10 Best All Mountain Skis of 2023 | Women’s & Men’s

All-mountain skis are the most versatile style currently on the market.

“All- Mountain” style skis are built to rip groomers, chop through slop, hold an edge on ice, and even float a little through powder. It’s a something-for-everyone category.

The qualities to look out for in a daily driver are ruggedness, responsiveness, and fun. Not everyone has an extensive ski quiver, and there’s an all-mountain ski out there for every style of skier.

Picking the right all-mountain ski is mostly about choosing where you want to compromise as there’s a lot of interplay between other styles. A pair of early rise skis may have trouble finding an edge on icy days, but will shine in soft snow.  Play to your strengths, if you have an “I ride everything” mentality, so should your ski.

A Guide to Skis and Skiing

What is an All-Mountain Ski

If you’ve made the decision to look for a solid “All-Mountain” ski, you’re essentially looking for a do-everything solution. You’re an equal-opportunity skier, and want something that can deliver results no matter what the conditions are, but strong enough to handle at your most aggressive. There are options for every skill level, all that’s required is a desire for a maximum-return every day ski.

In general, all-mountain skis have a lot in common with carving skis. They’ll at least have enough side cut to edge a turn well. They will be somewhere around 88-104mm underfoot and have a traditional camber, usually combined with a little bit of rocker to keep the tips out of variable snow. With the proper all mountain ski, you should be able to ski mild slopes, steep chutes, moguls, trees, and powder with equal confidence.

While there’s an all-mountain ski out there for everyone, not every ski out there is suitable for every skier. We’ve described each ski in our list with a mind to make choosing the right one easier. When you’re choosing an all-mountain ski, you can decide what characteristics you want to emphasize. Also think about your skill level and how you want to progress as a skier, a super-stiff and heavy ski is going to have a steep learning curve for a beginner. Depending on your style and your skill level, you may want something more playful or front-side based rather than an ultra-aggressive big mountain charger. There are also options that are closer to race style skis that are built purely for speed, with enough rise in the tips to make them viable off-piste as well, take a look at the other types of skis listed below to help you decide what you want the focus of your all-mountain driver to be.

The Other Types of Skis

The sport of skiing has been around for a long time, and to a certain extent you can trace its history through the huge variety of concepts regarding what a ski should look like and how it should perform. When it comes to skis, form is intimately tied up in function, so we’ve pulled together a few points on each of the overarching categories to help you know what to look for in the shop, and what to expect on the slopes.

Racing Skis

Trying to define a race ski opens up an entirely different can of worms because there are so many different types of ski racing, usually each with their own nuances in design. But usually race skis tend to be long, with a narrower waist than other options you’ll see on this list and will have a directional tail. Volkl and Nordica both have strong reputations in the race world, and you can see this spirit extended to the rest of the industry through skis like the M6 Mantra or the Enforcer 94

Racers are going to feel very unintuitive for someone who’s never skied a traditionally cambered ski. True to form they’re built to go fast, but they’re also built to make precise and aggressive turns. They’re easy to get on edge, and unless your form is pretty well dialed they can take you in unexpected directions very quickly.  You can expect quite a bit of rigidity in their flex, and a general “no-nonsense” feel in the way they ride. All-mountain skis influenced by a race design are going to be great on-piste carvers, and aren’t necessarily just for expert riders. Anyone who is a primarily frontside skier and loves the feeling of railing an aggressive turn will enjoy a more approachable take on their classic design.

Frontside/Carver Skis

Many specialized styles of skis are designed with niche, aggressive styles in mind. If you’re new to skiing and aren’t sure what style will best suit your skills and preferences, a frontside carver is an easy choice. They’re shaped essentially like a much more forgiving race ski, a directional tail and fair amount of sidecut to help learners engage a solid edge and do effective turns. They’ll be among the softest and most accommodating of all the options, and designed to be responsive without demanding too much finesse or power from the rider.

More versatile takes on beginner frontside skis will aim to be just as friendly as a traditional novice carver, with some adaptations made for off-piste performance. They’ll have a little more rocker and play than something that was just built to turn, and softness in the tips to help roll over variable snow. Rossignol’s 7 series is the most popular ski of this ethic in recent history, but their new Black Ops line offers something a little more aggressive that can grow with the skier.

