2025 Volkl Peregrine 82

American skiers have been conditioned to think that a true all-terrain ski has to be at least 90mm underfoot, with an amply rockered baseline. Skinnier skis are fine for manicured groomers, but as soon as the surface devolves into a disheveled mess, it’s time to climb on a broader board. As I’ve made a living divining the differences between one ski genre and another, it would be disingenuous at best to now claim that we don’t need as many categories as the market has chosen to populate. The new Völkl Peregrine 82 makes a strong case that the best Frontside skis shouldn’t be confined to the tireless tedium of carving up corduroy; they can handle whatever the backside of the mountain has to dish out. There are reasons why this ski is so good. A ski can only do what its design allows. As is often the case with people, a good deal of the Peregrine 82’s brilliance is due to its genetic make-up; the Deacon 84 that preceded it in the Völkl line already used 3D Radius, Titanal Frame and its secret sauce, 3D Glass. All the hoopla about Titanal Frame is well deserved, but the 3D Glass design is every bit as clever. The bottom glass laminate runs up and over the sidewall, creating a lip that connects with a glass top sheet to create a torsion box. The 3-piece Titanal Frame allows the ski to bend more readily under a centered load, but it’s the 3D Glass torsion box that stores all this energy like a giant spring that instantly pops back into position. There are two on-snow traits that elevate the Peregrine 82 from the rest of the field: one is the rebound energy I just described, and the other is the turn shape versatility inherent in its 3D Radius Sidecut, which essentially harbors a short-radius capability inside a long-radius chassis.