The 2019 Big Mountain Field

The most remarkable thing about the 2019 Big Mountain field is that there’s little that’s new to remark upon. By our count there are but 3 new models in a field of 17, only one of which earned a Recommended medallion. And even the Recommended newbie isn’t all that...

Power Picks: All-Condition Chargers

Over the last several seasons, the brawniest skis in the Women’s All-Mountain West genre have been mellowing out. Gone are the models that simply replicate a carving construction in a fatter profile; today’s WAMW models are unequivocally off-piste appliances. The ones...

Finesse Favorites: Kicking Back

The original idea behind making a ski as fat as 110mm underfoot wasn’t to open previously unskiable terrain to world-class athletes, but to allow those without such skills to be able to navigate less forbidding pitches when the snow is knee deep. Our Finesse Favorites...

Power Picks: Killing It

The defining difference between our Power Picks and Finesse Favorites can be summed up succinctly: how fast are you willing to go before you steer out of the fall line? If you tend to ride the brakes and the gas at the same time, you’ve overshot your category: you...

2019 Women’s Big Mountain

The women’s Big Mountain genre has bedeviled us since we began covering these super-fat models as a separate category six seasons ago. Part of the problem is that skis this wide require some semblance of new snow to be given a fair evaluation, limiting their appeal as...

The 2019 Women’s Big Mountain Field

The women’s Big Mountain field is inextricably entwined with its unisex cousins, as this infinitesimal slice of the market doesn’t consume enough units to merit women-specific spin-offs. Fortunately for all concerned, men’s Big Mountain skis have already been put on a...