Self-Propelled Skis Are Here, One Company Is Selling Their Version for Less Than $3,000

Originally posted on Powder | By Ian Greenwood | Last updated May 23, 2025 5:16 PM ET

It’s 2025, and ski gear is only getting wackier.

The Vipera, a futuristic-looking product that combines skiing with snowmobiling, is now available on Kickstarter and costs $2,999 at an early-bird price. The package includes the skis, a ski pole controller, a battery charger, and a ticket to the Boston Snowbound Expo. Boots and bindings aren’t included.

Four outdoorsy-sounding colors are available: glacier blue, forest green, smoke grey, and powder white. A pricier “long-range” option, which offers an extra set of batteries and an extra charger, runs for $3,899.

Finally, skiers located in New Zealand and Australia can pick up a beta version of the Vipera for a further reduced rate of $2,500.

Thanks to battery-powered tread systems, the Vipera is self-propelled and can travel as fast as 20 miles per hour, depending on the settings. It has a range of up to ten miles on a single charge. To tweak the speed and the brakes, skiers use a ski-pole-integrated controller.

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According to the Kickstarter, buyers of the product will help “finalize production, scale manufacturing, and bring Vipera to market ahead of the 2025 winter season.”

Footage shared on Vipera’s YouTube channel looks, to be frank, like CGI (spoiler: it's not). The absurdity of a pair of skis sliding uphill and across flat snow surfaces on their own is hard to overstate. Here’s a peek. Tap or click below to watch.

It’s all very sci-fi and sure to raise some eyebrows, particularly among the diehard “earn your turns” crowd.

Chairlifts are established parts of the snowsports canon, but new products that make getting somewhere easier outside the boundaries of a ski resort are usually met with skepticism. E-bikes, as an example from the world of road and mountain biking, got their fair share of pushback.

Innovating in the ski market is no small feat, though, and the Vipera offers something unique if perhaps inspired by these clunky sticks that were powered by chainsaw motors. The Vipera, to its credit, is far sleeker.

Frigid Dynamics, the company behind the Vipera, isn’t the only tech-savvy team trying to bring battery-assisted skiing to the slopes. Zoa Engineering’s PL1 is a portable rope tow primarily designed for backcountry use, while the E-Skimo, as its name suggests, gives tourers a boost while they schlep uphill.

This article first appeared on Powder and was syndicated with permission.

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