An advanced intermediate is comfortable skiing at moderate speeds on intermediate trails in most snow conditions or at moderate speeds on advanced trails in optimal snow conditions. An advanced skier is capable of maintaining solid technique on advanced terrain in most snow conditions. An expert skier is capable of skiing safely at high speeds on any terrain regardless of snow conditions. Expert skiers have strong technique and prefer to ski aggressively. Experts can be cautious, while beginners who like to ski fast would be considered aggressive.
Groomers are maintained trails, typically found on the front side of the mountain. Frontside Skis range from beginner to expert skill levels. These skis are narrower skis optimized for groomed and hard packed snow conditions. All Mountain conditions include hard packed snow, tracked out crud, or hopefully a little fresh snow. All Mountain Skis are designed to be very consistent feeling, well rounded skis; performing best on trails and in the bumps or trees you find on the front side of the mountain.
Skis in this group are 91 - mm wide under the foot. Powder Skis are designed to be soft snow specialists. The figures shown in the table above are meant for orientation that can help you make your decision. Ski Resorts. USA Canada. New Zealand Australia. Chile Argentina. How long should your skis be? Isabell Sauer. Hi, I'm Isabell, one of the editors at snow-online. I've been skiing since I was a kid and now I can't wait to get back on the slopes every winter.
That's why I'm lucky that after my studies in media and communication I found a job where everything revolves around my favourite hobby. If you have any questions about me or about snow-online. Just send an email Read more. Different types of skis Your individual skill level Terrain type and skiing style Your height The right ski length for every ski type Comments.
Different types of skis. This is a fixed design feature. It marks the maximum output carving radius. Would I better of with a stronger, more stable ski in a shorter length, or with a lighter, more agile ski in a longer length? Umh…skier weight has more to do with picking the best length than skier height.
Will, Thanks for the interesting article. I understand how weight affects the length of ski one should ski but why is height such an important factor? Jo PS: Also interested in the question posted above. I had this explained to me in a local ski shop: height determines the amount of leverage you can get on a ski.
Weight is the secondary consideration for ski length. That makes sense. Always liked the stability at speed. Everyone should buy ski blades at the ski swap. Or, to put it another way, you could sometimes have a on your left foot and a on your right foot without being able to tell the difference. I went ahead and tried this out at a demo day last year with a friend. We got two sizes of the same ski then traded one at the top of the lift. So just remember: buy whichever size is on sale and stop stressing about it.
PS: I recognize that sometimes the big mountain gun has a unique construction and is built a lot stiffer than the , in which case this does not apply. Any chance you can report the specs of the effective edge or running length in your future ski reviews? I so love the Gotama that I bought , , and lengths. Hey, cheap internet summertime prices, what can I say?
The Gotamas are still active in my multi ski quiver. The is the most fun carver length at Their light weight and short length make them the best fast turn anywhere on the bump ski of the three.
Float in pow is minimal but certainly better than a mm under foot ski. On the other hand In a place where I was cranking nice floaty turns on a pair of Shiros one day, the goats sank like rocks and got stuck the next day. The has the best float. They require bump technique that relies more heavily on the use of the depressive contours I think of them as the dips rather than bumps to counter flex the ski and thus the bumps set the turn rhythm rather than the skier.
At I cannot overpower the s. The , I still experience my ten years ago initial thrill at how much performance I can extract from them. My preferences are that the best all around length, the is a very close second, and and the is a more distant third place.
They also made a , but no thanks to that length. They have a turned up tail so spray a rooster drowning your mates behind you. Just used them in Treble Cone in our winter of and they still rock. I bought the next model as well in and they do not perform as well. Certainly at tight trees a la Revy are not easy to handle at speed and a quiver would be the call if your baggage permits. Now all my ski buddies are hunting super light skis with light touring boots and new style pin bindings as all we do is slack country touring.
Trivia for you. If your goats are the black skis with pink graphics, the Volkl trademark, the Volkl word, and the Buddha all glow in the dark. Skied Treble cone twice. I like it better than Coronet. Great stuff! Also consider the backpack if you will carry one. I learned that the pack changes your balance point and can make the tips feel short.
The ski in question is borderline short for me at cm, but responds sweetly… until putting on a pack, then I want longer tips.
