Peacemaker

A cross between a Pipe & Park ski and a Big Mountain model, the Peacemaker is the antithesis of a technical ski. Its twin-tip design and Flip Core baseline are more prepared to swim than Michael Phelps, and its foam/bamboo/poplar core makes it easy to toss around....

Samba

The key to the Samba’s go-anywhere attitude lies in its Flip Core baseline that predisposes the forebody to ride over anything in front of it without disconnecting it from the rest of the ski. As soon as the Samba is laid over, the skier can depend on every centimeter of the ski supporting her. Secure enough on edge to carve all day, the Samba saves its best moves for soft snow, where it helps the uninitiated learn to mix smearing and steering into a lively downhill dance.

Sheeva

The new Sheeva is an example of an increasingly common phenomenon: the intersection of women’s ski design and the recent explosion in backcountry R&D. Both domains depend on lightweight as a central feature, but you’re unlikely to see the all-business Zero G collection adopt Sheeva’s sassy twin-tip attitude. Its surfy baseline is insanely easy to push around in powder, but there’s enough camber underfoot to keep it on course when the powder is kaput.

SRC Racing

Somehow, Blizzard figured out how to put sneakers on a freight train. The SRC rolls out of the station like it was hauling lumber, but once this implacable platform is in motion it develops the reactions of a mongoose. “Crazy fun quick!” exulted Eric Smith from Footloose, compressing into three little words what the SRC Racing is all about.

Spur

[The test results for the Spur are from 2016; the ski is unchanged for 2017.] The Spur is an interesting lesson in the differences between rockered and twin-tipped skis. As soon as a manufacturer turns up the tail, they tend to turn up the butter-factor, so the ski...