photos Show Alta’s First Major Snowfall of the Season Collide With Fall Foliage

How do we define “all-mountain?” Simple. It’s a ski that is happy to go anywhere in the resort. It can carve, it can ski some powder, it could do a lap in the park. In other words, it’s a jack-of-all-trades. Without pigeonholing ourselves into limited waist widths and shapes, we’ll say that these will typically fall anywhere in the 95-110mm underfoot category, and will come in many shapes and sizes. This list encompasses skis for both aggressive hard-charging ex-ski racers, jibby and playful freestyle-focused skiers, and everyone in between. We’ve added both the men’s and women’s version where applicable.

When it comes to ski design, we’re absolutely living in a golden era. Most brands have figured out how to make their one-ski-quivers (aka all-mountain skis) do a whole bunch of things really well, instead of just specializing in a single category and letting the rest be an afterthought. The reality is that most of us skiers want to explore the mountain and vary up the terrain on any given we’re out on the hill. Riding the same old trails gets boring. Call it freeskiing, call it all-mountain riding—I just call it just “plain ol’ resort skiing.” Consequently, most of the skis on this list will handle anything from refrozen crud to a few inches of fresh snow just fine. So the question is less “what can the ski do” and more, “what do I prioritize doing on skis?”

We like to think that there are two ways to go about this. Some folks like to lean into their strengths. Say you’re a traditional, directional skier who maybe used to bash gates in high school or college, and you love laying deep trenches on groomers at very high speeds. Maybe the move is to shop for a ski that will help you do that even better than before, taking advantage of new materials and shapes to get the most out of every turn.

But others like to tailor their skis to their weaknesses, to help expand their range as riders. It’s fun to try new things. So playful, freestyle-focused skiers (looking at you, park rats) could look for something more stable and powerful, knowing that they have the skills to ski it playfully if they so desire, but want a ski that can hold up to higher speeds, bigger airs, and more aggressive skiing.

Neither of those approaches is any better than the other, but it’s worth thinking about where you fall on that spectrum. Do you want a ski that does the things you already like doing really well, or are you looking to expand your comfort zone?

About Powder’s Editors Picks

Our Editor’s Picks lists are collections of the skis, boots, outerwear, and other gear that stood out to us while testing. If you want to learn more about how reviews work at Powder, we’re very transparent about our process.

These lists are constantly growing and evolving as we try new gear, all season long. If you’ve got a favorite piece of equipment that you think we should write about, let us know here. And, if you represent a brand or company and think your gear deserves a writeup, we’d love to get in touch.

2027 Blizzard Canvas 108

• Sidecut: 140mm – 108mm – 128mm
• Radius: 19m (186cm)
• Profile: twin rocker, camber underfoot
• Weight: 1870g (186cm)
• Best for: playful all-mountain skiing, floating transfer gaps

Blizzards are stiff and filled with metal, right? Not this one! The Canvas 108 is a stark departure from what we’re used to seeing from the Austrians at Blizzard. 

The Canvas 108 skips the stiff nature of just about every other ski in the existing blizzard lineup–its poplar and paulownia wood core provides a soft, poppy, and very round flex profile. I was actually surprised to learn that a small strip of metal runs down the center of the ski, since it doesn’t add a “heavy metal” feel to the ski by any means. It’s no noodle, but I found it quite easy to flex.

As such a stark departure from what we’ve seen coming out of the Blizzard factory these last few years, I think the Canvas 108 is a ski that’s going to be best suited for an entirely different set of skiers than a Rustler, Anomaly, Sheeva, Black Pearl or Cochise. Truth be told, the Canvas breathes some much-needed fresh life into Blizzard’s ski lineup and will be a great choice for any modern, progressive freeskier looking for a do-it-all resort ski for riding out West, or a pow-day ski for East Coast riding. The best part? Thanks to its still excellent on-piste performance, I don’t think it will alienate skiers who still demand a ski that can carve and make a “real” ski turn–it can do that plus hang in the park, slash and butter in pow, and turn all the resort sidehits into your personal fun zone. 

2027 Ellis Kanso 106

• Sidecut: 134mm – 106mm – 126mm
• Radius: 18.6m (186cm)
• Profile: twin rocker, camber underfoot
• Weight: 1900g (186cm)
• Best for: surfing slush

During POWDER Week at Grand Targhee Resort, we spent hours talking about and sharing opinions on skis. It might not come as a surprise that most of our tester crew prefers stiffer, more serious skis that are built to handle tough conditions, high speeds, and more aggressive skiing. What did come as a surprise was how much the tester crew liked a ski that falls completely outside that spectrum: the Ellis Kanso 106. 

Ellis, a small new brand out of Colorado, added the 106mm waist Kanso 106 to their lineup to complement the hard-charging Meraki 112 (which won a POWDER Editor’s Pick last year). It’s not a serious ski, but it’s a seriously good ski. 

The Ellis Kanso 106 perfectly fits the bill for the modern freestyle-oriented all-mountain skier looking for a quiver-of-one ski for just about any day you might encounter at your local hill. It’s soft, drifty, and fun and loves park laps as much as it loves ripping groomers, skiing bumps, and blasting sidehits. In the spring, it’s one of our favorite rides on soft, slushy days. 

2027 K2 Mindbender 96 + 96W

• Sidecut: 135mm – 96mm – 123mm
• Radius: 20m (183cm)
• Profile: Rocker/Camber/Rocker
• Weight: 1900g (183cm)
• Best for: going fast, all the time

New tech, at least when it comes to skis, is often met with criticism and scrutiny. We’ve all been duped by the latest and greatest advancements in ski technology, only to realize it was just a marketing stunt that didn’t provide any real value. K2’s “Dark Matter” technology, which is implemented on its newly-refined line of Mindbender skis, isn’t that, thankfully. These little blocks of TPU surrounded by powdered stainless steel are designed specifically to reduce vibrations. After skiing the K2 Mindbender 96 across challenging, refrozen spring conditions, we consider ourselves believers.

The K2 Mindbender 96 is what you want in a groomer-focused ski with an off-piste itch to scratch. With its aspen and paulownia wood core and K2’s proprietary “Dark Matter” technology, the Mindbender 96 is incredibly damp at speeds, yet snappy enough to slash and burn between trees.

The K2 Mindbender 96 will be appreciated by former ski racers turned freeriders, and freeriders looking for a narrow underfoot ski during high-pressure cycles. Last season was a dud for many ski resorts out West, but having a ski like the K2 Mindbender 96 in your quiver could make all the difference. For our friends out East, don’t be surprised if the K2 Mindbender 96 quickly becomes your daily driver.

Note: The K2 Mindbender 96 and 96W share the same construction, with different topsheet graphics.

2027 Rossignol Sender Free 100

• Sidecut: 131mm – 100mm – 123mm (184cm)
• Radius: 20m (184cm)
• Profile: Twin tip rocker
• Weight: 2000g (184cm)
• Best for: bulletproof days

There are skis that we want to ride everyday, and then there’s skis that we should ride everyday. The Sender Free 100 is a ski that conveniently falls into both categories. It’s versatility as a freestyle-friendly everyday ripper is astounding–it absolutely rails hardpack, has a ton of pop and playfulness for jibbing natural features and lapping the park, features enough girth to stay on top of a few inches of powder, and is quick and nimble enough for slithering through trees, moguls, and other tight terrain. 

The ski’s uncanny combination of carving ski-like edge grip and super bouncy and playful character makes it so fun. On groomers, that powerful edge grip inspires high-speed carves, and really rewards driving the ski through the front of your boot. However, take it off-piste, and the character changes to a more modern freestyle ski that’s super fun to tailpress and butter and promotes a more relaxed and centered skiing style.

Most importantly, though, it makes easy work of the kind of snow you’ll actually find at the resort better than most, making this an appealing choice for everyone from 50+ day a year chargers to more casual skiers looking for a fun ride. 

2027 Nordica Unleashed 106

• Sidecut: 138.5mm – 106mm – 127.5mm
• Radius: 18.7m (185cm)
• Profile: twin rocker, camber underfoot
• Weight: 1900g (185cm)
• Best for: mobbing through crud

This year, Nordica completely redesigned their flagship freeride ski, bringing it back to the days of the Patron and Soul Rider, albeit with a modern twist. The all-new Unleashed 106 (and Unleashed 106 CA, which shares the same shape with a slightly different no-metal core) is probably one of the friendliest and most fun Nordica skis yet—though there’s no doubt that some of the brand’s aggressive racing heritage is still there. These skis replace the outgoing Unleashed 108 with an updated construction featuring Nordica’s Drift Lock tech (a specifically-shaped sheet of metal in the layup), a refined shape, and even better performance in less-than-ideal snow.

With the new Unleashed 106, Nordica aimed to build a high-power freeride ski that combines a fun and drifty nature in soft snow with locked-in hardpack and crud performance. It’s a ski for skiers that can carve a traditional ski turn through the front of their boot but also want to get sideways, ski backwards, and jump off every air in sight. In short, Nordica accomplished their mission.

In other words, when it comes to riders looking for an aggressive freestyle-oriented freeride resort ski, this is a safe bet, and a ski that you can be very happy on as a daily driver. It comes in one of the largest size runs to accommodate skiers of all sizes (it’s cool to see an aggressive metal-forward ski like this go down to a 157cm length).

2027 Stöckli Stormrider 108

• Sidecut: 137 mm – 108mm – 129 mm
• Radius: 17.9m at 186 cm length
• Profile: Rocker/Camber/Rocker
• Weight: 2056g (186cm)
• Best for: the one-ski-quiver

Skiing the Stöckli Stormrider 108 is like driving a fancy sports car or a cushy SUV. One of our testers described it as the “Cadillac” of the test, and I found that hard to argue with. Another compared the Stormrider 108 to a big enduro bike with lots of travel, while other skis felt like an XC or hardtail rig.

In short, the Stormrider 108 is incredibly damp. So damp, in fact, that many of my fellow testers noticed that I was able to charge through chop and skied out pow on the Stormrider 108 while they were hanging on for dear life. I wrote one note down after a particularly loud snow day—“These skis are so quiet that I sometimes forget they’re easily one of the heaviest I’ve ever skied. The 108 doesn’t feel too wide to slash and burn around trees and moguls, too.”

If you’re a Western skier looking for a premium mid-wide ski that you can rip on 95 percent of days, or you’re a hardy East Coaster that wants to splurge on a wider ski without sacrificing on-piste performance, the Stöckli Stormrider 108 could be for you. Be prepared to turn heads as skiers ask, “Wait, that’s a Stöckli?!” Oh, and get ready to stomach the $1,700 pricetag. The Stöckli Stormrider 108 is an amazing ski, but it will cost you.

As of 4:15 p.m. on October 13, the resort was measuring 13 inches of settled snowfall, a number that, per the snow report, hasn’t grown so far but may have increased by the time you read this. Either way, just over a foot was more than enough to transform the slopes of Alta.

Other resorts benefitted, too. Alta’s neighbor Snowbird got hit hard. So did their counterparts in Big Cottonwood, Brighton, and Solitude. The wide-ranging snow reached as far south as Brian Head, which, conditions permitting, plans to open on November 6 and take the title of first lift ride in Utah. 

The next few days look mostly quiet for Alta. At the resort, sunny but brisk weather is expected through the weekend. Still, per the National Weather Service, another opportunity for snow could arrive as soon as Monday night. While these flakes may or may not contribute to Alta’s base, the ski area has plenty of time before it really needs to start building coverage. It plans to open on November 20.

In the meantime, you may be wondering: is anyone skiing yet? DailyPow, a skier known for getting out before anyone else, has the answer, and the answer is maybe. Well, it is yes, but only yes if you’re deeply unafraid of core shots. This was a day for rock skis.

If you’d prefer to look admiringly from afar and wait until there’s actually enough snow to avoid blowing an edge, you’re in the right place. Alta shared a trove of recent snow photos with POWDER, and they definitely do the trick.

All photos taken by Photo John on October 13, 2026, courtesy of Alta Ski Area.

Related: Review: 2027 Völkl Revolt 101

As the Pacific Ocean continues to warm, a strong, or even “super” El Niño seems all the more likely this winter. NOAA says a “strong to very strong” El Niño has an 83% chance of taking shape in January-March of 2027; California Governor Gavin Newsom has announced a preemptive state of emergency, and skiers from coast to coast are freaking out.

Will it snow? Will it rain? Will it be cold? Will it be warm? That all depends on location and Mother Nature, but AccuWeather is taking its shot at predicting how the super El Niño will affect Winter 26/27 nationwide.

Tap or click below to watch AccuWeather’s full video forecast. Keep reading for a breakdown.

Accuweather’s Snow Forecast, Winter 26/27

Winners

AccuWeather’s snow forecast for October 2026-April 2027 bodes well for skiers in California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. This follows a typical El Niño pattern where increased moisture and cool temperatures flood the southwest and great plains.

Losers

AccuWeather’s winter 26/27 forecast is showing below-average snow in Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, North Carolina, and parts of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

AccuWeather’s Temperature Forecast, Winter 26/27

Above-Average

AccuWeather is forecasting above-average temperatures this winter for the northern half of the country. This follows the southerly jet stream that typically occurs during an El Niño. States include Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, and Vermont.

Below-Average

Again, following a typical El Niño pattern, AccuWeather is forecasting cooler temperatures in the southern half of the country. For skiers, this bodes well for resorts in Southern California (Mammoth), Arizona, and New Mexico.

AccuWeather’s Transition To Winter Forecast, Winter 26/27

Faster Transition to Winter

The super El Niño should expedite the transition from fall to winter in the following states, according to Accuweather: California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Slower Transition to Winter

Citing an increase in warm temperatures due to the southerly jet stream, AccuWeather says El Niño is expected to delay the start of winter in the following states with ski resorts: Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, and New Jersey.

Verdict

The super El Niño is legit and will affect how Winter 26/27 shakes out for skiers from coast to coast. Look for colder, snowier conditions in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Southern Colorado, and expect warmer weather and less snow in states like Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

But, as we’ve said many times this fall, nobody, not even the best AI weather model dreamed up in Silicon Valley, can predict the weather with 100% accuracy. Things will change, forecasts will vary, norms will be broken, and ultimately, snow will fall.

Tap or click below to read our advice on sorting through the El Niño Winter of 26/27 madness.

Related: Skiers Beware, The El Niño Hype Train Has Officially Left The Station

The new 2027 Ellis Skis Sabr 100, is the smallest of the three. While it looks like your run-of-the-mill park ski, it hides an extremely fun and lively character and some serious carving chops on firm snow.

View the 3 images of this gallery on the original article

2027 Ellis Sabr 100 Specs

• Size skied: 180cm
• Lengths available: 174cm, 180cm, 186cm
• Sidecut: 131mm – 100mm – 120mm
• Radius: 19.6m (180cm)
• Profile: directional twin
• Weight: 1800g (180cm)

Shape, Flex, and Construction

Overall, the Sabr is a relatively simple ski. The directional twin-tip shape features what Ellis calls their “progressive elliptical sidecut radius,” meaning the radius increases near the tips and tails that prevents the contact points from feeling hooky and hanging up in unexpected places. The medium 19.6-meter radius underfoot gives these a good balance of stability and agility.

Inside, the poplar wood core generates loads of, you guessed it, POP. That core is held together by bio-based Entropy Super Sap epoxy, and is wrapped up in full-height urethane sidewalls and 2.2mm heavy duty edges. In other words, these are built to take a beating, something that Ellis founder and lead ski designer Kevin Schaefer says “is a must for him.”

Flex-wise I’d call these medium-stiff. They are significantly stiffer than the Kanso 106 all-mountain ski, and certainly want to be driven hard and fast on firm snow.

On-Snow Performance

When designing the new Sabr 100, Schaefer aimed to create a ski that not only would make otherwise lackluster mid-winter groomer mornings fun again, but also would be the ultimate springtime slush weapon for skiing well into the warmer months. It’s not a soft-snow ski—that’s what the Kanso 106 and Meraki 112 are for—instead, it’s a ski that makes you want to arc turns on firm groomers and go a million miles an hour.

In firm conditions, it does exactly that, with remarkable edge hold and a mostly chatter-free ride. At 1800 grams, the ski isn’t particularly heavy, and doesn’t feature a metal damping layer, but feels like a much heavier, more planted ski at speed. The beauty in it is how energetic and “carvy” the ski feels. It begs to be laid on edge and to be pushed hard—the reward is there in the form of grin-inducing turns. The stiff tail of the ski feels very locked in, but the softer front half engages into a turn very smoothly and predictably.

In softer snow, like spring slush or a few inches of powder, the skis still feels fairly locked in, encouraging high-speed skiing and fun slashy turns. They don’t offer a huge amount of float, but that’s not the point of a 100mm underfoot ski. Instead, when skiing off-piste, the ski wants to be loaded and energetically pushed through all manner of turn shapes.

Comparisons

Three skis worth comparing these to are the 2027 Rossignol Sender Free 100, the 2027 Salomon QST 100, and the DPS Pisteworks 94.

The Rossignol Sender Free 100 (and the very similar Dynastar M-Free 100) is probably the most closely-matched ski on the market. Similar construction, a nearly identical footprint, and similar weights have these feeling very much the same on snow. I’d say the Ellis takes the edge on firm snow, but the Rossi offers a bit more stability and muscle when conditions get bad.

On the other hand, Salomon’s QST 100 is one the most approachable all-mountain skis out there right now, and would make a similar skier happy. The Sabr 100’s shape caters a bit more to the freestyle end of the spectrum, while the QST 100 offers a bit more of a predictable directional ride.

Finally, the ski I kept thinking back to when laying the Sabr on edge and feeling the energy and pop rebound me out of one turn and into the next was the DPS Pisteworks 94. It’s a very soft-flexing carbon on-piste ski that makes carving extremely intuitive. The shapes are not all the similar, and the construction (and price tags) couldn’t be more different, but I love how both of these skis encourage you to try to put your hip on the ground mid-turn (and offer the confidence to very much make that possible).

What type of skier is the 2027 Ellis Sabr 100 best for?

Small-batch indie skis are pretty cool to own, and will definitely turn some heads in the lift line. We’ve loved the Meraki 112 and Kanso 106 from Ellis, and the Sabr 100 fits nicely into the line. It’s a ski for those of you with a penchant for speed, those who live in a place it doesn’t snow much, or for someone looking to add a narrower ski to the quiver but doesn’t want to pigeonhole themselves into a dedicated directional carving ski.

One of the most approachable freestyle powder skis ever made, the Sender Free 110 bridges the gap between high-speed crud-busting performance, playfulness in pow, and edge grip when things get nasty. It’s remarkably easy to ski and doesn’t feel like it will overpower you, yet it doesn’t have a speed limit for when you want to get rowdy.

