Last season Atomic’s Vantage 95 C was everyone’s choice as the best value in all of skidom. Upon further review, this year our test crew liked it even more, so much more it even migrated over to our Power Picks where it stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the best all-terrain skis on the planet.

How is this even possible? The answer, as is increasingly the norm these days, is carbon. Atomic has woven this miraculous fiber into a tip-to-tail grid called Carbon Tank Mesh. Applied over a lightweight, all-poplar wood core, the Carbon Tank Mesh delivers just the right balance of torsional and longitudinal flex resistance. It’s why every tester, regardless of gender (note the 162cm length), aggression level or style is blown away by the Vantage 95 C overall performance envelope.

At Realskiers, we contend that one definition of a great ski is how well it performs in conditions for which it was not intended. The Vantage 95 C is ostensibly an off-trail ski with plenty of flotation for forays into two feet of fluff. Yet it’s scorecard suggests a ski with a high hard-snow IQ, able to stay connected to the snow at any edge angle. It can make slow, short turns or long, fast ones, take your pick.

As Liz Elling of Gravity Sports noted with undiluted enthusiasm, “It didn’t change this year, but man O man, this is an amazing ski! Quick, easy, stable: what else could you ask for? Oh, and superb in the pow!”

For supplying instant access to high performance skiing for all skiers, from those who attack to those more laid back, we again bestow upon the Vantage 95 C a Silver Skiing Selection.