You can’t go home again.
The past is another country.
Nothing lasts forever.
There must be 1,000 such homilies that share the same, sorrowful observation. No matter what we cherish about the past, it ain’t coming back.
I’ve spent decades refining the peculiar craft of capturing a ski’s on-snow personality, only to see the entire enterprise evaporate in a cloud of indifference. The apogee of these endeavors lasted for only five years, during which time, with the blessing and budgets of the New York Times Magazine Group, I assembled the largest cast of world-class talents ever convened for such a purpose, and put them to work for three solid weeks. Whatever remains of on-snow testing today runs for 2-to-5 days, tops.
Before I start swinging this verbal wrecking ball in ever wider arcs, permit me to better define the boundaries of my umbrage. No contingent of recreational skiers is better served than those who travel uphill under their own power. If you hike to ski, you not only have more equipment choices than seem sensible, but you have passionate and well-informed editors who enlist the aid of an armada of in-it-for-life testers who talk eye-to-eye with their readers. Thanks to the efforts of Freeskier, the Pipe-and-Park contingent also have a toes-in-the-snow publication that caters to the unique requirements of those who take to the air upside-down and backwards.
But for the downhill-facing, lift-assisted skier, the number of trustworthy sources is perilously close to zero. I gather through the grapevine that Outside aims to improve its ski review content, but this is the same outfit that fired Mike Rogan in the not-so-distant past, an act of such rank stupidity it will take years of diligent reporting to live it down. That Rogan is back testing for Outside is more testament to his exceptional talent and well-mannered temperament than it is a validation of the new regime’s reportorial talents.
If you want to read how we at Realskiers.com went about the business of categorizing and rating every important Alpine ski model for sale in North America, I’ve retained a detailed description of our methodology in the Gear Guide housed on the home page. Ski reviews dating back to 2016 are still ensconced in our Archives for the edification of our paid subscribers (still only $24.95 for new members and a mere $19.95 to renew).
I’ve augmented the text of the revised Gear Guide with a few bits that weren’t part of Realskiers’ original copy, most notably a current test card. The latest test card differs from the original incarnation in a couple of important ways: I’ve fiddled with the test criteria in an effort to be clearer about just what behavior the tester is rating, and the “card” isn’t recorded on paper, but logged into a Google app. The biggest difference between the era of the paper card and the current cyber card isn’t in the contents, but the number of submissions each season. (Read A Dearth of Data here.) We used to get thousands of cards; now we hardly get any unless I instigate the testing. But being prepared to test and actual testing are two different beasts; to achieve the ultimate goal of ranking skis according to merit requires not just skis; it also requires skiers, and that’s where the current market conditions torpedo the entire enterprise.
So why am I retaining a detailed explanation of a system that no longer works? Because I’ve learned from my thousands of Dear Readers that they regularly visit our Archives, where we’ve stored every ski review I’ve penned since 2016. (The Archives used to reach back into the aughties, but the older reviews proved to be a playground for cyber creeps looking for vulnerabilities they could exploit, so they had to be euthanized.) There are also some bits in the introductory text that are still relevant, such as How to Demo and how to interpret the icons that are scattered throughout the archived reviews.
But model-by-model, long-form ski reviews are as dead as disco. What remains in their stead are detailed Brand Profiles that put the current model families in context, helping skiers winnow through a ski market that is over-stuffed with options. The final hurdle in the model selection process is determining which ski has the optimum amalgam of traits that fits with where and how you ski. I can help you, Dear Reader, find the ski of your dreams, or at the very least concoct a hit list of skis to demo. Member Consultation privileges are unquestionably the most unique and valuable service provided by Realskiers.com. I look forward to hearing from you.
As you ponder what pithy problems you would like to plumb, take a moment to contemplate the many splendors Realskiers.com provides:
- Ski Brand Profiles, including coverage of the current market
- Boot Brand Profiles (2026 content to post in September)
- Best Boots from the Masterfit Boot Test (links to Masterfit current analysis)
- Revelation Archives (over 300 entries on the members’ site, categorized by subject matter)
- Jackson’s List of the most worthy specialty ski shops in America
- The Returning Skier’s Handbook, a primer for the lapsed skier
- The Library of Podcasts from Realskiers with Jackson Hogen
Realskiers.com is essentially a Master Class in the recent evolution of the U.S. ski market. The insights that are routine in Realskiers’ content can’t be found anywhere else in the current crop of ski media. If you like what you see here, please consider becoming a Realskiers’ subscriber, still only $24.95 for new enlistees, and $19.95 for returning veterans.
If you’re thinking of buying new gear this year, a Realskiers subscription isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity. One receives the best advice from those most qualified to provide it, and no one else in ski journalism can match my credentials and track record. I hope you’ll become a Realskiers subscriber and subsequently benefit from my counsel. It’s what I’m here for.
Related Articles
The Things We Do for Love, Part II
Dear Readers who regularly devour my weekly Revelations know that I have already written at length on the subject of Why Skiers Are Better than Everyone Else. Last Friday I was reminded of my timeless prose as I spent 45 minutes traversing a very short stretch of road that connects I-80 to Route 89, my proscribed path to Alpine Meadows. As I voluntarily descended into this automotive miasma, I could make out the dim form of the interstate traffic snaking down from the west, two dense strands of tightly linked vehicles stretching beyond the horizon.
Realskiers.com Trounces Field to Earn Second Stump-Bertoni Prize for Excellence
In a stunning upset that in retrospect appears inevitable, Realskiers.com has been awarded The Stump-Bertoni Prize for Excellence for the second year in a row.
For those cave-dwellers who snoozed through Realskiers.com’s first triumph in this gilded competition, permit me to bring you up to speed. Then as now, the battle for this cherished trophy (metaphorically speaking – the S-BP lacks sufficient funds for a memento commensurate with its prestige) was fierce, extending both of its eponymous founders to previously unknown limits.
The final ballot was determined by leg wrestling over Stump’s furious protest; he cogently argued that this sort of bias against the vertically challenged has no place in a free society. Bertoni imperiously overruled Stump’s evermore strident complaints, citing a lack of legible documentation, tardy submissions and a tendency to perspire copiously when provoked.
This year’s competition was no less fraught.
Just How Strange Will the 21/22 Ski Market Be?
To (temporarily) kowtow to the cult of brevity, the short answer is, “not very.”
To elaborate, most major ski brands didn’t derail the introduction of new products that were in the works well before the pandemic dropped the hammer. There’s a rhythm to the product renewal cycle that shifts the spotlight every year to a different model family within any brand’s global collection; that rhythm was largely respected despite the unique obstacles imposed on the process this year. If most of the models appearing in 21/22 catalogs seem similar to what was offered this year, it’s because this is how the line renewal machinery ordinarily operates.
What’s difficult to judge from outside the R&D pipeline is what we’re not seeing. That is, were there more new models or upgrades to existing star products ready to launch that were put on hold to avoid overloading a potentially weakened distribution network? Possibly; what might have been a planned six-model launch may have been trimmed to three or four, for example.
Happily, there’s no real downside to this scenario for the prospective ski buyer. All essential model family refreshing and line extensions will unfold as forecast. If you haven’t bought a ski in three or four years – I believe the average span between new ski purchases is over seven – the entire universe of Alpine skis is new to you. You may spot some names you recognize, but the skis that bear the name will almost assuredly be different.