View the 3 images of this gallery on the original article

2027 Rossignol Sender Free 110 Specs

• Size skied: 176cm, 184cm
• Lengths available: 168cm, 176cm, 184cm, 191cm
• Sidecut: 140mm – 110mm – 133mm (184cm)
• Radius: 20m (194cm)
• Profile: Twin rocker
• Weight: 2200g (184cm)

Shape, Flex and Construction 

Rossignol’s Sender Free 110 might look like every other fat freestyle ski out there, with a significant tip and tail rocker and a fairly symmetrical shape. Look a little closer, though, and you’ll notice some details that are the magic behind its versatility. Despite the deep rocker lines, there isn’t much tip and tail taper, giving the ski a really long effective edge once it’s up on edge, adding stability and power. Underfoot, there’s a healthy dose of camber, adding even more power and pop.

From a stiffness standpoint, the Sender Free 110 is incredibly stiff underfoot, thanks to Rossignol’s Titanal Beam metal insert, quickly giving way to quite soft tips and tails. The ski flexes very roundly, but the stiff underfoot section makes it easy to load these up and air off anything in sight. 

Despite the generous tip and tail rocker, the Sender Free 110 doesn’t ski particularly short, thanks to the reduced tip and tail taper and very long effective edge. The medium/long 20-meter turn radius allows for a variety of turn shapes when on edge.

The freestyle leanings of the Sender Free 110 really come out when you look at the mount point, which is as close to true center as just about any non-park ski on the market. The recommended -3.5cm from center mark might be a little too far forward for more traditional skiers, but freestyle-oriented testers loved it.

On-Snow Performance

There isn’t really a particular area of the mountain where the Sender shines—its versatility is astounding, and testers loved riding it in all manner of terrain, from the steep and technical big-mountain terrain off Targhee’s Peaked and Mary’s zones to groomers to slushy park laps. In many ways, it’s a point-and-shoot kind of weapon that performs similarly well, no matter if the conditions underfoot involve untracked pow or cut-up chop.

While it’s quite playful, the ski prefers big, wide-open turns and inspires confidence for fast and powerful riding in really gnarly terrain—it’s no wonder these have won Freeride World Tour titles on the feet of Marcus Goguen. What’s impressive is that it makes this kind of skiing accessible to less strong skiers who might typically shy away from straight lining a bowl. The core construction is incredibly damp and quiet and allows for pretty relaxed skiing in chopped up, tracked-out conditions, where it’s easy to just let the ski’s suspension do the work.

One tester said: “Same great ski, slightly updated top sheet for the best. About as strong underfoot as I would want for a pow ski, which allows it to truly ski it all. Having skied it right after the Bent 110, I would say this is the souped-up version.”

The hard-charging nature of the skis definitely makes it a ski that will tire you out quicker than most. Testers found that it was harder to ride in tighter terrain like moguls and steep trees unless you really drove the ski, but found that it was still quite fun to jump around on in this type of terrain.

Anecdotally, while this ski is marketed as a men’s ski and the construction of it is definitely more akin to what you’ll find in other men’s freeride skis on the market, as a 120lb, 5’5” female skier, I loved these skis. They were fun primarily because I could ski through the scariest, gnarliest sun crust with complete confidence that I wasn’t going to catch an edge or hit something that would make these skis waver. They were intuitive and fairly easy to turn, but the harder you ski them, the more they respond. All to say, hard-charging ladies, don’t shy away from this ski! 

Comparisons

When compared to the Salomon QST Blank, another popular freeride ski of a similar width, one tester found that the Sender 110 provided much more stability at speed, at the cost of the Blank’s more playful character. Specifically, his words were “the Sender is a stomp and thug it out kind of vibe.”

Other testers said similar things about the Sender 110’s stability in comparison to the Blizzard Sheeva 11, noting that the Sender 110 chattered significantly less than this option on hardpack. Overall, this ski has some considerable oomph and can out-ski softer alternatives when the going gets fast.

What Type of Skier Is the Rossignol Sender 110 Best For? 

Skiers who are looking to get into bigger terrain and stomp everything will enjoy the “stomp and thug it out-ness” of the Sender 110. However, don’t be fooled—it still takes plenty of drive to control and make it perform, so the stronger the skier, the better the ski performs. If you can ski the Sender 110, it will reward you in most conditions.

Despite all the receipts, though, his versatility always comes as a bit of a surprise, as evidenced by his latest short edit, Dusting Off The Playbook. Shot at this fall’s Red Bull Performance Camp in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, the video showcases Eder’s booter and rail skills alongside some other talent, like Mac Forehand, Jesper Tjader, Nico Vuignier, and more.

“I’m not gonna lie, it sure was intimidating to see how hard the next generation throws down but very motivating at the same time,” Eder, who’s 35, noted in the caption to the video. “Many of the moves in this video i haven’t done in a while so i’m happy to find the feeling for it again and dust off some old moves!” 

Dust off, he did. Tune in below.

Related: 2027 Women’s Ski Buying Guide

Maybe. Maybe not. We can’t say quite yet.

A representative from Keystone clarified in an email to POWDER that the resort does not have an official opening day aside from its previously shared plan to open “as early as possible” when conditions allow.

“The ability to buy a single-day lift ticket two Saturdays from now doesn’t have any bearing on when the resort will open,” they noted. “If a customer did purchase a lift ticket now and the resort opened earlier, they would have the option of moving up their visitation date or being refunded the full amount.”

Notably, that answer doesn’t preclude an October 24 opening, but it does make it clear that we shouldn’t get too far ahead of our skis. Still, the forecast does look encouraging over the coming days.

Colder temperatures and mixed precipitation depending on elevation are expected at Keystone through Thursday, with a winter weather advisory in effect Wednesday and Wednesday night, according to the NWS.

The advisory calls for 6 to 12 inches in the mountains of Summit County, and even as the sky clears over the weekend, overnight temperatures could remain chilly enough for snowmaking. Next week could also bring another storm system to the Intermountain West, meteorologist Chris Tomer noted in his latest forecast.

Keystone sneaking in an opening before the end of October also wouldn’t be far-fetched if the weather cooperates. Last winter, in a lighthearted upset, the resort held an afternoon opening on October 25, spinning its lifts just before another Colorado frontrunner, Arapahoe Basin, which was set to start the season the following morning.

Both resorts are among those to watch as the 2026-27 season approaches. In Colorado, along with Arapahoe Basin and Keystone, there are others known for getting an early start, including Wolf Creek, Loveland, and Winter Park.

Rather than jinxing it, we’ll say this: winter’s coming soon. When, exactly, that happens will ultimately be determined by Mother Nature. But resorts like Keystone are doing everything they can to play ball.

Related: Eggs, Bacon, Frozen Nose Hairs and Blower Powder With High Sierra Snowcat & Yurt

All across the state, from Brian Head to the Cottonwood Canyons, resorts clocked snowfall, some of it serious. Snowbird’s snow stake is sitting encouragingly around the ten-inch mark, with some flakes still falling.

The upper reaches of Alta Ski Area are covered in a pristine, white coat. At the top of the Crest lift, Brighton’s webcam is all fogged up, in a good way.

The storm isn’t finished quite yet. A winter weather advisory published by the NWS remains in effect for the Cottonwood Canyons through Wednesday morning. It calls for between three and six inches of snow, with higher amounts expected above 9,000 feet. 

The snow’s forecasted to taper off by Wednesday or Thursday with the arrival of clear skies and warmer—but not broiling—temperatures rolling into the weekend. As is often the case with October snow, this should turn out to be a wintry tease rather than a solid base-building opportunity. And, for the most part, local resorts are aiming to open towards the end of November.

There is, however, one ski area with its eyes set on an earlier opening day. Brian Head’s looking at an ambitious November 6. If it pulls it off, it’ll be the first resort open in the state. After that, Alta, Park City, and Solitude are up next on November 20, per their projected opening dates.

The storm came as other states throughout the West, from California to Montana and Colorado, also saw October snow. Among those areas, Montana or Utah may have been the biggest winners so far. In Montana, Showdown said it picked up between 12 and 15 inches, sharing a classic picnic table photo—one of our favorite measurement tools for new snowfall.Even better, some avid go-getters scored the first turns of the season before the lifts start spinning.

It is, really, only a matter of time. Here’s hoping the momentum keeps up.

Related: Fourth BPC Video Takes Snowless Skiing To New Heights

We don’t know when the first ski resort will open yet, but Arapahoe Basin on the Ikon Pass and Keystone on the Epic Pass have both said they intend to open “as soon as possible”.

With potentially feet of snow in the forecast and ample snowmaking temperatures, our guess is that Coloradans will be sliding on snow by October 24, 2026, but we’ll have to wait to see how things shake out.

The potential for an opening day next week and feet of snow in the forecast begs the question: Have you bought your pass yet? Yes, we know every skier loves to complain when it’s time to buy their annual pass, but Ikon and Epic passes provide great value, and the passes won’t get any cheaper heading into the season.

In fact, both passes use a pricing model that increases as the season approaches, and both will eventually cease sales entirely. Keep reading below for the deadlines for both passes, an inside scoop, and a brief breakdown of what they offer.

Ikon Pass Deadline Winter 26/27

• Deadline: “Early to late December”
• Next Price Increase: N/A
• Inside Scoop: An Ikon Pass representative couldn’t provide a firm deadline for pass sales yet, but last year’s pass stopped selling on December 11. Keep that in mind as the season approaches. There will not be another price hike between now and when pass sales stop.
• Price, as of October 13, 2026: $1,529
• How To Buy: Ikon Pass
• Ikon Pass by the Numbers:
  • Unlimited access to 18 resorts, including Palisades Tahoe, Mammoth, Copper Mountain, Snowshoe, Solitude, Stratton, Sugarbush, Tremblant, and Winter Park.
  • Up to 7 days’ access at 50+ international resorts, including Alta Ski Area, Aspen Snowmass, Big Sky, Deer Valley, Taos, Alyeska, Mt. Bachelor, Killington, Loon, Sunday River, Revelstoke, Ski Big3, Sun Peaks, Dolomiti Superski, Ischgl, St. Moritz, Thredbo, The Remarkables, Furano, Niseko, and more.
  • Bonus Access to 11 resorts, including Tamarack, Cranmore, and Grouse (some blackout dates apply).
• Blackout Dates: None for unlimited- and 7-day-access resorts. Some for bonus resorts.

Epic Pass Deadline Winter 26/27

• Deadline: December 6, 2026
• Next Price Increase: November 15, 2026
• Inside Scoop: The Epic Pass will increase in price one more time before finally capping all sales on December 6. Buy the pass now if you’re considering it!
• Price, as of October 13, 2026: $1,169
• How To Buy: Epic Pass
• Epic Pass by the Numbers:
  • Unlimited access to 42 resorts, including Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Crested Butte, Park City, Whistler, Heavenly, Northstar, Kirkwood, Stowe, Jack Frost, Wilmot, Crans-Montana, and Perisher.
  • Access to an international roster of partner resorts, including Telluride (7 days), Kicking Horse (7 days), Hakuba Valley (5 days), and 36 European Partner Resorts across France, Italy, Switzerland, and Austria.
• Blackout Dates: None.

Related: 2027 Women’s Ski Buying Guide

The snowfall was largely modest but more than enough to get the juices flowing. Colorado, as ski bums know, is home to a high concentration of resorts that aim to open as soon as they can. Depending on the weather, that could mean lift-served skiing before the end of the month.

At Vail Mountain, the iconic Back Bowls sign got a seasonal makeover, as did the upper terminal of the Mountain Top Express.

The overnight snowfall turned the steep slopes of Crested Butte white, making for a nice contrast with the rust colored fall leaves.

Other resorts throughout Colorado, including Beaver Creek, Arapahoe Basin, Steamboat, and Keystone, also got a taste. In the early hours of Monday morning, Steamboat’s snow stake looked positively wintry. 

A rep for Vail Mountain and Beaver Creek said in an email that, with more snowfall in the forecast, teams will begin snowmaking this week. 

In Colorado, the resorts to watch for an early opening are Arapahoe Basin, Keystone, Wolf Creek, Winter Park, and Loveland—conditions permitting, of course.

The weather does look somewhat encouraging, though. In the short term, more precipitation is expected in the coming days, with another storm system possible next week. Meteorologist Chris Tomer, who shares morning snow forecasts during the ski season, is, as of now, calling for solid mid-mountain snow totals through October 22. His calculation included this week’s storm and part of next, with some resorts tallying more than a foot.

Over the border, in Utah, the ongoing round of unsettled weather produced solid coverage for Alta and Snowbird and others, particularly at higher elevations. Finally, it seems, we’re starting to get an early, admittedly inconclusive look at what all this El Niño business might mean for the 2026-27 season. In a perfect world, this is only the start.

Related: 2027 Women’s Ski Buying Guide

Taking place on December 4th this season, skiers and snowboarders who show up wearing denim can score a $35 day lift ticket, and three-day lift tickets valid December 4-6, 2026, are just $199. Translation: You can ski Jackson Hole for three days for less than the cost of one. Just make sure you pack that denim!

“Ski in Jeans started with a dream to break the world record, but it’s become one of our favorite days of the season because it belongs to the whole community,” said Ned Wonson, Vice President of Marketing at JHMR. “It kicks off a full month of events on the mountain, right when the snow really starts stacking up. From Kids on Snow to Santa dropping in from the Tram, there’s a reason for every generation to be here.”

Skiers can buy lift tickets for Ski In Jeans Day here. Previous Ski In Jeans Day lift tickets have sold out, so make sure to buy one sooner rather than later.

POWDER was on hand for Ski In Jeans Day 2024. It was one of the best times I’ve ever had on skis (despite wearing denim in bone-chilling temperatures), and you may see me there again this year.

Tap or click below to watch a sponsored video we did with Columbia Sportswear at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort’s Ski In Jeans Day 2024.

If I can offer one unsolicited word of advice for would-be jeans skiers: go to Walmart and buy a ridiculously big and cheap pair of jeans that will fit over your bibs or ski pants. You will fit the part and still be warm enough to ski all day long.

Thank me later!

Related: Snowmaking Is Underway at Mt. Rose as Tahoe’s Earliest Opening Approaches

While this might have been one of the largest skis we tested this year (at 190cm long, with a 120mm waist), the ski actually possesses a surprisingly friendly character with easily harnessable performance. Don’t take that to mean that the ski can’t handle huge lines, high speeds, and the deepest snow (it certainly can), but it won’t tire you out immediately. 

View the 3 images of this gallery on the original article

2027 Nordica Unleashed 120 Specs

• Size skied: 190cm
• Lengths available: 180cm, 190cm
• Sidecut: 150mm – 120mm – 139mm (190cm)
• Radius: 22m (190cm)
• Profile: twin rocker
• Weight: 2210g (190cm)

Shape, Flex and Construction 

Nordica skis have a bit of a reputation for being burly, stiff, and overly aggressive, catering to ex-ski racers and those of us who don’t skip leg day at the gym. Back in the day, Nordica skis like the Patron and the double metal-laminate Helldorado were favorites among hard-charging big mountain riders who wanted a tool to plow through pow and crud in the resort. Those were followed by Nordica’s more refined Unleashed series, which now includes the 120mm-waisted Unleashed 120.

From a shape standpoint, the Unleashed 120 sports a fairly traditional-looking fat twin-tip silhouette, with long and deep rocker lines in the tip and tail. Where a lot of brands have gone with lower-rise rocker profiles, there’s a significant amount of tip and tail splay on these big dogs. Turn radius is a long 22 meters (on the 190cm version we tested), with contact points closer to the tip and tail than many other large powder skis, resulting in a fairly long effective edge. 

Inside, things are pretty par for the course when it comes to Nordica: wood and metal. Surprise! The narrower skis in the Unleashed lineup actually feature more metal and less carbon, but the wider Unleashed 120 still incorporates a layer of Titanal (not full width) plus carbon woven into the fiberglass to add damping and stiffness to the ski. Nordica calls this terrain-specific metal construction. The skis are very stiff underfoot, with slightly softer but still quite stiff tips and tails.

Given the shape, it was cool to see a brand finally take a hint from more freestyle-oriented skiers and suggest a mount point that’s a bit closer to center than most. Some testers suggested moving it up 1 or 2cm from the rec line to make it more jib-friendly, but I found that almost makes the stance feel too far forward when skiing in deep snow—which is kind of the whole point of the ski. 

On-Snow Performance

So a stiff 120mm underfoot ski must be a one-trick pony, right? Well, sort of. It certainly excels at what it’s meant to do: rip huge turns in big terrain, but what surprised me and other testers the most was how easy it actually was to ski outside of that envelope. 

I was taken aback at how easy to ski the Unleashed 120 was. I expected it to harbor the usual overly stiff Nordica feel, but, while stout, it’s actually quite friendly and makes skiing variable snow in big mountain terrain feel like it’s on autopilot. In pow, it’s very floaty, and wants to make big, open, drifty turns.

They don’t turn as quickly as a narrower-waisted ski with a shorter radius would, but they do make skiing really fast feel like you’re barely moving. It needs space to maneuver, but if you have that, it will stomp anything. 

“This ski is a big mountain weapon that has enough energy to snap off smaller turns too. Big open terrain with features that require good pop and ability to transfer is awesome,” said one tester.

In reality, however, it’s not really maneuverable enough to be a practical everyday resort ski. It’s still quite a lot of work to control, and it left me pretty tired after only a few laps, but those laps were REALLY fun. It’s a bit heavy to use as a dedicated touring ski, but I could see this being a solid tool to mount with a hybrid binding for lift-access or sled-access backcountry skiing.

Comparisons

Unlike more versatile all-mountain skis, super-fat twin-tip powder skis aren’t necessarily a dime a dozen today. We don’t live in the golden days of the “fat and floppy era” anymore, but there are still a few things out there to compare it to, namely the Rossignol Sender Free 118 and the new Blizzard Canvas 118. 

Compared to the Rossignol Sender Free 118, this was just a more fun, more engaging, and more versatile ski overall. It could still charge the fall line at speed if you wanted it to, but it draws you in to making those quicker, shorter turns, whereas the Rossignol was clearly happier being pointed downhill so it could power and blast through stuff. 

Next to the new Blizzard Canvas 118, the Unleashed 120 harbors a much more charge-y character. The Canvas 118 is really a relatively soft freestyle ski that’s meant to play around in pure powder, whereas the Nordica has a bit more backbone to charge.

It’s also worth comparing the ski to the newly updated Nordica Unleashed 106. Compared to the narrower 106, the 120 is a great example of scaling up a ski within the same line. It’s got a similar feeling on snow and will cater to the same skier, just for deeper conditions and more aggressive backcountry/big mountain skiing.

What Type of Skier Is the Nordica Unleashed 120 Best For? 

As mentioned earlier, skis of this scale aren’t really for everyone. This won’t be a great daily driver unless you’re a heli- or cat-skiing guide, have a lengthy Japan trip on the calendar, or you spend a ton of time in the backcountry with a snowmobile. 

