How to: Choose a Backcountry Freeride Ski

It’s probably wise to start by narrowing down your options to the “touring specific” models that manufacturers offer in their lineups. Like the new Nordica Enforcer Unlimited or the Moment Deathwish Tour, even drastically different layups and materials can still offer surprisingly close characteristics of their resort-specific counterparts. Unless you know for a fact you have the quads and the skill to need the heaviest, dampest boards available, this should be a no-brainer.

Very generally speaking, the heavier a ski the more it will excel in variable snow. Extremely lightweight skis, especially those with a great deal of carbon, take some adjustment in your style and will get bucked around in hard snow a lot more than your resort skis. That said there have been some really innovative approaches to bridging the performance gap.

The Black Crows Corvus Freebird is dramatically lighter than its flat/reverse camber, metal-stiffened resort counterpart—but it’s laid up with some of the most “traditional” camber I’ve seen on a ski in recent years. The result is that the weighted ski, while built on a much lighter platform, will flex into a more appropriate flat/rockered profile while maintaining the stiffness and dampness of a heavier ski.

G3 brings another very unique approach with their ski construction across their line—with 3D Paulownia, abundant ABS and rubber laid up with carbon and titanal, the result in a ski like the Slayr feels like their designers ascribe to some sort of voodoo death cult magic. Just hand flexing it, it’s hard to believe how stiff and damp this ski is while maintaining an incredibly light weight for its class.

A third example is from WNDR, whose quiver-killing Intention 108 is built using algae-derived materials in the core and sidewalls to offer an incredible damp ride without the added weight of metal or extra material. These come in both cambered and reverse-camber shapes.

Finally, there's Völkl's updated Blaze 104, which has been marketed as a lightweight inbounds ski, but the shape, 1800ish gram weight, and friendly flex pattern makes these an excellent freetouring candidate as well. 

Weight tradeoffs ultimately will be all about your personal preferences and priorities—are you exclusively hunting for low angle deep powder on those epic post-storm days? Or are you looking to tick off steep objectives all springtime long in variable snow? The good news is unlike your boots and bindings, it’s a lot easier to ultimately sell a ski and swap it should you find you need to tweak the calculus for next season.

What Waist Width Is Best?

Much like the weight discussion, it’s about priorities. Keep it skinny (95 and under) for big ski mountaineering objectives, or for spring days when you'll be skiing the refrozen stuff. Middle of the road (100-110) will be most versatile—a solid choice for the bulk of the winter with most models having some level of flotation for when you do run into that epic pow day. Bigger than 110 or 115? Reserve it for the deepest days or for that extra landing platform for getting sendy.

Personally in the Wasatch, I favored a ski in the 105-110 range–I found it was a great choice for powder days with mixed conditions without whipping out the full size 120 longboards. Because most of my objectives were in the side country or relatively short tours, the weight tradeoff wasn’t as big of an issue for me. As someone who likes to occasionally jump off stuff, having some landing platform and some extra surface area underfoot made this a perfect range for me. Anything wider made it hard to maneuver the ski in tight spaces and get on edge when things unexpectedly firmed up.

The Camber vs. Rocker Debate

For the vast majority of backcountry skiers, a directional ski with some tip rocker, camber underfoot, and minimal or no tail rocker is going to be the ticket here. This will be the most straightforward combo for skinning and anchoring in a ski mountaineering setting. Some camber underfoot will really help with setting an edge while skinning in firm conditions, but then again, full reverse-camber skis are best used in bottomless pow–found deep in the backcountry.

For those looking for the loose and surfy feel (or switch-skiing capability) of pronounced tail rocker or a twin-tip shape, just be aware how that will lower your surface area in contact with the snow, and may make skinning on an icy skintrack more difficult. That said–it’s not too bad with a little adjustment in your technique! For the determined like myself, definitely invest in a set of tail clips like these from G3 to avoid skins slipping off or gathering sticky unwanted snow and ice on your tails.

One of my all time favorite backcountry skis I’ve ever owned was a 4FRNT Hoji–with a full rocker profile and matching sidecut it was an amazing ski in and out of the resort. It could occasionally get a little loose on the uphill when the skin track was firm, well-traveled or icy. With a little practice, however, ski touring became totally manageable even in tough conditions. It was an easy tradeoff to make, and the ski was so much fun I wouldn’t have considered going with a more traditional cambered ski.

What Skis Should You Buy?

There’s a LOT of subjectivity when it comes to choosing your skis, especially for backcountry use. If you have the opportunity to demo skis at your local hill or from your shop, it’s a great way to experiment and find out what you like in terms of camber, rocker, stiffness, sidecuts and more. More often than not, if you are looking to replicate the feel of your favorite resort ski, you’ll be able to find something very close in terms of dimensions, stiffness, and stability in a touring-specific layup that saves you from hauling the extra weight on the uphill. 

Check out this year's Gear Guide for the full crop of the latest offerings and safe shredding this winter!