Helpful article and good comments! What about ski length for telemark skiers? One might argue that the telemark turn creates a longer running surface and as such would dictate shorter skis than the conventional alpine turn. Any other telemark skiers out there? Hi Greg, this is Andy from the comment above yours.
I only tele. I find that for packed consolidated consistent snow that I normally telemark in the East Coast USA, shorter is fine, can be great. Typical mount was boot center 4 — 5 cm back from true center, NTN boots Traveled to Europe, tele skied steep-ish, inconsistent, and unconsolidated snow… I chose cm heavily rockered Liberty Origins.
But, to be honest, it would have been better to have been on a longer version of the same. I wanted more tip, basically. It was still great, just not optimal. Your view of tele creating longer running surface holds water for me when considering gentle terrain, soft consistent snow powder.
Love it! But it kinda falls apart thinking about steeper and inconsistent snow. In those challenging conditions, tip length and tip behavior seems to dominate the sense of security and control in tele turn for me, where too short begins to feel unstable and insecure at the start, and choppy in the middle of the turn too.
Another way to say it… with a tip that feels too short or insecure, one needs to lean a bit back, which messes up the way I hope to telemark in tricky stuff. If s feel long, try shorter for sure. I loved my that actually measured and were so heavily tip and tail rockered that they looked like clown shoes. Maybe you can find a picture, they were the RMU Wisco model from maybe 6 years ago mine are now part of a deck chair.
So I wanted to buy skis. If you want to buy a snowboard, the manufacturer mentions a recommendation on length vs weight. And gives the effective edge at different lengths. This makes it a lot easier to choose. But when I was looking at skis. Lucky I found someone who could really help me out.
But I think the manufacturers should help out buyers more than they do now. Unless this is part of their marketing strategy. Just want to say a huge thanks! Such a helpful and — not to be dramatic — important article; have never seen anyone explain the factors influencing modern ski length this clearly. Cleared up a lot of questions I had about why some similarly sized skis felt so different. And informed me on how to approach the question of ski length with future purchases. Thanks Blister!
Hey great article! I read with great interest, but still cannot find a good tip how to think about my ski sizing problem. I am cm tall at 90kg, freeriding in the Alps and now I am looking to replace my Whitedot Ranger with more forgiving and damped allmountain freerideski.
I have to stay in the range of cm, but I cannot decide about the width. At one hand the really long skis at the market are around mm in the middle Fischer Ranger ,cm , on the other hand the longest available allmountain ski like K2 MB Ti or BC Corvus are up to cm. What is your opinion about it? Should I compensate the bodyhight to skilength ratio with a wider ski Fischer Ranger ,cm or go ahead with a bit shorter, well damped and narrower ski Fischer Ranger ,cm.
Great article Luke, and timely to promote it at the end of pre-season, not only does is shed a spot light on ski length, but while it does so, it illuminates pretty much all aspects of ski design and what the intention is with the designs. Skiers can really look at this, mostly knowing what their current skill level is or what their direction is and enables them to discount the sales pitch to make much more informed purchases.
Another great article from you all. And yes, you complicated things for me… at the same time, you gave me a guide to read through your reviews and be able to hone down what length I would want in different skis. Short skis suck, long skis truck. You have to learn how to ski a long ski, but I dont see it as a limiting factor at all in bumps and trees. Good article that goes into a lot of depth and it true Blister form, covers everything.
After you determine a model that suits your skiing style, most skis have 2 sizes that are realistic options. I encourage learning how to ski the long one if you you consider yourself a skilled and aggressive skier.
All the usual Blister kudos apply here: Thoughtful, well researched, well written. Thank you for that. Thumbs up. I think that as an article geared toward people who are new to the topic, or at least confused by it, you would do well to be more explicit about your strong bias towards western skiing on ungroomed snow. Actually the rule is perfectly good if you are looking at a traditional non-rockered, fully-cambered ski from about They are not skiing fluffy powder or heavy crud or slush bumps or windbuff or [name your 3D snow condition of choice] … almost ever.
The combination of skier traffic on limited acreage, dense forest growth, snow-unfriendly climate, and brain-dead demand for over-grooming makes those conditions simply unavailable to all but untethered pow seekers without families or regular jobs. I now fully expect hordes of those exact people to rip off their Peruvian hats peevishly and start squawking loudly here about all the powder to be found in the Jay Peak sidecountry on Tuesday mornings.
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