In fact, it’s the kind of ski that’s best reserved for those 15+ inch days where the plan is to smash pillow lines, charge a big open face, or otherwise bounce around in bottomless pow. That doesn’t happen all that often for most of us, but we can dream, right?

I’m not saying there’s no value to either of these things, after all, I trust our Gear Editor Max’s opinions pretty unequivocally and frequently bother him with a million gear questions, but not everyone has their own Max.

Additionally, after I published an article on this same topic last year, quite a few women reached out saying how helpful they’d found it or that they’d gotten a pair of skis based on these recommendations or knowledge. Truly, nothing warms my cold, jaded, ski industry heart like empowering other women to nerd out about their own gear and ultimately end up with things they love! 

So, I’m here to give a little background info on things like ski construction and shape as well as few recommendations for women’s skis AND unisex/or men’s skis so when that 21-year-old points at a pink pair of skis first or you can’t find a review on something by anyone who weighs less than 180lbs, you’ve got some tools to help and hopefully get a setup you love. 

There’s two main things to pay attention to when you’re looking to purchase skis: construction and shape/sidecut. The construction determines a number of things like how the ski will feel, how it will handle in different conditions, its weight, and so on. The dimensions of the ski will help determine what type of ski it is (powder, all mountain) and sidecut will help determine how it handles and turns. 

I’m talking mostly about resort (or “alpine”) skis for brevity, but much of this knowledge can be applied to touring skis as well.

Shape

Width

Skis have a few main measurements: their length/size, underfoot width, and sidecut/radius. A great place to start is with the underfoot dimension or waist width of a ski, which can help determine what type of snow it will perform best in. This is the edge to edge measurement of a ski at its narrowest point, usually directly under where your binding will mount (eg. the middle of the ski). 

Generally, skis with an underfoot width narrower than about 100mm are made for on-piste skiing and carving and might not do you much good off-piste. Skis in the 100mm-110mm range often fall into the “all mountain” category, which means, well, they’re good for the whole mountain. If you’re looking for a one-ski quiver, an all-mountain ski is a fantastic choice. Skis in the 110-120mm range get more into the powder ski range and aren’t going to do as well on-piste or on firm snow and are less versatile for most resort skiing. There are some exceptions of course. Some folks will say you don’t need a powder ski, but this is POWDER Magazine, and we say you do. On the other hand, others will say 108mm is too wide to be an everyday carving ski. At the end of the day it is a preference, but there’s something to be said for the performance of a ski in the conditions it’s made for, so take that with a grain of salt. 

Sidecut/Radius

Now that we’ve talked about underfoot measurements, sidecut is another important one. Sidecut, or turn radius, is the imaginary curve created from the widest point in the ski’s tip to the widest point in its tail. Way back in the day, most skis were the same width from tip to tail, making them more difficult to turn. Sidecut has allowed for much more variability in the shape of how a ski will turn, making them more predictable and maneuverable. Generally, a short radius (10-15m) is better for quick carving skis and can be easier to ski. Radii of 15-20m fall into more of an all-mountain range and perform well for most freestyle and freeride skis. Radii of 20m+ are often for big mountain and powder skis, designed for bigger terrain where they have room to run. A larger radius is better for skiing faster because you’ll have more time between turns to pick up speed—the ski will also feel slower to initiate or “fall into” a turn, making it feel more stable, at the expense of agility. Shorter radius skis turn faster and more easily, allowing you to cut speed and stay more in control. Again, there are some exceptions to this rule.

Depending on the model, ski radius also changes depending on ski length, which can be something to take into consideration if you’re deciding between two different lengths in a ski. This also brings us to ski length–which is a time-honored debate that there’s really no right answer to. A great place to start is with skis that hit right about at your eyebrows, but newer skiers might want something shorter and more advanced skiers might want something longer. It’s really a preference at the end of the day. 

Profile

The last key piece of a ski’s shape is its rocker profile. If you look at a side from the side as it’s sitting on the snow, you can see that skis either have a cambered profile, a rockered profile, or some combination of the two. Camber is when the ski is more of a concave shape underfoot and has contact points on either end of this arch. Generally, a cambered ski provides a longer effective edge because it allows a point for the edge to engage easily towards its tip, which provides more edge grip in a turn and more stability. Rocker is what keeps the tip and sometimes tails of a ski off the snow. Tip rocker is often what allows a ski to plane above deeper snow, or float. Tail rocker can mean that it’s easier to disengage the ski’s tail from a turn (as opposed to a flat tail, which also provides a longer effective edge), and allow you to ski switch more confidently. 

Then, there’s reverse camber, or full-rocker skis, which have kind of a banana shape and only contact the snow directly underfoot with more rise in the tips and tails. While about a decade ago, this was an extremely popular design, many ski brands have strayed away from offering true reverse camber skis. These types of skis are traditionally great for skiing in powder because they have less of that effective edge, and are often playful and slashy, but can be a slightly more advanced ski because the edges are harder to engage and less intuitive to use in firm conditions. 

In recent years, many ski brands have also played with these combinations of camber and rocker to make shapes that have things like “all-mountain rocker” or “multi radius rocker” or even “mustache rocker.” In some of these shapes, camber is initiated closer to tails of the ski and the tips of the ski have more rocker. In other, camber close to the tip and tail of the ski changes the radii without changing the ski’s ability to carve or float. 

On groomers and firm snow, camber also adds pop and energy to a ski, allowing you to pressure the ski into a turn and use that stored energy to “rebound” back and engage into your next turn. While easy to pivot and slash, Reverse-cambered skis often feel dead on firm snow because that springy feeling isn’t there.

Construction

Damping, Flex, and Torsional Stability

When it comes to ski construction, you’ve probably heard people talk a lot about how “damp” a ski is, and, no, that doesn’t refer to how wet the snow makes it. Damping refers more to how well a ski absorbs vibration. Think of it this way: “damp = de-amplify.” Think about the feeling of carving turns on some slightly choppy hardpack—the more your ski vibrates underfoot and rattles you around, the less damp it is, so generally damping is a good thing. However, it is certainly possible for a ski to be too damp and feel lifeless.

There are several ways ski designers aim to reduce vibration via construction, and one is not necessarily better than the other. Many skis, especially stiffer, more aggressive skis use metal like Titanal to dampen and stiffen the ski. Other skis that are trying to maintain lighter weights will use things like rubber and neoprene inserts in the tips, tails, and along the edges to absorb vibration. Some even use rock (rocks?! rocks!) stringers to dampen skis. The double edged sword of a damp ski is that it can also affect the flex pattern of a ski and its torsional flexion.

(If you’re thinking ‘what on God’s green earth is torsional flexion, please stop throwing crazy words at me,’ bear with me.)

Roll your foot from the outside edge to the inside edge and back. If you a) did ballet ever b) have worn ski boots for years or c) are otherwise afflicted by weird feet, odds are you can feel all those tiny bones move as you roll, but hopefully not so much that it feels like one side of your foot is collapsing. These bones (they’re called metatarsals!) are what give your feet torsional rigidity. Skis kind of have the same thing, but it’s often made from some kind of fancy carbon braid weave, or changed based on the wood used to construct a ski. Generally speaking, you want a ski to have a good bit of torsional rigidity, so it doesn’t feel like it’s collapsing under you as you roll it edge to edge on hardpack. The wider and more soft-snow geared the ski, the less this matters.

Often, the materials added to skis to dampen them run the length of the ski (carbon, hard woods, metal, etc) and the layout of those materials affect torsional flexion or rigidity. As you can imagine, the skis that use metal are also going to be stiffer end to end than a ski that uses softer materials. This isn’t really something you have to think a ton about unless you know you want to be able to absolutely trench GS-style turns and have that ski stay super stable as you go from edge to edge (hint: you want metal) or on the flip side, like a surfier feel to your turns and a lightweight ski (try carbon or full wood with damping materials in the tips and tails!). 

Lots of brands will come up with fancy marketing terms about tech that ends up doing the same thing, but know that when you see something that’s called “Magical TriBlend SuperNeoprene Carbon Tech,” it just means that their ski designer came up with a cool new way to reduce vibration the ski or adjust the torsional rigidity. It can be a bit tough to tell what a ski will feel like just by thinking about these materials so take it all with a grain of salt. 

Wood Cores

Most skis these days are made with a wood core, but not all woods are created equal. Different woods have different weights, response levels, and dampening effects. Maple and ash are both dense, stiff woods, known for being stable, strong, and having excellent power transmission for more advanced, aggressive skis. Aspen, poplar, bamboo, and paulownia (Karuba) are all known to be lightweight, poppy, and playful keeping skis lively while also offering solid damping. Of course there’s more nuances beyond that, but I’d be writing a novel if I got into every single detail I could with ski construction. 

To Metal or Not to Metal?

Lots of women’s skis are built with no metal or less metal than a brand’s “male” counterpart ski because women are small and weak and can’t drive metal skis, right?

Wrong. Ya girl LOVES a metal ski. Honestly, the more the better. So don’t let a metal ski scare you away if you want an aggressive ski that is stable as heck. A 115lb skier like me might not be able to tail press a Blizzard Rustler 11 like a 180lb guy, but I’ll sure as heck have fun charging through whatever snow I want and auto-stomping any landing because the metal in that ski provides the stabilization I don’t have as a lighter skier. 

On the other hand, there are skis with no metal in them that I also love. Built right, a ski with no metal can be plenty stable and damp, and often be more playful than one with. They can also be a bit more approachable and easy to ski than metal skis. Like all things, it’s a preference, but there’s no reason women or lighter skiers can’t ski metal skis and no reason they need to either.

Women’s Specific Ski Recommendations

As the token woman on POWDER’s staff and also someone who is deeply (to the point of being pretty annoying) passionate about gear, I put together a list of some of the women’s specific skis I loved while testing this year as well as some recommendations from others. I also wanted to make a list of a few recommendations of skis that aren’t built as “women’s specific” because women are strong as hell and fully capable of skiing a men’s ski, but are rarely marketed these options. 

Like all reviews, these are just the opinions of me and a few other folks, so read critically and take it all with a grain of salt. The best skis for you are the ones you have the most fun on. 

As a reference point: I’m about 5’5” and usually in the 120lbs range and ski between a 170cm and 180cm length ski. 

Nordica Santa Ana 102

• Specs (179cm): 133-102-123 mm, 18m radius, 2160g per ski
• Sizes Available: 155, 161, 167, 173, 179

The Nordica Santa Ana 102 is a fantastic women’s ski that splits the difference between performance and playfulness. The Santa Ana 102 has a sidecut that sits in that middle all-mountain range and a super versatile 102 underfoot width. The ski has a cambered profile with a bit of tip rocker, allowing it to pivot really easily and stay afloat in deeper snow. However, most notably, the Santa Ana 102 is a women’s ski built with two sheets of Titanal that sandwich a wood and elastomer core, which like we mentioned in our women’s ski construction guide, dampens a ski and provides tons of stability.

Nordica has tailored the width of the Titanal layer to be specific to the width of the ski in the Santa Ana line up. The 102 is actually the softest ski in the line as it’s designed to be more of a freeride ski. However, if you tend to like a bit narrower ski (or live on the East Coast!), the Santa Ana 97 is also pretty sweet and has a little more metal, giving it more edge to edge stability (torsional rigidity, weee!). 

This Titanal layer does mean that the Santa Ana is a more aggressive ski, but hey, women can be aggressive skiers too, and we appreciate that it doesn’t leave anything out. If you’re an intermediate to advanced skier who wants a daily driver for anything from ripping groomer turns to leading your buds into gnarly resort and sidecountry terrain, the Santa Ana 102 or Santa Ana 97 could be a fantastic pick.

Elan Ripstick 100 W

• Specs (168cm): 134mm-100mm-114mm, 16.8m radius, 1535g per ski
• Sizes available: 154cm, 161cm, 168cm, 175cm

The Elan Ripstick is perhaps the biggest dark horse in the all-mountain/freeride ski category. A combination of an innovative and interesting construction, a wild shape, and a sweet spot of “put this ski on edge, but then probably jump off something too” sets the Ripstick 100 W aside from other skis in the same category. While the 100mm underfoot width would put it pretty squarely in the middle of the road for all-mountain skis, a substantial, shovel-shaped tip, just a touch of flare in the tail, and good amount of camber also make this ski pretty darn versatile when it comes to skiing deeper snow and staying maneuverable. However, what’s even more interesting about the Ripstick 100 W (and the rest of the Ripstick lineup) is what the brand calls Amphibio Technology, or in other words, the skis are asymmetrical. The inside edge of the ski’s contact point is closer to the front of the ski than on the outside edge, meaning there actually is a left and right ski.

Elan keeps the ski super light with a laminate wood core that has two carbon tubes inserted in it along the length of the ski to add edge stability, without adding a ton of extra weight. A layer of Flax Fiber is placed in the tip of the ski to reduce tip vibration and dampen the ski in firmer snow at high speeds. Those who want a lightweight ski that rips in a variety of conditions, allows for exploration and play, and comes in sizes ideal for smaller skiers should not overlook the Ripstick. 

Armada AntiMatter 100W

• Specs (168cm): 130mm-100mm-120mm, 16m radius
• Sizes available: 154cm, 161cm, 168cm, 175cm, 182cm

The mid-width of Armada’s new ski, the Antimatter 100, was made to be an ultra-versatile ski that bridged the gap between a narrower, more freestyle inspired ski and the burly big mountain feel of the 108 and 114. Although the Antimatter 100W is effectively the same as the regular version, it comes in a different/smaller range of sizes and with a different colorway (that’s way sicker, IMO) and is a reminder that women also love an aggressive freeride ski. 

Like Armada’s ARV series, the Antimatter uses a 100% poplar core which cuts down on weight and keeps the ski light and full of life. However, Armada layered in what they call Speed Metal, which is actually just Titanal layers placed underfoot that taper towards the tip and tail of the ski to beef the ski up a fair bit. The design of the metal layers allows for all the damping and stability of a ski you’d want to take on big terrain with, but allows the playful nature of the 100% poplar core to shine through as well. Although the Antimatter 100 doesn’t really have a gentle ‘hop on and feel it out’ setting, it’s also not a ski that punishes the skier when things get a little loose. 

Armada team skier Anne Hjorleifson said that the AntiMatter 100W was “everything she’d always wished for” in a ski and if that’s not a good endorsement, I don’t know what is. 

More Women’s Skis to Check Out

• Moment Bella 108 – fun all-mountain twintip
• Blizzard Sheeva 11* – hard-charging powder ski
• Atomic Maven 103 CTi – great mid-width all-rounder

*The Sheevas use a women’s specific construction until the 180cm size, where they adopt the Rustler construction

Unisex/Men’s Ski Recommendations for Women

4FRNT Devastator

• Specs (172cm): 137-108-131mm, 17.5m radius, 1780g per ski
• Sizes Available: 172, 179, 186

4FRNT doesn’t make any of their skis gender-specific, except the Hoji CC and MSP CC, but they do make many of their skis fairly aggressive and notably, they make many of their skis with a reverse cambered design. The Devastators are their 108mm underfoot freeride skis, making them right at the top end of that all-mountain waist size. They also use something called a multi-radius rocker along with that reverse cambered shape which means that even with the reverse camber shaped has been tweaked with multiple rocker points, allowing skiers to engage more effective edge, or carve more easily in firm and variable conditions than on a traditional reverse camber ski.

Additionally, the Devastators are made without any metal like many women’s specific skis which keeps them light, poppy, and maneuverable, but the Aspen/Maple construction keeps them stiffer than other full wood core skis. A neoprene rubber tip insert also keeps the Devastators nice and damp as well, so you’re not getting flung around in chopped up conditions. In short, they’re a light, playful ski that’s still aggressive. If you love smearing turns, hopping off sidehits, and skiing fast, the Devastators are definitely worth a look. Skiers especially in wetter climates like the PNW and British Columbia will appreciate the reverse camber in heavier snow. 

Salomon QST 100 & QST 106

• Specs (188cm, QST 100): 135-100-123mm, 18.5m radius, 2000g per ski
• Sizes available (QST 100): 148cm, 156cm, 164cm, 172cm, 180cm, 188cm
• Specs (181cm, QST 106): 139mm – 106mm – 126mm, 19.5m radius, 2000g per ski
• Sizes available (QST 106):157cm, 165cm, 173cm, 181cm, 189cm

Salomon has made exceptionally high quality women’s and unisex skis for many years now, but the QST line they introduced for 2025/26 that remains largely unchanged for 2026/27 really knocks it out of the park. In years prior, Salomon had a women’s version of the QST 100 and 106 (the Lumen and Stella, respectively), but the French brand has now decided to simply offer the same ski with two topsheets. The QST 100 specifically is an excellent all-mountain width and has a particularly playful tip and tail rocker as well as a generous camber, making them easy to turn and excellent for carving. The 106 is similarly playful and versatile, save for its wider underfoot width, wider tip and more pronounced rocker lines, which make it a pretty excellent soft snow and powder ski. 

Both are made with a lightweight, responsive poplar wood core and to dampen the ski, Salomon uses a sci-fi cool combination of cork in the tip of the ski and superlight Basalt fibers. There is a piece of Titanal in them, but only underfoot as a binding reinforcement and for a little extra edge grip. I’ve heard both described as a “hangover ski,” which isn’t a bad thing. Rather, it’s an indication of how approachable and fun these skis are, and skiing is supposed to be fun. 

Blizzard Canvas 108

• Specs (186cm): 140mm – 108mm – 128mm, 19m radius, 1870g
• Sizes available: 168cm, 174cm, 180cm, 186cm, 192cm

For an entire generation of skiers, Blizzard has undoubtedly been a brand geared towards hard-charging resort skiers looking for powerful on-piste skis and crud-blasting performance. That is, until they released the Canvas, and shook things up with a progressive, playful, twin-tip ski designed by their freeride athletes. The Canvas 108 skips the stiff nature of just about every other ski in the existing Blizzard lineup–its poplar and paulownia wood core provides a soft, poppy, and very round flex profile and a super light ski.

The 108 in particular falls in the middle of the Canvas line, (rounded out by the Canvas 100 and Canvas 118), and performs well in a variety of conditions. The shape makes it easy to ski, approachable, and by extension, pretty darn fun. Yet, it’s still a Blizzard, meaning advanced skiers that can push this ski will have a blast on it (except maybe in super wet snow…). It comes in a nice range of sizes for a range of skiers, and has one of the coolest topsheets I’ve seen Blizzard put out, courtesy of artist Penelope Misa. 

More Unisex Skis to Check Out

• Atomic Bent Chetler 110 – lightweight freestyle powder ski
• Nordica Unleashed 106 – approachable but hard-charging all-mountain ski
• Salomon QST Blank – one of the friendliest powder skis ever made

For the last few years, the Revolt line has been split between skis that lean either towards a more directional freeride vibe, or a twin-tip freestyle flair, with all models easily crossing those boundaries. While the Revolt line is listed under “freestyle” on the Volkl website, there’s undoubtedly as much influence in the ski design from their park and pipe athletes as there is from freeriders. 

