Faithful followers of Realskiers’ ski selection methodology will notice that, strictly speaking, the Head Supershape e-Magnum doesn’t belong in the Frontside genre. Its 72mm waistline plants the Magnum – appropriately – in the Technical genre, where you’ll find the last remnants of the Carving category that once dominated sales in this country. I’ve overlooked this heresy because the Magnum has two Frontside siblings – the e-Rally and e-Titan – that are stars in the Frontside firmament; it didn’t seem right to review them without including the e-Magnum, which arguably is the best of the brood.

What elevates the Magnum above its brethren is its affinity for short, slingshot edge sets that are as secure as they are whiplash quick. You use the same skill set racers develop by dancing through a forest of slalom gates, repurposed to create your own line on the fly.  It’s like riding a rollercoaster at Disneyland; you know you can charge with abandon because there’s no chance you’ll go off the rails. This is a form of exhilaration you can’t extract from a fat ski, which tend to be as lively as a wet noodle.

While short turns are its special sauce, the e-Magnum can be coaxed into elongating its arcs at its rider’s behest.  The tip width on all the 2025 Supershapes has been whittled down a few mm’s, so the new e-Magnum isn’t as fixated on short turns as its only diet, without mitigating its ability to latch onto the tippy top of a turn.  While it’s inherently quick on and off the edge, the e-Magnum is never nervous, it’s piezoelectric dampening system muffling vibrations and maintaining intimate snow contact until you stomp on the edge, loading up the Crossforce Carbon laminates in its guts so the ski springs across the fall line.  By replacing a section of Titanal in the ski’s midsection with crisscrossed carbon, the latest Magnum is both lighter and livelier than prior generations.

Head was the first major brand to make shaped carving skis the centerpiece of its collection, and the Austrian brand has remained faithful to the carving cause ever since. Over the years, it has tinkered with the basic design of its core quartet of Supershapes, and 2025 collection falls squarely in this tradition. This year’s makeover is one of the most consequential, as it touches on fundamentals, like shape, and not frills. The combination of narrowing the forebody and softening the section underfoot where the ski is usually the most rigid has a profound effect on the ski’s turn and terrain versatility.  Improving the Magnum’s flexibility makes it easier for anyone to load the ski up with energy, which it releases with an exuberant recoil. It’s this accessibility to a powerful turn exit that makes the new e-Magnum a Silver Skier Selection.

Bindings always have an influence on the skis they serve, and the new Protector PR 13 that comes with the e-Magnum is a particularly prominent example of this principle. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what contribution the binding is making to the ski’s flex pattern, but the turns made by all the Supershapes are distinguished by how round and continuous the turns they make are.  What is incontestable is how the new Better Balance plate automatically compensates for boot sole length, maintaining a constant .55 degrees of ramp angle.  If you are in a shorter boot sole – let’s say a 25.5 – you may already know that any conventional demo binding will radically increase the forward pitch of your boot sole, so you aren’t loading the ski from the same position as someone in, say, a 27.5. The solution Head adopted last year in its Joy women’s series has now migrated over to the unisex Supershape family.

Head is the only brand that uses Graphene, cross-hatched carbon laminates and liberal doses of Titanal to keep as quiet as a Tesla, and the R&D team at Head didn’t stop there. The e-Magnum also sports front and rear Energy Management Circuits (EMC) that instantly muffle any shock that hits its 80Hz frequency.

Jim Schaffner, an elite race coach and world-class bootfitter, describes the e-Magnum as, “Fun, versatile, predictable. A one-ski quiver if the snow never gets deeper than the top of my lower boot.” He concluded his behavioral snapshot with this exhortation to the ski trade: “The market needs to sell more of these skis!!!”