Women’s Frontside Skis
Only a few years ago, the women’s Frontside genre looked something like the men’s. Now about all the two different collections have in common is a multiplicity of price points that cover the needs of entry-level skiers and those stepping up to something a bit better. Where the two categories diverge is the high end of the market, where the men ride metal-laden carvers with thick plates, integrated bindings and deeply scalloped sidecuts. Today a woman’s Frontside ski is likely to have a design originally intended for off-trail conditions, with no plate and no system binding. A woman looking for a genuine carving ski will find them tucked away in the Women’s Technical category, arguably the most invisible genre on the American market.
The epicenter of the women’s market has shifted to the All-Mountain East category, with its promise of all-terrain versatility. The women’s Frontside genre has become the home of the step-up ski, a model that will help you improve so you can finally make the move to off-trail skiing. It’s presumed that the already accomplished woman will gravitate to something wider or else use a unisex ski if she really wants a high-performance carver.
The 2025 Women’s Frontside Skis Field
On the men’s side of the gender divide, the Frontside category is a nearly homogenous field of powerful carving machines. About the only characteristics of the Women’s Frontside field that unite them are they all have waists widths between 75mm and 84mm, and many are part of a larger family of package skis (with a binding) that cover every price point from the basement to the penthouse.
There are two notable new additions to the 2025 Women’s Frontside field, one a classic carver, the other derived from an off-trail template. The carver comes from Fischer, where The Curv GT 80 takes the spot of the RC One 82 GT, our top Power Pick last season. It was nudged off the top of the podium by the new Black Pearl 84, a sublime blend of Power and Finesse properties.
Power Picks: Carving Queens
Our Power Picks represent the cream of the carving crop, the vestiges of the shaped ski era when dual-track, high-edge-angle carving was all the rage. As I have observed in this space before, the very best women’s carving skis don’t qualify for the Frontside genre; their pinched midsections peg them as Technical skis whose specialized constructions are geared for the truly talented. Our Frontside Power Picks are a notch lower in horsepower; their softer flexes and slightly wider chassis don’t require elite skills to be managed.
One measure of how much the women’s carving contingent has evolved over the years is the change at the top of this sub-genre. Last year’s best women’s carver was actually a unisex model, the RC One GT 82 from Fischer. Like the carvers of yore, it was loaded with Titanal that tore through groomers like they were made of rice paper. The leader of the Power Picks pack this year is the women-specific Blizzard Black Pearl 84, which still has a healthy dose of metal in its guts, but is in fact the narrowest member of an off-trail-oriented clan.
Finesse Favorites: Strolling Down Easy Street
If you’re a first-time ski buyer, this is where to do your shopping. Any of these models will make the skier of modest skills feel like the heroine in her own movie. They are simplicity itself to steer, gently encouraging skills development by responding to low-edge-angle engagement.
The Frontside category is the only genre that runs from the penthouse to the servants’ entrance. As soon as one steps off the top rung of the price/performance meritocracy, product quality gets sketchy, so be cautious when shopping for perceived bargains. Our Finesse Favorites build confidence among intermediate skiers that will enable them to cruise the groom in comfort and control.