Introduced to the Revolt lineup for the 2025/26 season, the Revolt 101 falls squarely into the directional freeride end of the spectrum. True to its hard-charging Volkl DNA, the Revolt 101 is not a ski that backs down from being driven by strong skiers, but it remains delightfully playful and poppy in a near-perfect balance. 

View the 3 images of this gallery on the original article

2027 Völkl Revolt 101 Specs

• Size skied: 175cm, 182cm
• Lengths available: 168cm, 175cm, 182cm, 189cm
• Sidecut: 133mm – 101mm – 115mm
• Radius: (R1) 24.6 m, (R2) 19m, (R3) 22.4 m (182cm)
• Profile: rocker – camber – rocker
• Weight: 2200g (182cm)

Shape, Flex, Construction

Historically, the Revolt line has been split between softer (comparatively, they’re still Völkls) twin tip freestyle skis and stiff, powerful directional freeride chargers built to take home FWT medals and slay big mountains lines for the movies. The Revolt 101 takes the guts of the big mountain comp charging Revolt 114 and shrinks it into a package better suited for everyday resort use, especially for those of us without daily access to deep snow. 

The Revolt 101’s shape is a bit unorthodox, especially when it comes to skis designed mostly to rip hardpack. The pintail design stands out immediately, almost reminiscent of the 4FRNT Nevar or Raven–two skis that use that design greatly to their advantage. Both the tip and tail of the ski feature a ton of taper, and some very long and deep rocker lines. The sidecut also changes from tip to tail, with much longer radii at the front and back than underfoot. In reality, everything about the shape is reminiscent of a freeride powder ski–save the 101mm waist width.

Inside, there’s Völkl’s Multi-Layer Wood Core, paired with full-length sidewall construction–this is taken directly from their race skis. The center of the core features a flexible, lighter wood, surrounded by hardwood that then transitions to the sidewalls and edges, giving more direct power transmission, improved edge grip and better durability. 

Speaking of durability, the Germans added a small detail they call “mini-cap,” essentially a small curve where the topsheets transitions to the sidewall that allows for more surface area at this high-stress point. This prevents chipping and cosmetic topsheet damage. Unlike most other hard-charging Völkls, there’s no metal inside this ski, with Völkl instead relying on the wood core for damping and shock absorption.  

From a mounting perspective, we’d suggest staying with the athlete-recommended line printed on the topsheet. These aren’t really meant to be park skis, and to get the full experience and power out of the Revolt 101, the slightly rearward stance really helps. One note is that the pronounced taper and rocker actually make the ski feel quite short, so don’t hesitate to go up a size if you fall in between. 

On Snow Performance

It should be noted that the Revolt 101 has been one of the most popular skis at both our 2025 and 2026 ski tests at Sunshine Village and Grand Targhee. A tester who had skied it the year previously got back on it the first day of the 2026 ski test, and said “it was like putting on a piece of clothing you used to love but hadn’t worn in forever – all the good things about it were just as good as I remembered.” 

On piste, the Revolt 101 is a high-speed powerhouse. It feels akin to a classic Völkl on-piste ski, like the Mantra M7 or even the Race Tiger, in the sense that it’s a design you want to drive hard and ski with purpose. Yet, unlike those other skis, the Revolt 101 differs in that its snappy responsiveness and propensity for freeride make it fun. Unsurprisingly, it’s very similar to the larger Revolt 114, but the 101 is much quicker and has markedly better edge grip. 

Take it into ungroomed snow, and it really comes alive, catering to both front-of-the-boot chargers and more centered-stance skiers. Thanks to those deep rocker lines and the substantial tip and tail taper, the Revolt 101 breaks free from turns easily to vary up turn shapes, but doesn’t feel too “loose.” The supportive flex underfoot provides easy pivoting and quick maneuvering in that terrain, but it’s a ski that wants to be finessed rather than charge, using its friendly swing weight to unweight and airplane turn over bumps into the next turn, rather than plow through or slash. 

“I loved all the ways I could ski it. I think I’d have as much fun railing groomers in Sun Valley as I would skiing it fast with buddies in chalk at Palisades or JHMR,” said one tester. 

The Revolt 101 really hits a hard-to-find sweet spot of remaining playful, poppy, and maneuverable while not getting too floppy on that end of the spectrum, and not too damp, like some other hard-charging freeride designs. 

Comparisons

Völkl presents a very unique ski in the new Revolt 101, especially in the crowded ~100mm underfoot all-mountain category. Earlier, we compared the shape of the tail to the 4FRNT Raven/Nevar, and one tester also noted similarities with the wider version of that ski, the Hoji. While I certainly see those similarities, I’d actually compare it more closely to the 4FRNT Devastator because of the multi radius rocker (or Moment Deathwish, for that matter) and the lack of metal in the ski. The Revolt has a similar balance point to the Devastator, as well as the fully rockered Raven/Hoji, and has a similar feeling stable-yet-playful feel, despite the lack of metal. 

Compared to another popular 100mm underfoot ski, the Salomon QST 100, the Revolt is much stiffer and more powerful, but lacks a lot of the playfulness and relaxed vibe from the QST. The Revolt will better cater to more aggressive skiers, but might tire out and be too much ski for those who don’t.

In contrast, the Rossignol Sender Free 100, which falls in a similar 100mm underfoot freeride category, the Revolt is much more playful, yet less intuitive. The Sender Free 100’s dampness and twin-rockered shape make it the kind of ski you can get as much out of as you put in. Although a wider range of skiers might like how much the Sender Free 100 takes care of you, even in the weirdest of snow surfaces, those who are willing to adapt to some of the Revolt’s squirreliness might have more fun on the former.  

What type of skier is the Völkl Revolt 101 best for?

As one of Volkl’s athlete-designed skis, the Revolt 101 will make skiers who want to channel their inner Markus Eder or Ross Tester very happy. It’s an extremely high-performance freeride ski that will make thin early season conditions, mid-season windbuff, and otherwise crummy snow very fun, encouraging high speeds, risky line choices, and big air. With a ski like this, the more creative, the better. However, even those who aren’t necessarily dreaming of their own NST Ski lines, but are highly capable skiers looking for a fun, stable, daily driver at mountains like Jackson Hole, Crested Butte, Mt Bachelor, or even on the East Coast will still love the Revolt 101.

Now often imitated, the ski strap as we know it today first came to be in 1982 in the Voile factory in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was originally developed as a simple flexible tension strap as part of the brand’s Snake Skin backcountry ski climbing system. At the time, it was never intended to become its own product, but very soon, that is exactly what happened.

Footwear manufacturer Merrell first incorporated it as a toe strap on their Super Comp telemark boot. Soon after, customers began asking Voile to sell the strap as a standalone product, and in 1984 it reached shelves as “The Voile Strap.” It’s still manufactured in Utah today.

More than 40 years later, the basic design has become ubiquitous enough that an entire class of products follows a similar design. “You don’t get copied this often unless the idea works,” says Voile Marketing Director Eric Reed in a press release. “What started as one small part of another product became something people use for just about everything.”

The company has spent more than 40 years developing its proprietary material formulation, dimensions, hole geometry, buckle systems, tooling, molding processes, weather resistance, and manufacturing consistency. There’s just something about how a Voile strap stretches to grip whatever it’s strapped around. “Forty years of R&D doesn’t necessarily make a product more complicated,” Reed says. “In our case, it helped us make a simple product better.”

With so many dupes on the market, Voile has encountered products customers believed were genuine Voile Straps, including straps presented to the company for warranty support. That issue prompted the company’s latest update.

As of 2026, every new Voile Strap now carries a permanently molded Voile logo, along with the strap’s length in both inches and centimeters. The mark remains even on co-branded Voile Straps carrying another company’s artwork. It’s a simple update, but aims to represent more than just branding. To them, it identifies a product manufactured under the company’s own material, tooling, molding, hardware, and quality-control standards.

“Keeping production close gives us control over the quality,” Reed says. “The material, the tooling, the process; we don’t want to hand any of that off and risk unseen changes to something we’ve spent so much effort dialing in.”

It all depends, really, on what you do with them. Some (myself included) fall into the “tools not jewels camp.” They don’t seek out rocks, per se, but if the decision is between a few core shots or not farming some early-season pow, they’ll take the former option. Then, there’s a bonus third option: those who seem to treat their skis with outright disdain.

Enter BPC, the series of videos that involve plenty of skiing but literally zero snow. The fourth chapter has just been released, and it’s every bit as entertaining as the previous outings. Included are staircases, gravelly hillsides, rock faces, and a piece of giant machinery at sea. All become skiable, or some approximation of that.

Tap or click below to watch BPC 4.

The guys behind BPC hit it big time with BPC 2, which dropped two years ago and, since then, has racked up almost one million views on YouTube—no small feat for a video about a niche activity within a niche activity. Most people don’t ski, let alone ski in places you aren’t supposed to. Still, the sheer craziness of BPC clearly struck a nerve.

Then, more recently, members of the crew showed up in the music video for the Foo Fighters’ new song Of All People, giving their antics the high-budget treatment (more to come in our upcoming print issue).

Still, as epic as that music video was, the shakier, grainier footage they returned to recently with BPC 4 feels right. Everything about this approach to skiing is unpolished. It is, probably, what most would call a bad idea. But, applying the horseshoe theory of ski decisions, there are decisions that are so bad that they circle back around and, actually, turn out to be really, really good. 

Or, at least, good for viewing. All the bumps, scrapes, bruises, and dislocated digits that went into BPC 4 must have been the opposite of fun. Something else, however, must keep BPC coming back. Maybe they’ve discovered a revelation. Is it not just powder that’s overrated? Could it be that any snow at all is, too? 

Related: My Favorite Hobby Comes With a Side of Climate Dread

Temperatures plummeted this weekend after an unseasonably warm streak, and Mt. Rose reported that it conducted its first snowmaking session in the early morning hours of Monday, October 12, 2026.

“It’s always exciting to see the first taste of winter, and as an added bonus, to be able to crank out snowmaking in force over the next couple of days,” said Mt. Rose marketing director, Mike Pierce. “We plan to make as much snow as possible with this latest cold snap and then be ready for all future opportunities to crank up the system.”

Mt. Rose is targeting November 6, 2026, as its opening date, weather and conditions permitting. Check out a photo gallery of the first snowmaking session at Mt. Rose below, and keep reading for more.

View the 5 images of this gallery on the original article

A light dusting of snow fell at Mt. Rose overnight, adding to the excitement of the first snowmaking session. Sierra-at-Tahoe, Mammoth, and other peaks around the Sierra saw minor snow accumulation as well.

It’s expected to warm back up later this week, but Mt. Rose is ready to make snow when conditions allow, according to a press release. For skiers trying to guess when Mt. Rose will open, know that the resort requires that at least one of its signature intermediate trails with at least 1,000 feet of vertical has an average base depth of 10-14 inches.

Mt. Rose typically kicks off opening day with the Lakeview Express lift and Kit Carson Bowl trail. That seems to be their intention in 2026, too.

Elsewhere in Tahoe and the Sierra, ski resorts are gearing up for openings later in November. Mammoth is planning to open on November 13, Northstar and Heavenly on November 20, Palisades Tahoe on November 25, Sugar Bowl on November 27, and Kirkwood on December 4, 2026.

All eyes will be on the impending “super” El Niño leading up to and throughout the season. Will the weather phenomenon dump snow or rain on the region? That remains to be seen, but POWDER is standing by (and fired up) for the opening days ahead.

Related: Eggs, Bacon, Frozen Nose Hairs and Blower Powder With High Sierra Snowcat & Yurt

On Monday, October 12, 2026, meteorologist Chris Tomer broke down which mountains saw snow over the weekend and how the next storm system could continue to impact different areas in the coming week.

This past weekend, parts of Montana, including Showdown Mountain and Big Sky, picked up a fair bit of snow at their highest elevations. Showdown in particular got nearly 20″, while totals at Big Sky were unknown. However, further south in Utah, remnants of Rachel came in as rain in significant amounts in some areas. Flash-flooding closed Big Cottonwood Canyon on Sunday after 1-3 inches of rain fell in a short period of time. Tomer noted that a continued cold front in the coming days could turn that precipitation to snow higher up in the Wasatch.

On Monday, a low-pressure cycle will move into the Sierras before crossing Utah and Colorado, and “it will bring precipitation,” said Tomer. The highest elevations at Jackson Hole picked up a solid dusting of snow as of Monday morning, showing just how far north that cycle reached.

Throughout the rest of the week, more cold air and precipitation will move across the Rockies, sitting over Colorado for much of October 15. Low elevations across the Front Range will likely see rain, whereas higher elevations in the state should see snow accumulate. By October 16th, the remnants of Simon will cross New Mexico and southern Colorado, potentially increasing snowfall totals across the San Juans.

Tomer’s forecast models show that between Monday night and Wednesday, Alta could see 10″ of snow at mid-mountain and 18-20″ at the top of the resort. At Loveland, the same models show 5″ of snow at mid-mountain and 8-10″ at the top by Wednesday.

By Wednesday night, October 21, Tomer is predicting less than 2″ of snow in Montana and Idaho, 6+” in Wyoming’s Wind River range, 1-3″ in the Tetons, 8″ at mid-mountain elevations in the Wasatch, 6″ at mid-mountain, and up to a foot up high in the Sierras.

In Colorado, mid-mountain totals are forecasted to be 12″ at Silverton and Winter Park, 11″ at Snowmass, 9″ at Loveland & A-Basin, 8″ at Aspen Mountain, 7″ at Crested Butte, Keystone, Eldora, Breckenridge, and Ski Cooper, 6″ at Vail and Copper Mountain.

You can watch Tomer’s full forecast below.

OpenSnow’s recent forecasts for Utah and Colorado show similar precipitation, snow levels, and temperatures over the next couple of weeks, though higher snow totals are expected.

Meteorologist Alan Smith is predicting 23″ at Snowbird, 20″ at Alta, 18″ at Brighton, Silverton, and just over a foot at Brian Head and Solitude. Deer Valley and Park City could both pick up 10″ while A-Basin, Loveland, Steamboat, Winter Park, Wolf Creek, Aspen, Breckenridge, and Copper are all forecasting between 6-8” over the next five days.

Related: Widespread Snow Blankets Ski Resorts From California to Montana

Husbands, carrying their wives, raced through a grueling obstacle course in hopes of securing the grand prize: the wife’s weight in beer and five times her weight in cash. This was Sunday River’s 27th Annual North American Wife Carrying Championship.

(In case you were wondering, the rules do account for the fact that it’s the 21st century: Competing couples neither have to be married, nor must they include a man and a woman. However, same sex couples can’t qualify for Worlds based on Worlds rules—yes, there are wife-carrying Worlds.)

This year, a record 58 couples turned up, with Kim and Ben Haapapuro taking the win. For their grit, they netted seven cases of beer, just over six hundred dollars, and a spot at the World Championship in Finland next summer. They competed under the cute moniker Haapapuroply Ever After.

According to Sunday River, the legend of competitive wife-carrying started with Finnish lore: it became a sport as a result of men stealing wives from neighboring villages as a means to prove their worth and strength to famed henchman Herkko Ronkainen, also known as Ronkainen the Robber. The toughest men who could carry stolen wives through the undulating Finnish wilderness earned a ticket to Ronkainen’s gang.

Sunday River’s take on the matter is built to “international specifications” and spans 278 yards. It includes a log hurdle, a sand dune, and one water obstacle that, fittingly, is often referred to as the “widow maker.” The carrying style isn’t mandated, but most couples opt for the “Estonian” approach with the wife’s thighs on the man’s shoulders, similar to an upside-down piggyback ride. Helmets are not required but often used, Sunday River noted.

Now, here’s a look inside the action.

Related: My Favorite Hobby Comes With a Side of Climate Dread

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Oldham recently published a terrain map of Moose Springs Ranch, noting that many of the runs are unnamed and asking his social media following for any ideas to name them. He noted that the area gets snow comparable to that at Powder Mountain near Ogden, Utah. Coincidentally, Powder Mountain also has a private sector of the resort that’s open only to homeowners in the adjacent real estate community, Powder Haven.

Despite the trail map and social media promotion of the area, Moose Springs Ranch is only open to those personally invited by Oldham. “If you want to earn your turns, help build the mountain, and ride in real silence, this is the place,” reads the website, although more information on how to gain access isn’t available.

Comments on Oldham’s Instagram page state that the content created around Moose Springs Ranch is more of a storytelling endeavor than promotional for any future use of the property.

Related: Eggs, Bacon, Frozen Nose Hairs and Blower Powder With High Sierra Snowcat & Yurt

The big winners this time were in western Montana. Among them was Showdown, which tallied between 12 and 19 inches. In a social media post, the resort reminded stoked skiers that the season hasn’t officially started yet and that “If you choose to ski, it is at your own risk!” In other words: feel free to break out the skins but, please, stay safe. 

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At Big Sky, Sunday night brought wind with flakes zipping past the webcams. When day broke and the sky cleared, Lone Mountain stood tall with a fresh white coat, looking very much ready for winter. What a view, right?

Another local haunt, Bridger Bowl, also benefitted from the storm.

Beyond those three, several other Montana ski areas picked up precip, including Lookout Pass, Lost Trail, and Blacktail Mountain. Further north, more ski resorts just over the Canadian border like Castle Mountain and Kimberly Alpine Resort got hit.

A higher freezing level in Utah meant that the snow line, this time, hasn’t reached the base of Beehive State classics like Alta and Snowbird. Still, upper elevations at those mountains received solid accumulation. Flooding in Big Cottonwood Canyon showed just how much precipitation arrived, not all of it frozen. 

In California, Sierra-at-Tahoe, Kirkwood, and presumably others around Lake Tahoe reported a more modest—but still exciting—dusting.

The party isn’t over yet. More mixed precipitation is set to fall on Utah throughout Monday, with freezing levels dipping lower on Tuesday and Wednesday. Alta could come away from the storm with over a foot of snow. Colorado’s also in play this week, with snow at Arapahoe Basin, Loveland, and others in the forecast. 

Further ahead and towards the end of October, the outlook is less clear, but it seems encouraging.

“All major ski regions in the West are at least in play for some snow, but confidence in the storm track is low this far out, which will determine which areas are more or less favored, so stay tuned,” wrote OpenSnow forecaster Alan Smith in a recent update.

We’ll take those odds. 

Related: Don’t Call It the White Ribbon of Death, It’s The Slope of Hope

When it comes to women’s specific outdoor gear, it’s a mad, mad world out there. Although women’s gear has come a long way from the hallmark days of “shrink it and pink it,” there are still far less market options for women and even less that aren’t slightly dumbed/shrunk down versions of a men’s ski.

