How can a ski as narrow-waisted as the Kore 87 come across as the most versatile ski in its wide-body family? After all, the Kore collection is 100% an off-trail creation; its avatar should be the Kore 111, not this string bean.
The improbable polyvalence of the Kore 87 is partly explained by a sleight of hand Head pulled off in the make-up of the narrowest Kore models just three years ago. Taking advantage of Graphene’s ability to affect flex without a commensurate effect on mass, Head beefed up the Kore 87 to account for the certainty that it will spend much of its life on groomers. Its power quotient might have gone up another tick in 2022 with the substitution of poplar and Karuba for Koroyd, which subtly enhanced its feedback on hard snow.
Two years ago, Head coated all the Kores with a sheath of urethane, mostly to protect the top and sides from minor nicks and scratches, with the added benefit of further smoothing out the ride. Renowned bootfitter Jim Schaffner dubbed the 2023 version of the Kore 87, “Fun, easy skiing, yet enough high performance to hold well on harder snow. This is a very good execution of a one-ski quiver ski for the aging crowd!”
The recent improvements made to the Kore’s capacities on brittle hardpack don’t seem to have diminished its inherent talent for off-trail travel. You use your feet a lot off-trail as you pick a path through trees, moguls and other skiers’ tracks. This often entails picking up your feet, sometimes suddenly and violently. This is when the Kore 87 shines, for it can be moved around on a whim, seemingly without any effort at all. An energy reserve that would otherwise sputter out before noon can last until tea time.
The Salomon QST 92 has risen from humble origins to its new position among the elite of the genre. Originally conceived to meet a lower price point ($500) and therefore underserved in the technology department, Salomon has been steadily enhancing its construction to match the latest innovations already added to pricier models, like the flagship QST 106. Just two years ago, the QST 92 adopted two features introduced the prior year in the QST 98, Double Sidewalls and full-length C/FX, Salomon’s signature carbon/flax combo.
While the latest improvements no doubt contributed to the QST 92’s stellar performance, the bones they’re built on were pretty stout to begin with: an all-wood (poplar) core, full sidewalls (i.e., no cap), cork inserts to muffle shocks and a central Titanal plate that makes the entire ski feel more substantial. Beginning in 2023, the QST 92 has also mimicked the slightly lower rocker profile launched two years ago in the QST Blank and QST 98, so it feels more connected on all snow surfaces.
Once you put it all in motion, you wouldn’t guess you’re piloting a price-point ski intended to retail at $600. The security on edge is fantastic on anything softer than boilerplate, it feels energetic crossing the fall line and it can switch between a carve and a drift on command. A lower-skill skier can’t find a more tolerant ski with such a high-performance ceiling. For a ski whose DNA is all about off-trail conditions, the QST 92 feels right at home on groomers. It feels light and quick off the edge in bumps and placid as a glacier in long, spooling GS turns.
Lest there be any confusion, the Atomic Maverick 86 C didn’t crack our Recommended ranks because it’s a great ski. It earned our appreciation because it’s a remarkably good deal at its target retail of $549.95, a price plateau mostly populated by dreck. Atomic has made a habit out of making a superior carbon ski with an 86mm footprint, going back to its first Vantage series. The Maverick 86 C continues in this grand tradition.
I learned more about the Maverick 86 C’s capabilities than I intended to when I stepped into a pair during a Peter Glenn demo event at Palisades Tahoe. I was just in time to join a group taking an end-to-end mountain tour led by Jonny Moseley. Moseley and I were already well acquainted, going back to the days when I recruited him to ski for Head. I wasn’t going to miss the chance to spend some time with Jonny, no matter what skis were on my feet.
So, off I went on an excursion that included more than the usual dose of moguls, for obvious reasons. I was gob smacked by how well the doughty little (176cm) Maverick could snake through bumps, its loosely connected tips smoothly sliding over the tops and soft flex helping it slither through troughs. When it was time to gallop back to the lift, the tail was supportive enough to be stable within the normal recreational speed range.
The Black Pearl 88 was the best-selling ski of the last decade, a streak of dominance that is highly unlikely to end this year, as Blizzard has once again raised the bar by creating a new generation of Pearls with an even higher performance ceiling. The 2025 Black Pearl 88 adopts the sidecut and baseline of the men’s Anomaly 88, but it’s Fluxform construction swaps the bottom Titanal laminate for a slab of carbon pre-preg, and the Ti pieces on top are slimmed down from .6mm thick to .4mm. Like the Anomaly, the Pearl breaks up the top Ti elements into two, nearly full-length strips running above the edges, with a separate Ti plate underfoot.
Part of the reason for the Pearl’s sustained success is that Blizzard pays attention to the details, beginning with a ski’s most fundamental feature, its core. The TrueBlend core introduced a few seasons ago carefully intersperses vertical laminates of dense beech in a matrix of lightweight poplar to create a flex pattern that is smooth, round and balanced. Every size – and the Pearl 88 comes in six sizes – gets its own TrueBlend lay-up, matched with a size-specific sidecut and baseline.
No ski gets as popular as the Pearl 88 without feeling easy to ski for a broad range of skier types. It responds readily to skier input and doesn’t have to be stomped on to finish a full, C-shaped arc across the fall line. The new dose of Titanal hasn’t sapped its energy, while decidedly improving its hard snow security. Best of all, the new Pearl is actually lighter than its previous iteration, so it’s a little easier to foot-steer in tight spots and deeper snow. All in, the 2025 Black Pearl 88 is both easier for lower-skill skiers to manage and more stable and responsive for women with elite skills.
Despite being narrower than the Black Pearl 97 it replaces, the new Black Pearl 94 is better adapted to off-trail skiing, providing easily accessible power that treats clumpy crud with contempt. The Black Pearl 94 borrows its shape and size splits from the new Anomaly 94, but uses a Women Specific Design in its wood, metal and carbon core.
By dint of its wider waistline, the Black Pearl 94 is biased in favor of off-trail adventures, longer radius turns and perhaps most importantly, a skilled skier on top of it. Extra width, particularly for a skier who will have scant opportunity to take advantage of it, is more likely to retard skills development than accelerate it. An expert can take advantage of its ability to batter heavy crud aside, while a slow-moving skier of modest skills will struggle to link the short-radius arcs she aspires to.
But pandering to the technically proficient is hardly a crime for a high-end, all-terrain ski. The Black Pearl 94 doesn’t use its width to mask the deficiencies of the off-trail newbie, but as a reward for experts who will take advantage of it to go faster through a mine field of crisscrossing tracks. Throughout its impressive speed range, the BP 94 feels easy to balance on, and if its preferred turn shape is on the long side, so what, as long as the ride feels cushioned and secure? The way the FluxForm construction uses its quotient of Titanal allows the ski to flex more easily, and the TrueBlend wood core contributes to a smooth arc that retains a fall-line orientation.