In order to find the very best ski options out there that are women’s specific for one reason or another, we rounded up a crew of badass female skiers at Grand Targhee last spring. Amongst our testers were mountain guides, ski patrollers, and other industry professionals all of whom absolutely shred on skis, not to mention kept our entire crew glittered, costumed, and even provided bougie Aperol Jell-O shots throughout the week. Skis were put to the test in conditions that ranged from slush, to re-frozen slush, to literal mud, to some of the best powder we’ve ever skied.

So, what makes a good women’s ski? Well, like all skis, that depends on the skier’s preferences and ability. However, a wide range of size availability from lengths in the 150cm to 180cm range is a great place to start. While it’s true that some women who are lighter-weight prefer a lighter weight ski, it’s not true about all women and light weight skis often require a bit of extra thought in the design process to keep them damp and stable. With that in mind, a thoughtfully crafted ski that has downhill performance in mind as much as weight is important. Lastly, a ski that’s constructed the same as the men’s with it’s own flair on the top sheet that says “we care about making women’s specific skis, but we know women will love this burly ski as much as men,” is a really nice look for all the gals who would probably just ski the men’s otherwise. After all, if equity can be a better top sheet, we’ll take it.

We’ve chosen a range of skis to have something that (hopefully) suits all kinds of skiers and tastes. All of our picks pretty much fall in the all-mountain category, but if that’s not quite what you’re looking for, maybe these picks can at least guide you in the right direction.

About POWDER’s Editor’s Picks List

Our Editor’s Picks lists are collections of the skis, boots, outerwear, and other gear that stood out to us while testing. If you want to learn more about how reviews work at Powder, we’re very transparent about our process. 

These lists are constantly growing and evolving as we try new gear, all season long. If you’ve got a favorite piece of equipment that you think we should write about, let us know here. And, if you represent a brand or company and think your gear deserves a writeup, we’d love to get in touch. 

Armada Antimatter 100W

• Lengths available: 154cm, 161cm, 168cm, 175cm, 182cm,
• Sidecut: 130mm-100mm-120mm (168cm)
• Profile: Directional twin-tip
• Radius: 16m (168cm)

The mid-width of Armada’s new ski, the Antimatter 100, was made to be an ultra-versatile ski that bridged the gap between a narrower, more freestyle inspired ski and the burly big mountain feel of the 108 and 114. Although the Antimatter 100W is effectively the same as the regular version, it comes in a different/smaller range of sizes and with a different colorway (that’s way sicker, IMO) and is a reminder that women also love an aggressive freeride ski. 

Like Armada’s ARV series, the Antimatter uses a 100% poplar core which cuts down on weight and keeps the ski light and full of life. However, Armada layered in what they call Speed Metal, which is actually just Titanal layers placed underfoot that taper towards the tip and tail of the ski to beef the ski up a fair bit. The design of the metal layers allows for all the damping and stability of a ski you’d want to take on big terrain with, but allows the playful nature of the 100% poplar core to shine through as well. Although the Antimatter 100 doesn’t really have a gentle ‘hop on and feel it out’ setting, it’s also not a ski that punishes the skier when things get a little loose. 

Armada team skier Anne Hjorleifson said that the AntiMatter 100W was “everything she’d always wished for” in a ski and if that’s not a good endorsement, I don’t know what is. 

Elan Ripstick 100W

• Lengths available: 154cm, 161cm, 168cm, 175cm
• Sidecut: 134mm-100mm-114 (168cm)
• Radius: 16.8 (168cm)
• Profile: Amphibio profile
• Weight: 1535g

The Elan Ripstick is perhaps the biggest dark horse in the all-mountain/freeride ski category. A combination of an innovative and interesting construction, a wild shape, and a sweet spot of “put this ski on edge, but then probably jump off something too” sets the Ripstick 100 W aside from other skis in the same category. While the 100mm underfoot width would put it pretty squarely in the middle of the road for all-mountain skis, a substantial, shovel-shaped tip, just a touch of flare in the tail, and good amount of camber also make this ski pretty darn versatile when it comes to skiing deeper snow and staying maneuverable. However, what’s even more interesting about the Ripstick 100 W (and the rest of the Ripstick lineup) is what the brand calls Amphibio Technology, or in other words, the skis are asymmetrical. The inside edge of the ski’s contact point is closer to the front of the ski than on the outside edge, meaning there actually is a left and right ski.

Elan keeps the ski super light with a laminate wood core that has two carbon tubes inserted in it along the length of the ski to add edge stability, without adding a ton of extra weight. A layer of Flax Fiber is placed in the tip of the ski to reduce tip vibration and dampen the ski in firmer snow at high speeds. Those who want a lightweight ski that rips in a variety of conditions, allows for exploration and play, and comes in sizes ideal for smaller skiers should not overlook the Ripstick. 

K2 Mindbender 101W

• Lengths available: 157cm, 164cm, 171cm
• Sidecut: 130mm – 101mm – 122mm
• Radius: 17m (171cm)
• Profile: Rocker/Camber/Rocker
• Weight: 1735g (171cm)

K2 revamped the Mindbender line for 26/27 and the 101W (which is the same as the 101 with a different topsheet and size range) with only the Mindbender 111 above it in terms of width, aims to be a versatile daily-driver ski with a propensity for soft snow. While only being 5mm wider than the next size down in the line, the Mindbender 96, the Mindbender 101 feels almost like an entirely different class of ski.

The new Mindbender features a new damping technology called “Dark Matter,” which consists of small TPU blocks with metal fused to the edge of the ski.  Instead of using full sheets of metal to provide damping, K2 installed small pucks containing TPU and a metal powder at inflection points in the ski (the exact positions were largely found through iterating and trial-and-error) to counteract and stop vibrations from spreading through the ski. That leads to an overall softer flex and lighter weight, but without vibrations and chatter killing the ride quality.  

As a result, the Mindbender 101 is stable when you need it, slashy and freestyley when you want, and it has enough backbone to point a straight line through a chute when the opportunity arises. “Intermediate to advanced skiers can enjoy the energetic, surfy feel, while turning even the mellowest of terrain and smallest of side hits into a vast playground.” said one tester.

Salomon QST 100

• Lengths available: 148cm, 156cm, 164cm, 172cm, 180cm, 188cm
• Sidecut: 130mm – 100mm – 118mm
• Radius: 17.5m (180cm)
• Profile: directional rocker/camber/rocker 
• Weight: 1880g (180cm)

Salomon has made exceptionally high quality women’s and unisex skis for many years now, but the QST line they introduced for 2025/26 that remains largely unchanged for 2026/27 really knocks it out of the park. In years prior, Salomon had a women’s version of the QST 100 and 106 (the Lumen and Stella, respectively), but the French brand has now decided to simply offer the same ski with two topsheet options.

The QST 100 is made with a lightweight, responsive poplar wood core and to dampen the ski, Salomon uses a sci-fi cool combination of cork in the tip of the ski and superlight Basalt fibers. There is a piece of Titanal in them, but only underfoot as a binding reinforcement and for a little extra edge grip. the QST 100 is best paired with firmer conditions at the resort, both on and off piste. This is one of the most confidence-inspiring skis for firm conditions, no matter the terrain, be it morning groomers, afternoon bumps, or (more than anything) chalky alpine steeps that require quick, finesse-y skiing. Off-piste, the soft flex, paired with damping properties of the basalt stringers and cork inserts, allows the ski to track through chop and skied-off snow better than most. The edges absolutely will not skitter across unexpected firm patches, instead holding steady like a car with traction control. While it holds up at speed, the QST also encourages skiers to keep it fun.

“This ski wants to find side hits all over the mountain,” said one tester. Generally speaking, the QST 100 brings the versatility, easygoing yet confidence-inspiring character, and extremely fun shape of the whole QST line into a package for everyday resort skiing, making it one of the best all mountain skis of the year.

Stöckli Nela 93

• Lengths available: 156cm, 163cm, 170cm 
• Sidecut: 130mm-93mm-117mm (163cm)
• Radius: 14.2m (163cm)
• Weight: 1570g (163cm)

Swiss ski maker Stöckli’s women’s specific freeride series, the Nela, takes design elements from their flagship freeride ski, the Stormrider, but puts it in a smaller, lightweight package. For 26/27, Stockli replaced the Nela 96 with the Nela 93 in the lineup and made a few key tweaks to the shape of the ski in order to help it perform better on groomers and hardpack as well as off-piste. Notably, the Nela 93 only comes in three lengths, all of which are on the shorter side and limit the demographic of the ski a fair bit, but also offers a great choice for those who prefer shorter skis.

In an effort to keep the Nela 93 lightweight, the ski is constructed with Stöckli’s Light Core and Super Light Core, using a mix of beech, poplar, and paulownia for a mix of soft and more durable woods. The wood core is then sandwiched between two sheets of Titanal to strengthen the ski. Stöckli also opts not to use a traditional polyamide topsheet, and instead does away with a topsheet completely, instead opting to powdercoat the top layer of metal to save more weight.

While the combination of metal with an otherwise light construction means that the Nela 93 performs beautifully without testers feeling like they really had to drive the ski super hard or like it lacked composure at lower speeds, it is still a metal ski, made by ski racers, so it doesn’t quite have the same “hangover ski” quality as some others. When cruising around on groomers, even icy ones, the Nela 93 remains stable and easygoing, but also it doesn’t back down from being taken up to speed and making, big sweeping turns.

Overall, this ski is built for ex-racers or lifelong skiers who want something nice and light to cruise around a wide open piste on like those found at Sun Valley or shocker, in much of Europe.

Nordica Santa Ana 97

• Lengths available: 150cm, 155cm, 161cm, 167cm, 173cm, 179cm
• Sidecut: 129mm – 97mm – 117mm
• Radius: 17.5m (173cm)
• Profile: All mountain rocker
• Weight: 2000g

 The Nordica Santa Ana 97 compliments the rest of the Santa Ana line as truly one of the most versatile women’s skis on the market that doesn’t make the same compromises as so many other women’s skis. The second widest ski in Nordica’s women’s all-mountain line up, behind the 102, the Santa Ana 97 might be one of the most true “all-mountain’”skis to exist. 

Where Nordica really hits the nail on head with the Santa Ana is in its construction. A beech/poplar wood core keeps the ski delightfully light and poppy, while an elastomer layer works to dampen the ski. What Nordica calls their TSM Pulse Core is completed by a sandwich of Titanal that’s tailored in width to the width of each ski in the Santa Ana lineup to provide the right amount of dampening, edge grip, and stability for the ski’s intended use. The narrower the ski, the more metal for optimized performance on hardpack,  the wider the ski, the less metal to keep it playful in soft snow. Rarely do we find women’s specific skis with two sheets of Titanal in them, and boy is it refreshing. There’s no doubt the TSM Pulse Core makes the Santa Ana a hard-charging ski, but since when did ‘women’s ski’ and ‘hard-charging’ need to cancel each other out?

Those looking for a dependable, yet fun, daily driver at a mountain like Steamboat, Grand Targhee, or Deer Valley can’t go wrong with the Santa Ana 97. A ski that will grow with one’s abilities, it would also be a great ski to take an intermediate skier to feeling confident and charging in advanced terrain.

To me, movie-watching is about sitting down in a big, fat chair, getting comfortable, and letting the actors, cinematographers, and directors do the work. I don’t want to get sprayed with a firehose or smell something I don’t expect, which, yes, one 4D theater advertises as “scent.” Heck, even those 3D glasses make me feel sick.

Yet, not so long ago, I found myself perched in a seat at the Presidio Theatre as a fog machine emitted gobs of vapor and fake snowflakes—little rectangles of white paper—fell from the ceiling. And I was far from unhappy about the theater’s modest take on the 4D phenomena. 

The movie certainly helped. Beyond that indoor blizzard, on the big screen, things were happening that didn’t look real. A vast pillow field glowed in shades of red, blue, and purple. Glowing figures cut through the snow, little blobs of light that would occasionally float in the air, twist this way or that, and drop back down in a puff of powder. Before long, the scene changed.

Towering rock walls, still glowing in neon colors, replaced the backcountry. On them, a new cadre of athletes worked their magic and ventured upwards. 

By now, you probably know what this is about. Chris Benchetler’s trippy, indescribable (I’m trying) Mountains of the Moon first debuted last fall and made an unavoidable splash. But until only a few days ago, it wasn’t anywhere online. You had to see it in person, and I hadn’t. So, I jumped at the opportunity to catch it in the city.

Somewhere between a Grateful Dead homage (Benchetler, clearly, is a huge fan), a moving art installation, and an action-sports movie, the film, I quickly learned, is a technical feat. The skiers, climbers, mountain bikers, and surfers all wore custom-built skeleton suits that glowed, thanks to LEDs. Other lighting equipment introduced zig-zagging lasers and painted the natural environments, most of which appeared at night.

The connection to the world’s most famous jam band came via an animated intro, the kaleidoscopic visual language, and, of course, the music. At the San Francisco showing I attended, the Terrapin Family Band expertly supplied the score live. 

What most stood out was the interplay between those tunes, the footage, and the editing. The Dead famously improvised within some songs and mixed up their setlist, so each night, the audience often got a different performance than the one that came before. Mountains of the Moon is, like all movies, a static recording, but it still captured that free-wheeling attitude.

Beyond the intro, the movie opens with a jazzy ski segment, punctuated with wizardly meditations from Paul Stamets, the famed mycologist (to those wondering: mushroom expert). His voice serves as a guiding force throughout the film, nudging the audience towards an understated thesis: everything you’re watching, from the music to the landscapes and the broader natural world, is connected. Along the way, I lost track of time—no, I hadn’t indulged in any fungi myself, though the movie made me wonder if I had—and the scenery shifted discreetly.

We were on a mountaintop, then a crag, then the forest, then alongside a mushroom, then floating above a massive hip jump as the music reached a frenzied crescendo, then under the sea, then back in the mountains—or some hallucinatory order of events along those lines. It mirrored a jam session and marked a departure from the traditional segment-based ski movie model recalling, in spirit, past epics that covered new ground, like All.I.Can. You don’t watch Mountains of the Moon so much as let it wash over you. 

And while, yes, the result is absolutely Deadhead fan service, Mountains of the Moon isn’t the movie equivalent of a cheap Stealie sticker. It’s an honest-to-God and well-studied love letter, co-signed by longtime Dead drummer Mickey Hart, who appears in the film. At least from a viewer’s perspective, Mountains was without compromise and seemed to offer an unvarnished glimpse inside Benchetler’s ever-energetic brain (and those of numerous others who made the movie possible). Mushrooms fittingly got more airtime than equipment close-ups and, even with a long list of supporting brands, the film didn’t feel the least bit commercial. You get the sense Benchetler wanted to do something daring and pulled it off as imagined. The lingering question is this: what could possibly be next?

Benchetler probably has something in mind and, maybe, it’ll go even further beyond skiing and action sports. Still, his latest work remains a shred flick at its core. The talent, including Michelle Parker, Sam Kuch, and Benchetler himself, holds it all together. They’re on another planet, to be sure, but they’re still hucking tricks and scoring powder turns. That makes it an easy entry point to the Dead and may even convert some new fans who came initially for the skiing. Even if you aren’t into expanding your consciousness (it’s worth a try) or on the “bus,” Mountains of the Moon is one hell of a joy ride that takes ski movies—a difficult genre for innovation—another big step higher on the boot pack. 

You can now rent or buy Mountains of the Moon on Amazon Prime Video.

Related: Chris Benchetler’s New Film Takes His Grateful Dead Collaboration To The Next Level

Enter the Stormrider 95, a burly, stiff, and fairly heavy “freeride” offering from Swiss ski racing stalwart Stöckli. The company known for winning races on the world’s iciest and most challenging tracks has been selling this ski for years, but it wasn’t until recently that Americans began taking notice.

The Stormrider 95 can venture off-piste, don’t get me wrong, but these skis are made to be pointed down a corduroy-laden groomer and ripped at full speeds. With two layers of titatal and the same core-damping tech as its bigger brother the Stormrider 108, the Stormrider 95 is a Ferrari, and your lowly big-box-brand groomer skis are a Toyota Camry. These skis are made to set PRs on your favorite groomers, but don’t be afraid to let them dance in the chop and skied-out powder. They’ll reward you with stability, confidence, and more speed than you know what to do with.

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2027 Stöckli Stormrider 95 Specs

• Size skied: 182cm
• Lengths available: 170cm, 176cm, 182cm, 188cm
• Sidecut: 132mm – 95mm – 120mm
• Radius: 18.5m at 182cm length
• Profile: Rocker/Camber/Rocker
• Weight: 1850g (182cm)

Shape, Flex, and Construction

When skiing anything from Stöckli, it’s important to remember the brand’s roots. This isn’t your mom-and-pop brand that started in your favorite freeskier’s garage in the aughts. No, Stöckli is the pinnacle of Swiss ski racing performance. Its reputation precedes itself for high-quality, durable, and most of all, fast skis.

With that in mind, don’t be surprised when you pick up a pair of Stöckli Stormrider 95s for the first time. The ski’s weight is immediately noticeable, along with the multiple sheets of titanal and the premium race-quality base.

The tail on the Stöckli Stormrider 95 is nearly flat. I found this a bit challenging when trying to glide from mogul to mogul, but I was practically giddy as I railed groomer turns with ease. Skiing across a patch of ice, I laughed as the tail locked in and didn’t slide out.

Even though the Stormrider 95 is well, 95mm underfoot, I would hesitate to call this ski a true all-mountain offering. Yes, I did ski it in the trees, powder, and even through icy moguls, but the ski’s overall stiffness and unforgiving tail made it more challenging than other skis of a similar size. I’m still not sure what the Euros are smoking when they call a sub-100mm ski “perfect for powder.”

On-Snow Performance

I’m not a ski racer, but I often wish that I were. Watching Mikaela Shiffrin rip turns edge-to-edge on bulletproof ice is as alluring to me as watching Sammy Carlson stomp dub Cork tens in the Alaskan backcountry.

I’ll never be able to ski like Shiffrin on Carlson in their own right, but the Stockli Stormrider 95 makes me feel, even if just for a second, that I can ski the piste as well as the pros. Similar to the Stormrider 108, the edge hold, fast bases, and stiffness from tip to tail create an “autopilot” feeling that’s hard to describe. Each turn feels right. Each transition between turns is as smooth as butter.

One of our testers described the Stormrider 95’s intuitive nature on the “Rolling Thunder” trail at Grand Targhee. “I felt like I could pick up speed quickly, and if I drove the corners of the turns, it did exactly what I wanted,” they wrote between smiles.

Skiing the Stormrider 95 in Grand Targhee’s bumps and trees, most notably off the Sacajawea Lift, was surprisingly fun. I usually prefer more forgiving skis for this type of terrain, but I found that loading up the Stormrider 95 with energy right before the turn, and then releasing it around the mogul, was exhilarating. 

Before long, I was hopping in and out of moguls like I was Johnny Moseley fresh off a Dinner Roll.

Comparisons

Just like the Stöckli Stormrider 108, it’s nearly impossible to draw comparisons to the Stöckli Stormrider 95. The materials are high-end, the performance is incredible, and the price is nearly double that of every other 95mm underfoot “freeride” ski.

With that said, the Volkl M7 Mantra and Nordica Enforcer 94 offer a similar, stiff mid-narrow platform for ripping groomers between storms at a lower price point.

What Type of Skier is the Stöckli Stormrider 95 Best for?

The Stöckli Stormrider 95 fits a niche I didn’t know I was part of until I actually skied it—it’s a groomer ski for freeride skiers who don’t like groomers.

Think about it. How many times have the conditions forced you to ski groomers, but you refused to put away the 108mm or 112mm underfoot skis out of spite? 

If you’re like me, it happens frequently. 

Now, on those low-tide high-pressure days, I just pull out the Stockli Stormrider 95s and know that I’m going to have more fun than all of my friends on their wider, off-piste focused planks.

But some skiers don’t want a ski that’s soft or approachable. Some skiers want a beefier option that challenges them a bit. This crowd should consider the Nordica Enforcer 99.

It’s not playful, and I’d call it a particularly burly ski, but if your legs can handle the Enforcer’s ability to plow through absolutely everything in your path, it really unleashes a new way to ski your favorite runs, no matter the day or the conditions.

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2027 Nordica Enforcer 99 Specs

• Size skied: 179cm, 185cm
• Lengths available: 167cm, 173 cm, 179cm, 185cm, 191cm
• Sidecut: 133cm – 99cm – 121cm (185cm)
• Radius: 18.5m (185cm)
• Profile: directional rocker, camber underfoot
• Weight: 2180g (185cm)

Shape, Flex, and Construction

I rode the Enforcer 99 in the 185 cm length and found it to be a great size for my 6’0” frame. With subtle tip and tail rocker lines and one of the stiffest tails I’ve ever ridden, it skis fairly long. But given the ski’s intentions (high-speed shredding), the extra length feels appropriate. Nordica offers a full size run from 167cm to 191cm. The 185cm version is built around a medium-length 18.5m turning radius. Those change by half-meter increments based on size. 

These are some of the stiffest skis on the market right now, and require a lot of energy from their pilot and room to run. However, that makes these scary fast, and stupidly enjoyable at high speeds.

The recommended mount point is fairly traditional (directional and set back pretty far from center). I did mess around with going slightly more forward but found that the incredibly stiff tail felt overwhelming, so I was happiest with the recommended mount.

On-Snow Performance

There was a really fun game I learned to enjoy playing on the Enforcer 99, best played in the afternoons of a resort pow day, when all the good lines are tracked out, and there’s little to no fresh snow left. The game was basically finding the answer to the question of “how fast can I ski through the crud?” I liked the game because I can’t say I ever found a definitive answer—the ski kept begging for more. 

The ski has a serious need for speed, but provides one of the quietest, smoothest rides I’ve ever experienced. On hardpack, the edge grip is astounding. There’s absolutely zero chatter, even when it’s late in the day and the “groomers” are really just sheets of ice. Sure, that requires some diligence from a tuning standpoint, but I think the ski’s double metal-laminate and wood/elastomer core construction really adds to the vibe here. It just eats up inconsistencies in the snow, and works better the faster you go and the more force you put into each turn. The 99mm waist width might seem a bit wide for a dedicated hard-snow ski, but it doesn’t feel sluggish when transitioning edges, and provides a really solid platform for landings and when straightlining.

That incredibly smooth ride also translates to ripping crud and tracked-out snow. Yes, it likes to go fast, but what really stood out is its ability to make consistent turns really anywhere on a slope without washing out or feeling wandery. “Locked in” is a great way to describe what it feels like sharing a turn with this ski. It’s your friend, and it has your back, but it’s definitely the one in charge. Find pretty much any slope on the mountain and try carving turns down it like you would a smooth groomer—the Enforcer 99 will let you.

A big part of the redesign of the ski a few seasons back involved adding some more tail rocker. That one subtle design change allows the ski to be smeared and pivoted with much less effort—something I find very necessary when things get steep, variable, and bumpy. I wouldn’t quite say it makes the ski feel more playful, but it definitely allowed me to release the tail mid-turn to scrub speed, change direction, and maneuver through variable terrain like steep bumped-out chutes, trees, or rock bands.

The biggest compromise that a ski of the Enforcer 99’s caliber makes is a lack of playfulness. It’s not jibby, it’s not poppy, and the significant swing weight makes it not very easy to maneuver in the air. However, for many riders, that might not really be a compromise, especially if your ideal type of skiing involves ripping as fast as you can day in and day out and mostly staying on the ground. 

Unfortunately, the relatively skinny 99mm waist width and heavyweight construction don’t lend themselves well to flotation in powder. Find something wider and softer, and you’ll be much happier on deep days.

Comparisons

Nordica’s über-stiff Enforcer 99 certainly breaks the mold of most all-mountain skis, offering closer to race-level performance in a wider waist width. However, compared to somewhat similarly-shaped skis like the Völkl M7 Mantra, or even the Salomon QST 100, there are some worthy comparisons.

Völkl’s M7 Mantra skis offer a comparably damp ride and weight, also excelling on groomers. They do require a bit more speed to come alive, though, and, when it comes to smashing through rough snow, are a bit less of a plush ride than the Enforcers. Either way, both skis tap the hefty all-mountain charger niche.

Interestingly, the QST 100 offers hard-snow performance that rivals the Enforcer 99, but at a much lower cost to entry and not much of a loss of top-end power and speed. Sure, the QST 100 is a noodle compared to the 2×4-stiff Enforcer 99, but it accomplishes the end goal of predictable high-speed all-conditions skiing just the same. The Enforcer 99 is stiff and serious and might better cater to ex-racers, but the QST 100 is the everyperson’s ski. Continuing with the car analogy, it’s like comparing a Porsche 911 (the Enforcer 99) to a souped-up VW GTI (the QST 100)—unless you’re driving on a closed-course track, you’ll get the same levels of acceleration and handling.

What Type of Skier Is the Nordica Enforcer 99 Best For?

Most days of the season, if you’re purely skiing inbounds, would be great days on this ski. The Enforcer 99 is no one-trick pony, and it excels on hardpack, in variable snow, and in crud. It will also encourage you to not skip leg day at the gym next time. Ex-racers, heavier skiers, and people who prefer to push the pace should all consider applying.

The Ripstick 96 Black Edition is exactly that: a sleeper amongst a crowded field of high-performance all-mountain skis. It’s on-piste performance is very European (read: excellent), but it packs a punch in cut-up snow, bumps, and steep terrain. The Black Edition version gets extra carbon, some added stiffness, and retains the brand’s signature Amphibio Rocker technology.

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2027 Elan Ripstick 96 Black Edition Specs

• Size skied: 175cm, 182cm
• Lengths available: 161cm, 168cm, 175cm, 182cm, 189cm
• Sidecut: 133mm – 96mm – 114mm
• Radius: 17.8m (182cm)
• Profile: Amphibio Rocker
• Weight: 1640 (182cm)

Shape, Flex and Construction

Like all of Elan’s Ripsticks, the Ripstick 96 Black Edition relies heavily on carbon fiber inside to create a very unique ride quality. I wouldn’t hesitate to say that Elan has figured it out when it comes to using loads of carbon fiber in a ski. For years, it was a tradeoff between saving weight and introducing unwanted amounts of chatter into a ski. Here, Elan uses their “Carbon Deck” tech, meaning a combo of carbon tubes in the core and uni-directional carbon layers underfoot. Up front, there’s a sheet of flax fiber to additionally quiet things down. That all adds up to very light ski, but not one that just gets tossed around. The Black Edition simply adds more of the carbon layer for some added stiffness and little extra muscle.

The directional shape features squared-off tips and tails, a touch of tip rocker and a slightly turned up tail. That’s paired with a medium/short 17.8-meter turn radius and a fairly stiff but very round flex—meaning the tips and tails are a bit softer and smoothly transition to a very stiff flex underfoot.

Finally, Elan’s Amphibio tech is worth mentioning. In a nutshell, it’s a special rocker profile where the inside and outside edges of the ski follow slightly different rocker profiles, meaning that there is, in fact, a dedicated left and right ski. That might throw some skiers off, but it’s technology that works quite well. It allows your outside ski to track a slightly wider turn when on edge, preventing your tips from crossing and making turns feel even more natural, especially at high speeds.

On-Snow Performance

The first word that comes to mind when describing the Ripstick 96 Black Edition is “energetic,” followed by “smooth.” The funny thing is, those don’t often go together. When a ski gets too damp, it’s really smooth—but that comes at the cost of a lively, energetic ride feel. Somehow, Elan manages to capture both in this ski.

On piste, the Ripstick 96 Black Edition feels like a finely-tuned race car. The responsiveness is impressive, with loads of rebound out of a turn that pushes you directly into the next one. It’s fun to really push into the sidecut of these, knowing they’ll spring back and set you up perfectly for the following turn.

In bumps and more technical terrain, that energy translates to being able to load the ski’s tails through compressions and bounce over uneven snow. Tester Liz Schwab says, “Once I figured it out, it’s a blast of a ski! Super quick edge to edge.”

The narrower waist width quickly finds its limit in deeper snow, but for those 2-5 inch mornings that quickly turn into a chopped-up mess, the Ripstick 96 Black Edition can definitely hang.

Comparisons

Two skis stand out that the Elan Ripstick 96 Black Edition reminds me of. First is perhaps one of the most popular all-mountain skis of the year, the Salomon QST 100. On snow, these ski VERY similarly, though they are quite different on the inside. Where Elan leans heavily into carbon construction, Salomon goes with the tried-and-true wood core with damping fibers/cork to quiet things down. Two means to the same end: a quiet ski that excels at all speeds on groomers, and is damp enough to be very fun off-piste. The Elan takes the win in all-out groomer performance, where the QST 100 offers a touch more versatility.

On the other hand, Stöckli’s Stormrider 95 might share a similar waist-width, but these are very different animals. The Stöckli is a race ski disguised as an all-mountain ski, with heavy metal construction and a super-stiff flex. It will make folks looking for high-speed precision on firm snow much happier, but the Elan is way more versatile and fun in a variety of conditions.

What type of skier is the 2027 Elan Ripstick 96 Black Edition best for?

Elan’s Ripstick 96 Black Edition is a ski that makes a lot of sense for a wider variety of skiers than most. Sure, it might not have the sex appeal of some bigger brands, but the super-energetic on-piste performance will cater to everyone from ten-day-a-year vacation skiers to hard-charging resort locals looking for a daily driver. In the words of ski patroller and tester Liz Schwab: “This will make everyone from ex-racers to ski school instructors happy. It has a rental reputation, but what a bummer to miss this ski.”

Blizzard has left both the Rustler and Sheeva lines untouched since their last update in 2024, and that’s a good thing. 

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2027 Blizzard Sheeva 9 Specs

• Lengths skied: 168cm
• Lengths available: 150cm, 165cm, 168cm, 174cm
• Sidecut: 128.5mm-96mm-118mm
• Radius: 15m (168cm)
• Profile: rocker-camber-rocker
• Weight: 3380g per pair (168cm)

Shape, Flex, and Construction

With a 96mm underfoot waist, the Sheeva 9 hits a pretty sweet spot when it comes to all-mountain skis: wide enough to hold its own out West, but narrow enough to cater to East Coast skiers as well. Like the rest of the Sheeva and Rustler line, the Sheeva 9 also has a nice shovel-shaped tip that comes in at roughly 128mm, depending on the ski length, which gives the ski a bit more float in fresh snow and versatility overall. Overall, the ski’s sidecut gives it a pretty short radius, especially for a freeride ski, but given how aggressive the Sheeva tends to be, this isn’t a bad thing, and keeps the narrowest version of it nimble in tighter terrain.

The Sheeva line uses Blizzard’s Trueblend Free Woodcore, which combines beech, poplar, and paulownia in 10-20mm stringers milled together to create a single sheet. The different woods are placed in a way that optimizes the flex of the ski, using their different densities. The stringers of each are also cut length-specific to the size of the ski, so that it has a softer flex in the tip and tail and is stiffer underfoot uniformly, regardless of length.

The Trueblend Free Woodcore is then layered with a piece of Titanal along the length of both ski edges. A piece of fiberglass is then sandwiched between the two sheets, along the length of the ski underfoot. Blizzard leaves a miniscule gap between the Titanal and fiberglass to allow for more torsional flexion through the width of the ski. Dubbed the W.S.D FluxForm Freeride system, the fiberglass piece is what sets the Sheeva apart from the Rustler, using a lighter-weight material to dampen the ski, rather than another piece of metal.

The result of the unique woodcore and FluxForm construction is a pretty darn stiff, aggressive ski. The narrowest ski in the line, the Sheeva 9 is also the stiffest of the three, however that short turn radius keeps it a bit snappier.

On-Snow Performance

Make no mistake- just because the Sheeva 9 is a women’s ski doesn’t mean it’s not every bit as burly and aggressive as you’d expect any Blizzard with a bunch of metal to be. The Sheeva 9 rewards good technique, a forward stance, and a skier who isn’t afraid to drive it. It thrives on groomers and hardpack and will rip turns, without much of a speed limit.

“This ski made me want to charge. It was more fun with speed and it thrived plowing through crud. I like that it forced me to be on my A-game, and I couldn’t be complacent,” said one tester.

In fact, if you are willing to take charge on the Sheeva 9, there’s not much it can’t handle, including some pretty gnarly ice that formed as spring weather turned quickly back to winter during our ski test at Grand Targhee. “While exploring the mountain with Izzy for some photos, we accidentally found ourselves on this steep groomer where the snow was really firm and terrible,” wrote a tester, “I decided to try to see if the Sheeva could feel good on that kind of surface and it kicked ass. After two test turns, I just skied it normally and the Sheeva really shined. It held an edge and it felt like I was shooting from one turn to the next.”

(I can confirm that this skier was, in fact, ripping, while I side-slipped the entirety of the run on my own daily drivers that were badly in need of an edge tune, in fear of eating sh*t with my camera in my hands.)

Where some skis that are similarly aggressive to the Sheeva 9 can also tend to feel a little monotonous, the lightweight construction and shovel tip give the Sheeva a bit more depth. When taken into moguls and some fresh, soft snow, the Sheevas come alive and tend to be pretty fun to hop around on. Chalky and a bit of dust on not-too-firm crust is particularly fun on these skis as well.

However, the Sheeva 9 isn’t everyone’s cup of tea given how aggressive they are. Testers noted that some skiers might feel a bit in-over-their-heads on the Sheeva without good technique, and that they’re likely too burly for new skiers. The stiffness of them also might deter a skier who prefers a soft, smearier park-style ski. 

Comparisons

The Nordica Santa Ana 97 is a natural comparison to the Sheeva 9, with both of them being aggressive, women’s specific all mountain skis. The two have fairly similar dimensions, although the Santa Ana 97 has a longer turn radius. The Santa Ana 97 also uses two full sheets of Titanal, whereas the Sheeva doesn’t. Despite this, the Santa Ana 97 tends to be a more intuitive, forgiving ski, in contrast to the burliness of the Sheeva. However, the Sheeva excels more in soft snow and its short radius and fiberglass composite make it a bit snappier and more responsive in some ways than the Santa Ana.

What type of skier is the Blizzard Sheeva 9 best for?

The Blizzard Sheeva 9 would make a fantastic daily driver for an advanced skier, who wants a hard charging ski that will take them as far as they push it. The Sheeva 9 will feel right at home in rocky, dry, technical big mountain terrain at places like Big Sky or Alta, and would no doubt be a blast bopping around mountains like Vail or Palisades Tahoe, or even ripping hardpack on the East Coast. 

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2027 Atomic Maven 103 CTi Specs

• Lengths Skied: 170cm, 178cm
• Lengths Available: 156cm, 162cm, 170cm, 178cm
• Sidecut: 130.5mm-103.5mm-119.5 mm (170cm)
• Radius: 17m (170cm)
• Profile: All mountain rocker
• Weight: 1610g (170cm)

Shape, Flex, Construction

The Maven 103 CTi is the widest in the Maven lineup, offset by the Maven 88 and Maven 94, and comes in four size options at 156cm, 162cm, 170cm, and 178cm. Sidecut radii are size-specific, all falling into the short to medium length of the spectrum. The ski has minimal tip and tail rocker in an effort to increase edge contact and grip and a touch of camber to keep them stable and easy to turn. For a directional ski, the mount point is decently far forward which helped it handle surprisingly and pleasantly well.  

The Maven uses an ash and poplar core, combining stability from the harder wood and the more friendly, playful quality of the poplar along with Atomic’s HRZN 3D technology, that adds a beveled piece of wood into the ski tip for more float. A carbon/Titanal blend (the CTi in the name) helps to dampen the ski further and contributes to the hard-charging feeling of the Maven. Notably and refreshingly, the Maven also uses the same construction as Atomic’s men’s/unisex Maverick lineup. The difference comes in in the underfoot widths offered and ski lengths available. 

On-Snow Performance

We tested the Maven 103 CTi in just about every condition you can imagine at Grand Targhee as well as a number of days at Mt. Bachelor in slush and on hardpack. The Maven 103 CTi is one of those skis that seems to offer a pleasant new surprise with its versatility on every run. When carving on hardpack and groomers, it holds an edge nicely at all speeds and made turns far larger than the 17m turn radius would suggest. When taken off-piste, the Maven is poppy and made turns quickly in tight terrain and bumps. Testers found the Maven 103 easy to ski and intuitive, yet able to handle just about anything they threw at it and not too soft for strong skiers. 

The shovel tip on the Maven does aid its performance in soft snow, off-piste, and notably, slush. However, while the rest of the ski remained stable, testers did find the tips to be quite chattery while carving on groomers and on hardpack.

The Maven 103 CTi would be an excellent choice for strong skiers looking for a one-ski resort quiver, just about anywhere in the West, and especially who want a ski that performs well in bumps. Its weight, waist width, and shape all make for a jill-of-all-trades ski that you can rely on no matter what the forecast calls for. 

Comparisons

While the Maven 103 CTi is categorized as a freeride ski, it didn’t feel quite as playful as something like a Bent Chetler, to pull from Atomic’s lineup, but then again it’s not built to be. The directionality of the ski makes it hard to compare to other freeride skis that would otherwise fall in a similar category, like the K2 Mindbender 110 W or Armada’s older ARW 106. Contrasted against another, more directional, women’s-specific freeride ski, the Blizzard Sheeva 9, the Maven was lighter and more approachable than the Sheeva, with only the tip chatter really counting against it in comparison.

What type of skier is the Atomic Maven 103 CTi Best For?

One tester did a pretty good job summing it up: “ex racers, patrollers, strong Mom skiers, someone who wants to ski bumps.” There’s no doubt the Maven demands a strong skier, but it’s lightweight nature and versatility would make it an excellent daily driver for a skier looking to cruise around a mountain like Targhee, Winter Park, Sunshine Village, or Crystal Mountain.

But in 2020, Dynastar partnered with freeride legend Richard Permin to create what is now referred to as the M-Free Series. It’s a ski lineup that infuses Dynastar’s old habit of building skis that like to go fast with some of Richard’s newschool flair. Now available in several waist width offerings, Dynastar’s M-Free lineup has been a darling of the big mountain freeride world since its inception. Here’s the lowdown on one of the most adaptable M-Free options, the 100.

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2027 Dynastar M-Free 100 Specs

• Size skied: 178cm, 185cm
• Lengths available: 162cm, 170cm, 178cm, 185cm, 192cm 
• Sidecut: 131mm – 101mm – 123mm (185cm)
• Radius: 18m (185cm)
• Profile: Sandwich full sidewall, progressive rocker
• Weight: 1900g (192cm)

Shape, Flex and Construction

The M-Free 100 features Dynastar’s “Hybrid Core 2.0,” a layup that can be found across other popular skis in their lineup. To me, core construction is a conversation that can quickly turn into marketing nonsense. But here’s the high level. This “Hybrid Core 2.0” is a hybrid polyurethane/poplar wood core. If you look closely, you’ll see the PU layer running along the sides of the ski underfoot. The poplar component of the core is a three-piece construction, with a solid poplar sheet stacked with two woven poplar sheets on top. What this results in is a ski that is quite a bit lighter than previous iterations, but ends up being stiffer underfoot. 

The ski features a longer section of sidewall extending to both the tip and tail, which I’d hedge was added to increase the ski’s overall durability and add some additional edge grip. For anyone looking to use this primarily as a beater park ski, that extra strength is a good thing. Shapewise, the M-Free 100 features ample camber and thoughtful rocker. What this ultimately results in is a ski that is relatively light and a bit damp underfoot, with solid durability.

On-Snow Performance

For a 100mm underfoot ski, the M-Free 100 surprised reviewers with its fun, surfy feel and easy-to-release tail in deep snow. With an 18-meter radius and sitting on the lighter side of skis in the category, it’s also no surprise that reviewers found this ski to be a blast in trees and in tighter terrain. 

Where things get interesting is that reviewers called out how impressed they were with the ski’s capability at speed. Typically, if a ski slarves in soft snow, is quick in tight terrain, and can be described as “fun” and “poppy”—it tends to lack performance on-piste and at speed. But not here—our testers felt the M-Free 100 offered a nice blend of playfulness and stability.

“It felt comfortable in almost every context. Laying down big, arcing turns, it was stable and had some pop/energy from turn-to-turn. Changing it up for quicker turns was easy, too. I imagine on a bump line or in tight trees I wouldn’t find it overbearing or too challenging. It likes to go fast, but at least at 178 cm, it didn’t need to go fast,” one tester said.

As a long-time fan of this ski, I’ve always found myself in amazement at the opposing terms I’ll use when describing the M-Free during the course of a day. On one lap, I’ll find myself appreciating its dampness, and on the next, loving its playful character and pop. Does that make sense? Maybe not. But not in a bad way. 

Comparisons 

As skis get better, it seems that the variance between skis gets tighter. Take a gander at the 100-or-so-width skis that appeared at Grand Targhee during our test, and that’ll be obvious. For example, the M-Free 100s were in good company with the Elan Ripstick 102 and the Salomon QST 100. All skis, in essence, aim to satisfy a wide variety of skiers and work in a wide variety of conditions. They’re also similar in that they’re somewhat strong, but not massively burly or designed to blow through firm snow at breakneck speeds.

They hit this Goldilocks zone through slightly different avenues, though. The Elan Ripstick 102 has distinct carving DNA absent in the QST and M-Free. Compared to those skis, they’re quite quick and bouncy, and cater more to skiers who don’t want to lose carving performance with their all-mountain planks. An ex-racer, for instance, may find themselves falling head over heels for the Ripstick.

The QST 100s, meanwhile, match closely with the Dynastar M-Free 100s. They’re both intuitive, agile, and easy to ski, but the M-Frees come equipped with a bit more crud-busting potential, perhaps making them a better fit for a skier who prefers a plusher ride. 

What Type of Skier Is the Dynastar M-Free 100 Best For? 

I hate to do this, but this ski is perfect for…me? Okay, hear me out. As a Colorado skier who spends most days on the snow-barren but steep and craggy slopes of Arapahoe Basin, I want a ski that’s stable at speed but not such a rocket ship that it’s hard to hang onto. I also want something playful with a slarvy tail—without sacrificing day-to-day performance. And really, that’s the M-Free 100.

I chase powder a couple of times a year to places like Jackson and Alta, and if I found myself clicked into the M-Free 100, I might be a bit undergunned in the morning, but I’d still be in for a hell of a day. And, once things get a little funky in the afternoon, the M-Free 100 will take far better care of me than whatever powder-specific tool I wish I’d grabbed for the morning.

At 6’2” and 190 pounds, I’d grab the 185 and mount it on the recommended line, swapping some playfulness for the extra speed I might find in the 192. Sure, saying this ski is “perfect for me” might seem like a cop-out, but I suspect many of you share these preferences. If you do, the M-Free 100 is definitely worth considering.

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2027 Elan Ripstick 94 W Black Specs

• Lengths available: 147cm, 154cm, 161cm, 168cm, 175cm
• Sidecut: 129mm-94mm-109mm
• Radius: 15.8m (168cm)
• Profile: Amphibio rocker profile
• Weight: 1500g (168cm)

Shape, Flex, and Construction

The Ripstick 94 W has a delightfully directional shape with the Ripstick’s signature wide shovel tip and a flat tail that allows you to really hook into a turn. The sidecut of the Ripstick 94 adjusts fairly significantly based on length, with the 168cm ski being the only one that actually comes in at 94mm underfoot, as the name denotes. However, with a width of “effectively” 94mm underfoot, the Ripstick 94 W is made to take you anywhere on the mountain, whether it be carving turns, skiing bumps, or taking the 129mm tip into a bit of fresh snow. The pronounced sidecut of the ski also gives it a fairly short turn radius, under 16m, save for the 175cm length ski, which has a 16.8m radius. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the shape of the Ripstick 94 W, (and the rest of the Ripstick lineup), is what the brand calls Amphibio Technology. In other words, the skis are asymmetrical and the inside edge of the ski’s contact point is closer to the front of the ski than on the outside edge, meaning there actually is a left and right ski. 

Elan uses what they call the Tubelite Woodcore for the Ripstick, which features a lightweight, laminate wood core with two carbon tubes inserted into it along the length of the ski. The tubes follow the shape of the side cut, which provides torsional stability along the ski’s edge, gives a snappy rebound when coming out of a turn, and reduces the need for more material in the core. Elan also uses a layer of flax fiber near the tip of the ski to cut down on chatter up front. Where the Black Edition of the Ripstick 94 W differs from the regular, and the rest of the Ripstick W collection, is in the additional layer of unidirectional carbon fiber placed along both ski edges. These carbon bands give even more edge grip, torsional stability, and help to dampen the ski. Like we mentioned earlier, this makes a lot of sense for a 94mm ski, given the extra carbon helps to beef it up and dampen things in variable conditions. They’re not much stiffer, just damper.

On-Snow Performance

Taking this thing out on snow is like stepping into a sleeper car. You know, the kind that looks innocuous from the outside, but really packs a punch once you step on the accelerator. At first, they might seem unimpressive, but point them down the hill and you’ll quickly unlock their high-speed groomer potential. It’s extremely fun to get these up to speed and carve medium-long and really smooth turns. For a ski with no metal, these sure feel really damp.

The best word to describe how these feel on snow (much like the rest of the Ripstick line) is “zippy.” They want to accelerate in and out of turns and really reward energetic skiing with tons of rebound and pop. Edge grip is remarkable for a ski this light (hello, carbon!), meaning they feel locked in on firm snow.

Turns out the Amphibio tech works really well. Ever lock into a carve and feel like the wide tips of your skis aren’t tracking properly and just want to cross? That’s exactly the problem this unique shape fixes. By moving the inside and outside contact points of your ski to different points on the sidecut, your uphill and downhill skis will engage into a turn differently—specifically, your downhill ski will track a slightly longer turn and enter a carve just a hair late, preventing it from hooking up and contacting your uphill ski. It feels incredibly natural on snow, you won’t have to adjust your ski style at all.

At 94mm underfoot, these are the second-narrowest ski we tested this year, and certainly skew heavily toward to groomer/piste side of things. Off-piste, there’s not really enough ski there to stay on top of deep snow, but the clever rocker profile does allow the tips to plane much more than expected. We wouldn’t recommend these as a pow-day ski, or really as much of an off-piste adventure ski, but they’re really fun and nimble in chalky bumps.

Comparisons

On paper, the Ripstick 94W Black shares more attributes with a lightweight backcountry touring ski than anything else, with a low weight, short turn radius, and lots of carbon inside. Perhaps the best comparison would be to two other narrow skis we tested this year, the Stöckli Nela 93 and the Salomon QST 94.

Compared to the Stöckli, the Ripstick is far more approachable. The lighter weight, softer flex, and unique shape make it much easier to engage into a carve with. The Stöckli is the kind of ski that rewards aggressive skiing (it’s from a race brand, after all), and won’t be quite as fun for intermediate skiers.

The Salomon QST 94 (and Salomon QST 100, for that matter) are very similar. Softer flex, a shape that eases you into a carve, and plenty of low-rise rocker in the tip and tail make these feel nearly identical. The QST and its uber-damp construction takes the win when the snow gets a little chunky and uneven, but the Ripstick 94W feels more agile and poppy.

What type of skier is the Elan Ripstick 94 W Black best for?

If you’re looking for a new ski to add the quiver for firm mornings days after a storm, or are perhaps a mom that wants a ski to cruise around with the kids that can also lay down some high-speed carves on your own time, then don’t skip the Elan Ripstick 94 W Black. It’s a reliable, fun, and super-energetic hard snow ski that makes those hero groomer days feel even more awesome.

It’s certainly light enough to serve as a backcountry touring ski, though the narrow waist and twin-rocker shape limits its realistic use case. Instead, these are an awesome choice for intermediate to expert skiers looking for a do-it-all twin tip ski to cruise around the resort with.

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2027 Blizzard Canvas 100 Specs

• Lengths Skied: 168cm, 180cm
• Lengths Available: 162cm, 168cm, 174cm, 180cm, 186cm
• Stated Dimensions: 132mm-100mm-120mm
• Stated Sidecut: 17.5m (180cm)
• Stated Weight: 1800g (180cm)

Shape, Flex, Construction

When designing the new Canvas line, Blizzard went back to the drawing board and completely rethought how they design skis. In the past, the brand’s products were known to be burly, stiff, and heavy skis aimed at mimicking the performance of a race ski in non-race settings. The Canvas 100 is the smallest member of the line and feels much more like a park ski than anything Blizzard has ever made. 

The twin-tip shape points directly at the ski’s freestyle intentions—Blizzard even markets these as skis to “express yourself” with. These have the most camber out of the three skis in the line, but still feature a bit of tip and tail rocker. Like the rest of the canvas line, there is no damping metal on the inside. The wood core is built from a Poplar/Paulownia mix, and the overall construction is aimed at staying light.

Flex-wise, these are quite soft for what you would expect from Blizzard, but are nowhere near as soft as a buttery park stick from say, Line or ON3P. Underfoot, there’s still plenty of stiffness to keep you locked into turns.

On-Snow Performance

Blizzard makes plenty of skis that are under 100mm underfoot, but those are all meant for high speed antics on groomers and race courses. The Canvas 100 stands out against the grain with a very playful nature. Sure, it can hold an edge on firm snow, but that’s not really the point. Instead, these want to be buttered around, hit rails and park features and find transitions all over the mountain. You know, all the things Blizzard skis typically weren’t good at in the past.

The 100mm waist width and softer, but energetic  flex is a dream on groomers. There’s a ton of energy inside of these, very easily on tap. I know the East Coast ski racers will scream blasphemy, but at places like Grand Targhee, or most mountains in the West, the lack of truly firm snow means a 100mm waist width is far more usable as an everyday ski than anything narrower. The rocker/taper combo in the tip makes turn initiation really intuitive on these—lean them over, and they’ll smoothly hook into a turn without tossing you in the backseat. Push into the ski during the turn, and they’ll pop you into the next turn happily. Unlike a lot of other freestyle-oriented twin-tips, these don’t require as much of a centered, upright ski stance. Instead, if you’re used to driving skis through the front of your boot, these will respond as expected.

In bumps and tight terrain like steeper trees, the shorter turn radius and light weight lend a very nimble feel to slither through where you want to go. The tail releases easily to dump speed or quickly change direction, and the bouncy, energetic flex encourages just skipping over undulations in the snow.

Tester Ian Greenwood says, “There are plenty of use cases for these: a park ski for a freeride guy or gal, a screwing-around spring ski, or anyone looking for a really zippy ski that’s super flexy and easy to butter. I also think it would be great for the crowd of dads and moms (or anyone really) who love energetic turns. At 180cm, I almost felt like I was on a slalom ski. They are far from a quiver killer, though, and I’d prefer the Canvas 108 for that.”

Where the Canvas 100 does fall short, however, is when the snow gets deep and cut up in the hours after a storm. There’s simply not enough mass in the ski to really punch through crud, nor enough waist width to stay on top of it. 

Comparisons 

The Dynastar M-Free 100 and the Rossignol Sender Free 100 both share a very similar footprint to the Canvas 100, though both feel much stiffer and more aggressive than the Blizzard. Where the Canvas 100 excels at more relaxed skiing and jibbing around the mountain, both the M-Free 100 and Sender Free 100 offer better high-speed and choppy snow ride quality, and consequently cater to more aggressive skiers.

However, perhaps the most similar ski out there right now is the Atomic Bent 100. Like the Canvas, the Bent 100 is a skinnier, all-mountain version of a line of already lightweight freestyle powder skis. Comparatively, the Bent 100 is even lighter, and comes off as a bit softer. The Canvas offers a bit of a smoother ride, whereas the Bent 100 offers more spring and pop as a park ski.

What type of skier is the Blizzard Canvas 100 Best For?

As a 100mm waisted twin-tip, the Blizzard Canvas 100 will make a wide variety of skiers happy. It’s super approachable, making it a great choice for intermediate skiers looking for a daily-driver all-mountain ski—but an energetic personality will satisfy expert skiers looking for a jibby, playful all-mountain freestyle ski. If you typically ski a resort with mellower terrain, lots of groomers with side hits and you’re not frequently skiing deep snow, the Canvas is an excellent choice.

“Wastin’ away in Margaritaville, searchin’ for my lost shaker of salt…” Salt wasn’t what I was after, but I was hoping that Mother Nature had metaphorically dumped a whole load of salt (snow) on High Sierra Snowcat & Yurt, and I intended to find it, sans floral shirt and a straw hat.

U.S. Route 395 is the most beautiful scenic highway in the country, and it would take more than a few margaritas to convince me otherwise. As I entered the highway after descending the Kingsbury Grade, a familiar sensation of excitement, anxiousness, and ultimately, stoke washed over me.

Driving south, the desert floor of Gardnerville turned to the familiar alpine lakes and towering peaks of the eastern Sierra. Entranced by the morning alpenglow, I nearly missed my turn-off on a random side road near Virginia Lakes.

But thanks to Siri’s obnoxious voice, I veered off the road and parked near a few pickup trucks, a couple of snowcats, and a few snowmobiles. I was in the right place, I reckoned, and texted High Sierra Snowcat & Yurt’s Drew Layman that I had arrived at the pickup spot.

Excited about the fresh snow on the ground and the deep, winter chill that had seemingly escaped California for most of the season, I got out of my car and started booting up. My nose hairs froze, always an omen for a good day ahead, in my experience.

Layman texted me just as I was double-checking my beacon and avy gear: “Hey, we’re running a bit late with some sunrise shots, sorry!” The text was accompanied by a video of two skiers summiting a brilliant pink peak with a purple sunrise in the background, and snow, lots of snow on the ground. I texted back, “No worries, man, enjoy!”

About 30 minutes later, I heard the roar of a snowmobile getting closer. As it came down the snow-covered fire road, the man driving it, who eventually introduced himself as Layman, waved and yelled, “Matt? What’s up, man? Hop on, I’ll take you up to the yurts for some breakfast.”

Yurt Life To Cat Skiing Glory

Layman opened the door to one of High Sierra Snowcat’s yurts. The smell of freshly-cooked bacon and eggs, plus eight smiling faces, greeted me with the warmest welcome. “This is Matt from POWDER,” Layman told the guests who had spent the night before in the adjoining yurt. “Make some space, he looks like he needs some bacon.”

Need some bacon, I did, but a thought started nagging my easily-distracted brain as I shook hands and got to know everybody—can somebody figure out how to bottle up the smell of breakfast being cooked in a yurt on a frigid winter morning? I’ll pay good money for it, if so.

We wrapped up breakfast, somewhat hastily due to the “f-ing fantastic” snow that had fallen the night before, and made our way to the snowcat parked outside. I had been cat-skiing before and was expecting to alternate laps with another group, a common practice at most operations, but Layman informed me that our small group of eight or so would be it. I smiled.

We packed into the back of the cat and started our journey into High Sierra Snowcat’s tenure. Layman pointed out different lines, but mentioned that we were going a bit deeper for the “good stuff.”

Somewhere between 12 and 18 inches of snow had fallen the night before, and in classic Sierra fashion, the storm blew everything around. Some spots were barren, others powder-laden, and thankfully, Layman and his crew of guides knew exactly where to go.

I had barely skied powder up to that point in the season (and barely skied any after). The nerves started to get to me. Would it be heavy? How deep would it be? Do I even remember how to ski powder?! I’d better remember how to ski powder, Layman just told everybody I work for freakin’ POWDER Magazine…

The first turn washed everything away. Just as the cloud of white smoke started billowing over my knees and into my chest, an uncontrollable “YEEEEEW!” came screaming out of my mouth. Left turn, right turn, left turn, right… the snow was perfect, and I had another 1,000 vertical feet in front of me. I turned up the speed and felt my anxieties dissipate with each weightless, perfectly dry, fluffy powder turn.

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I was barely keeping the happy tears from rolling under my goggles as I joined the group at the bottom of the run. I looked at their faces, all newly-made friends within the past hour, and smiled back. We dapped, hugged, high-fived, and laughed. 

This is why I ski, I reminded myself.

Cat Skiing Is Better Than Heli Skiing

Everybody talks about heli skiing, and yes, it’s undeniably impressive that the magic flying contraptions can whisk skiers to the highest and deepest peaks in a matter of minutes, but I’ve long said that cat skiing is better, and my day with High Sierra Snowcat furthered that belief.

I’m scared of helicopters and, you know, the fact that they hover thousands of feet above the ground, but do you know what isn’t scary? A snowcat, filled with 8-10 happy skiers, music playing on a Bluetooth speaker, and a cooler stocked with beers, snacks, and tasty beverages.

We kept skiing better snow and better lines with each passing lap at High Sierra Snowcat, but I found that the time between laps, especially piled into the back of a stinky snowcat cabin oozing with stoke, was what fueled my excitement for the next lap.

The conversation flowed freely, not a single skier had their phone out, and everybody was engaged, captured by this brilliant moment we were sharing together. 

Then, just as the conversation would start to die down, or attention began to waver, Layman or one of the other guides would holler, “Okay, we’re at the top! Everybody out of the cat. Time for another lap!” Rinse, ski powder, laugh with new friends, smile, repeat.

My frozen nose hairs were right. It was a good day, maybe even the best day of the season.

Related: How Good Was Ski Portillo, Chile This Year? I Traveled 6,000 Miles To Find Out

Then, I texted one of my family members, who has a reputation for preparedness, to see if they had any ideas beyond the obvious. “Life insurance and a Bible,” they shot back, reminding me that alongside their planning streak, they will, in almost any context, mine for a wisecrack. I tried to keep up, wondering whether you were supposed to eat the life insurance or the Bible.

The idea struck me after California recently announced a preemptive state of emergency in response to the supercharged El Niño. I’m not a fan of alarmism, and I don’t expect a 200-foot-tall tsunami to wash away the city where I live. But after combing through what El Niño might mean for California this year—more rain, floods—I figured it couldn’t hurt to think ahead. The Big One’s coming, too, after all.

That’s one side of my relationship with the climate. It involves awe and worry, and it boils down to a few questions. Do I need to do anything to stay safe? More importantly, are we, as a state, country, and world, doing enough to mitigate the potential impacts? How bad could it get, really?

I’m also a skier, though. In years past, El Niño and its sibling, La Niña, have felt, to me, far less tense, with exciting pre-season forecasts and hopeful debates about where and when the most snow would arrive. 

Largely ignorant of how the cycle could influence weather outside the mountains, I hoovered up winter outlooks. These were transmissions from the future that carried stoke or despair, but the despair wasn’t real despair. Either way, I was still going skiing. Like fall ski movies, the Farmers’ Almanac, and buying gear I didn’t need, the El Niño-Southern Oscillation was as joyous as it was jargon-laden. Puzzling it out was my astrology. 

The thing is, it now feels increasingly difficult to keep those two identities—powder freak and concerned onlooker—separate because the messy real world and the place we flee to keep smashing together. This winter, I’m not only hoping the Sierra gets slammed with snow. I’m also concerned about flooding. 

El Niño is just one instance of that duality. As the world warms, the past year delivered warning after warning that skiing isn’t a hermetically sealed winter wonderland. Not that it wasn’t obvious already.

A meager snowpack out West torpedoed powder dreams and cut into ski resorts’ bottom lines. Around a month ago, St. Mary’s Glacier, the iconic perennial snowfield outside Denver, disappeared for the first time in at least a century. Wildfires burned a record number of acres in Oregon, and the state’s iconic summer ski haunt, Timberline Lodge, only made it until July. 

The 2025-26 ski season was an outlier and the resort industry, with its fleets of snow guns and burgeoning snow storage techniques, is tough. Still, researchers recently found that human-caused climate change made the West’s severe snow drought four times more likely. Adrienne Marshall, the lead author, noted in a release that the event offered a “tangible example” of what the future would look like if emissions keep rising, with the encouraging caveat that these outcomes are not inevitable. “Lower emissions would reduce the risk,” she said.

And there’s the rub, basically. The last beer I drank on Friday did not start lecturing me about melting icebergs after a few sips. Nor did my Xbox, an evening walk, or the kickball league I joined, which I appreciated—the news cycle has me covered, please and thank you. But the weather hasn’t been so compliant over the last 12 months. If your favorite spot was in one of the states that got blanked last winter, it was almost impossible not to wonder where the hell all the dirt came from. Mountain escapism is now tied to one of the reasons we might choose escapism in the first place. Doesn’t that defeat the point? 

Maybe not. Even with its curative powers, skiing was never so one-dimensional. Venturing into the mountains often means bumping into sensations beyond bliss. Still, we choose to go and, in some cases, seek out what challenges us and forces us into the moment. Atop a chute, I’ve felt anxiety, dread, and, after tumbling head over heels, red-hot embarrassment. Other times, I’ve found a deep sense of accomplishment when I did what I thought I couldn’t, facing a drop or zipping through a couloir. These excursions happened during my leisure time, but required direct contact with reality.

There are other things to absorb out there, of course, and not all of them involve scaring your pants off. I mean the tactile, arresting sensation of dipping into a simple carve, and feeling the grip, the bounce, and the inertia that sweeps from toe to head; the buddy who emerges from the lodge bathroom and provides the most awful and hilarious description of what they encountered there; the wind rustling through pine needles, carrying alpine smells and now-thawing memories. 

That’s what separates skiing from so many other ways to unwind. It encourages being present with friends, taking on spooky lines and sitting with difficult emotions, and, yes, noticing the environment around us, even when it’s ugly.

I don’t, then, only see the connection between the mountains I love and a warming atmosphere as a sick, cosmic prank.

Skiing can and should be a salve when it needs to be. But in a time when it’s easier than ever to slip into apathy—to doom scroll until every crisis loses meaning—skiing offers another gift that, depending on the season, doesn’t always look like one. It simply asks that we keep paying attention.

Related: Review: 2027 Stöckli Nela 93 Skis

While ski season, for many of us, is still more than a month away, Western Canada’s ski areas are prepping for the winter to come. And depending on how cooperative the weather proves to be, some may open sooner than you’d think. The regular frontrunners are situated around Banff, Alberta. They include Lake Louise, Sunshine Village, and Mt. Norquay.

This is a list of tentative opening dates for the region’s major resorts. It’s not exhaustive and doesn’t include some smaller mountains. Where opening dates weren’t published on an official channel, we used TBA, or to be announced. As always, remember that these dates are tentative—they may come earlier or later than planned, depending on the resort. The list may change in the coming weeks. 

Otherwise, think snow. 

Western Canada 2026 Ski Resort Opening Dates

• Lake Louise, Alberta: November 6
• Sunshine Village, Alberta: November 6
• Mt. Norquay, Alberta: November 7
• Marmot Basin, Alberta: November 13
• Whistler Blackcomb, British Columbia: November 20
• Sun Peaks, British Columbia: November 21
• Big White, British Columbia: November 26
• SilverStar, British Columbia: November 27
• Castle Mountain, Alberta: December 4
• Panorama, British Columbia: December 4
• Whitewater, British Columbia: December 4
• Revelstoke, British Columbia: December 5
• Fernie, British Columbia: December 5
• Mt. Seymour, British Columbia: December 11
• Mount Washington, British Columbia: December 11
• Red Mountain, British Columbia: December 12
• Grouse Mountain, British Columbia: TBA
• Cypress Mountain, British Columbia: TBA
• Kicking Horse, British Columbia: TBA
• Nakiska Ski Area, Alberta: TBA
• Kimberley, British Columbia: TBA
• Apex Mountain Resort, British Columbia: TBA
• Baldy Mountain Resort, British Columbia: TBA

Related: Shaun White’s Snow League Reveals Stacked Ski Roster for Season Two

In addition, the project will include the construction of a new ground-floor toilet block, improved heated access steps to snow, another cafe outlet, and more storage space for staff and guests.

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Overall, the project seeks to improve space and functionality at the base area. Mt. Hutt Ski Area manager, James McKenzie, told snowsbest.com that the new space will make a real difference as the mountain has gotten busier over time. It also gives them the opportunity to introduce a new food and beverage outlet.

“We’re also creating a foundation that will allow us to continue to grow sustainably in line with future demand,” said McKenzie.

The project is slated to cost $12 million and should be completed ahead of the 2027 winter season.

In recent years, the ski area has also made investments in snowmaking and new lifts to lengthen and improve its winter season. Mt. Hutt also hopes to be carbon neutral by 2030 with initiatives to reduce carbon emissions, utilize renewable energy, and engage in environmental restoration projects across the mountain. The ski area has already reduced emissions by more than 50% and aims to continue reducing them by 5% each year.

Mt. Hutt is still open for the 2026 winter season until October 12, 2026.

Related: Valle Nevado Extends Season To Latest Closing Date Ever

For those curious to explore their own version of ‘Unwellness,’ Mammut is opening these experiences to the public. From October 18-23, participants can join Mammut, Zalando, Bergfuchs, and Bächli Bergsport to spend the night on an underground portaledge in Verzasca Dam in Ticino, Switzerland. Training with the equipment, safety techniques, and procedures will be provided in the days leading up to a night on the wall.

Mammut is also developing Unwellness experiences in Norway and France that emphasize growth, adaptation, and learning. More information on The Unwellness Retreat us available at Mammut.

Related: Shaun White’s Snow League Reveals Stacked Ski Roster for Season Two

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2027 Atomic Maverick 105 CTi Specs

• Size skied: 185cm
• Lengths available: 170cm, 178cm, 185cm, 191cm
• Sidecut: 134.5mm – 104.5mm – 123.5mm
• Radius: 19m (185cm)
• Profile: twin rocker
• Weight: 2050g (185cm)

Shape, Flex, and Construction

The Maverick 105 CTi makes use of Atomic’s HRZN 3D tech which, in other words, means the funky spoon-shaped tips you’ve probably seen on other models from the brand. The design quirk is meant to improve float in deep snow, but these aren’t total powder noodles. The Maverick’s cores are built with carbon and titanal—an aluminum alloy that beefs up skis—so these’ll have your back to a degree in less pleasant snow. The skis shape and recommended mount point is fairly traditional (read: pretty far back), and most of our testers found that they enjoyed the ski mounted slightly further ahead of the recommended mark—it gave the ski a more balanced and playful feel.

On-Snow Performance

Versatility is a hard thing to come by in skis, but the Maverick 105 CTi consistently impressed us with its balance of light weight and performance in soft and variable snow. It’s good on-piste, but really comes alive when you duck off-piste into the more interesting areas of the resort. The ski tracks very precisely and rewards energetic skiing, giving you plenty to push into when navigating bumps, tight trees, steep chutes, or just ripping groomers back to the lift. While it was surprisingly light and nimble, it still skied admirably in three-dimensional snow, particularly the softer leftovers you might find days after a storm. In fresh powder it belies its waist width, floating well thanks to the big shovels.

The lightweight feeling of the Maverick 105 CTi is a bit of a compromise when it comes to all-out stability at high speeds when the going gets really firm, though.

“In cut up s— snow, they definitely got pingy and bounced around,” said one tester. “At the same time, on a smooth groomer, I felt comfortable pushing the pace more and getting them on edge.”

More weight would likely improve that hard snow performance, but likely at the cost of diminishing the ski’s standout agility. On the flipside—compared to heavier, damper skis—we found the Maverick 105 CTi to be easier and less tiring to ski and maneuver in tight spots, much like its big brother, the 115. 

Comparisons

The mid-fat category brims with options, and for good reason: these are the skis for realists—skiers who know that as appealing as a gargantuan pair of powder planks might be, they’ll spend much of their life in the garage, gathering dust. 

At our test, the Salomon QST 106 also hit the all-rounder, do-it-all mark. Much like the Maverick 105 CTi, they’re easy to pick up and get along with, but they sacrifice some of the Maverick’s energy for stability. The Maverick’s a bit lighter and more energetic than the QST. 

Compared to those options in the middle of the road market, Dynastar M-Free 108 takes the beefiness up another notch, catering towards skiers who really like to go fast without worrying about their skis folding up. 

All are good fun, and cater to variations on a theme: dropping out of the ski buying rat race to settle on one, dependable pair of planks.

What Type of Skier Is the Atomic Maverick 105 CTi Best For? 

Overall, for a smaller skier or someone who doesn’t need the ski equivalent of a two-by-four, the Mavericks make for an entertaining, approachable, and lively ride that has some heft but prizes maneuverability over balls-to-the-walls dampening. If you don’t mind quicker, active skiing—as opposed to picking a direction and letting the ski do all the work—you’ll probably get along with these bad boys.

“Here’s my dream day with these: Lapping a nice, open bowl after a big storm. Making big turns but in gullies and where applicable, throwing slashes and bringing the turn shape a little tighter,” another tester said. “Generally, if the snow is skewing softer, I’d be happy on them.”

At their weight, the Mavericks could also make for a solid in-bounds/out-of-bounds ski. Throw some crossover bindings on them and you’ll have more fun on the way down than your buddies riding featherweight touring skis.

Built with input from freeskiing legend Glen Plake, the Ripstick series has been a part of Slovenian brand Elan’s lineup for the better part of a decade now, but it’s quietly flown under the radar for many skiers. That’s a bit of a bummer, because these are quite possibly some of the most approachable and fun directional all-mountain skis I’ve ever been on.

Elan’s Ripstick 102 is an absolute sleeper agent in the crowded all-mountain category, impressively blending attributes of hard-snow specific skis and off-piste chargers, all in a shockingly low weight. The fairly traditional-looking shape harbors some subtle design features (the skis are asymmetrically rockered, more on that below), and while it’s marketed as a resort ski, it can easily do double duty in the backcountry thanks to its weight, versatile shape, and flat tail with skin clip cutouts.

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2027 Elan Ripstick 102 Specs

• Size skied: 168cm, 182cm
• Lengths available: 161cm, 168cm, 175cm, 182cm, 189cm
• Sidecut: 138mm – 102mm – 118mm (182cm)
• Radius: 18.8m (182cm)
• Profile: Amphibio Rocker
• Weight: 1720g (182cm)

Shape, Flex and Construction

On the surface, Elan’s Ripstick 102 looks like your run-of-the-mill directional all-mountain ski. Call it a dad ski if you will. Dig a little deeper, however, and the shape hides some really cool and unique design features. The squared-off tips pair an extended taper with long and low rocker lines in the front half of the ski that, upon closer inspection, reveal themselves to be asymmetric. Huh, you might ask? Elan builds in their “Amphibio Technology,” which brings the inside edge contact point a little closer to the front of the ski than the outside to improve edge grip and prevent your skis from crossing. Yes, that means that there are left- and right-specific skis, and no, you won’t die if you switch them. 

The ski tails are mostly flat, with a slight upturn and taper points very close to the end of the ski. 

Diving into the flex, the Ripstick 102 falls on the softer end of the spectrum, but thanks to carbon rods built into the core, the ski feels incredibly energetic, with a snappy rebound and really impressive amounts of pop. That means it won’t plow as well as a heavier ski with loads of metal, but will allow you to ski much more actively.

Inside, Elan really leans into using creative materials, with Flax fibers near the tip to prevent vibration, as well as carbon rods and unidirectional carbon bands in the core to fine-tune torsional stability and keep the weight down.

On-Snow Performance

Let’s put it this way: When it comes to creating a fun and versatile all-mountain ski, Elan absolutely understood the assignment with the Ripstick 102. While the ski isn’t really a looker—well, that depends on your taste—the performance of the ski speaks for itself. This one really outpaces its competitors when it comes to both ripping groomers and cruising through soft chop, windbuff, and other off-piste conditions you might find at most resorts. 

The first word I’d use to describe the ski is “responsive,” followed by “forgiving.” Interestingly, I’ve found that these two attributes don’t typically go together in a ski, but somehow, it works on the Ripstick. The Ripstick 102 feels impressively nimble, with edge grip akin to a much heavier and stiffer ski. Generally, skis this light and soft won’t grip firm snow as well at high speeds, but I found the Ripstick to not just provide a true “on-rails” feeling on firm groomers, but also feature the responsiveness of an expensive sports car or a skinny carving ski. 

“I tested this ski on pretty firm re-frozen groomers in flat light. I loved that I could ski hard and trust it. All the runs felt the same. It was like Groundhog Day at Targhee,” one tester said.

Take it off piste, however, and the vibe changes dramatically. Gone is that more serious “on-rails” feeling, replaced by a loose, pivot-y and slashy feeling that still holds up at speed. 

“I found that the Ripstick had this ‘goofy’ or ‘silly’ energy to it that I really liked,” another tester said. “It encourages you to mix up your turn shapes, make hop turns, and throw slashes wherever you see fit.”

What about that asymmetric Amphibio Technology? It’s not just mumbo-jumbo. The left and right skis feature different rocker profiles for the inside and outside edges of each, making each ski track slightly differently when on edge. That lets you drive the downhill ski and have your inside ski just follow along. On snow, that allows the skis to make really predictable and powerful turns without feeling hooky or weird, especially in variable snow.

Comparisons

Mid-100-waisted freeride skis are a dime a dozen these days, so there’s plenty to draw a comparison to with the Elan Ripstick 102. We’ll stick with two skis you’ll probably recognize: the Salomon QST 100 and the Dynastar M-Free 100.

Compared to the Salomon QST 100, we’re dealing with a REALLY similar vibe here. Both are incredibly easy to ski on hardpack and in variable snow, making them excellent choices for a variety of ability levels, from intermediate skiers looking to cruise around the mountain to expert skiers looking for a fun and versatile everyday ski. Where does Elan win? Off-piste, particularly in deeper snow.

Looking at the Dynastar M-Free 100, these skis share similar shapes and intentions, but the Dynastar feels much more “serious.” The Elan is a bit lighter, softer flexing, and fun at slow speed, whereas the M-Free 100 better caters to more aggressive skiers.

To note, Elan’s Ripstick 102 is also available in a stiffer and slightly heavier Black Edition (essentially a Glen Plake pro-model ski) that adds some additional carbon into the construction to beef up the ski. 

What Type of Skier Is the Elan Ripstick 102 Best For? 

Invite a bunch of millennial and zillenial skiers to a gear test, and odds are good they’ll lust over the brands with a bit more “freeskiing” cache. We came of age during the apex of noodle-y and rockered fat skis, after all, so our tastes were cemented young. Elan, on the other hand, has that less exciting “dad ski” energy.

You know what, though? The Ripstick 102s were a hit. They’re buttoned up but also plenty lively, satisfying our testers who tended to prefer jibbier skis. Their great-for-their-width groomer performance is good enough that they could even be considered a gateway drug: once you try the Ripsticks, you might find yourself lusting after some even narrower carvers. 

That’s all to say that plenty of skiers would get along with the Ripstick 102s, from carving curious former freeriders to, yes, dads who prefer that their all-mountains can also rail a turn on-piste. 

It’s not a freestyle ski by any means, but it’s extremely poppy and energetic while offering a very forgiving ride off-piste, excelling in windbuff, dust-on-crust, and otherwise questionable conditions.

Looking for a reliable ski to rip Mammoth windbuff, steep north-facing Grand Targhee chalk, or cruise around the Colorado high country days after a storm? This one fits the bill.