Freestyle Skis

Freestyle skiing, colloquially known as park skiing, has become an incredibly popular sector in the industry. It seems that much of the current work being done to progress the sport is being done within the ropes of the terrain park. Freestyle skis are built to fly, pop, and slide. They emphasize fun and freedom, and tend to be lightweight and responsive. Freestyle skis are typically true twin-tips and are near symmetrical from tip to tail so perform the same when skied in both directions. For this same reason, they tend to be center mounted. The Line Sick Day is a great example of an adaptable park ski for a great price.

A lot of the conceptual basis for freestyle skis is based on landing jumps. They’re lightweight so they will rotate in the air more easily, have quite a bit of flex for absorbing heavy impacts. They’re built specifically for pushing the boundaries in the controlled environment of a frontside terrain park. All-mountain skis influenced by a freestyle design will be among the most playful and “fun” of your options. They’ll be flexible and slashy, and though they might not stack up against the competition when it comes to variable snow, they can still hold their own in all conditions.

Freeride Skis

The Freeride World Tour has only been around for the last decade or so, but you cannot understate the influence that this competitive big-mountain spirit has had upon the recreational ski industry. Freeride skis are designed to provide the same freedom and stability as a freestyle park ski, but in ungroomed, off-piste conditions. Much like racing skis, it’s hard to qualify what exactly a freeride ski is because skiers are going to want to emphasize different aspects based on their preferences and terrain. They could look like a less-specialized powder ski, or a super heavy race-influenced charger depending on what performance aspects you want to highlight.

As a rule, you can expect some kind of “all-mountain” rocker-camber hybrid, with enough rise in the shovel to eat up variable snow, that can still adequately engage the edge along the length of the ski to bite into the hardpack. They tend to be stiffer, and more aggressive. The freeride ski is basically a beefed-up version of the consumer “all-mountain” style, there’s a lot of fluidity between the two concepts. Blizzard has garnered a reputation for making these kinds of chargers, with the Bonafide being a long-time favorite. Recreational skis influenced by a big mountain ideology will be some of the most versatile and powerful. They’re a ski that’s built for any given day on the mountain, and although not necessarily for skiing powder, can hold up well in it.

Powder Skis

Powder skis need next to no introduction. True powder skis are highly specialized due to this they don’t perform as well in any condition as well as other skis on this list might. But, the trade-off of being able to capitalize on fresh snow more than makes up for it. Frequent resort riders will tell you that you may not remember 90% of the days you spend on the slopes, but you’ll never forget a good powder day.

Powder skis are going to be wider than any other ski you see on the mountain, and are going to be more aggressively rockered as well. They’ll tend to have little camber and sidecut, and are skied in a completely different style than a traditional racing ski. A good powder ski will keep you afloat in the deepest snow, and should have a bouncy and weightless feel in prime conditions. The only issue is that you’ll have a hard time getting on your edge most days due to how wide they are. There’s a lot of middle ground between a dedicated powder stick and a daily driver, K2’s Reckoner series walks the line pretty well though you may want something with more underfoot. You won’t have to look hard to find an all-mountain ski that competes in deep powder, many freeride style skis keep soft snow in mind without forgoing frontside performance.

Bindings, boots, and more

Ski gear is extensively specialized, and the amount of options on the market is overwhelming. Dauntingly, the task of finding and fitting the right boots and bindings is every bit as complicated as choosing a ski. If you found our guide on this year’s skis helpful, take a look at our articles on the best alpine boots, and our favorite alpine bindings as well.

Ski Term Glossary

Half of the challenge of starting a new sport is trying to figure out what people are saying. Skiing is not unique to having a serious case of  jargon bloat, but it does have some fairly high barriers of entry in terms of time and money invested, so you’re probably going to want to have some unambiguous definitions before you get too heavily invested. Here are some common terms relating to skis explained in plain language, so you can buy a new set of skis with confidence. Beyond this, check out our full glossary of ski terms to use as a reference.

Twin Tip vs Directional

These two terms are used to describe the shape of the ski, specifically the tail. A “directional” ski is going to have a lot more in common with a classic ski motif, and be favored by riders who like to employ their technical skill to go fast and carve aggressive turns. They’re characterized by their flat tail that rests on (or very near) the snow. This flat tail gives riders more power as they move through the length of their turn, and let’s an experienced skier get the most out of their edge.

A “twin tip” ski is going to be any ski that’s rounded on both edges, and usually will have a significant amount of tail rocker to boot. A true twin tip will also tend to have a more symmetrical shape along the entire length of the ski. Twin tips are one of the great modern developments in the sport of skiing, and have done much to make the sport more accessible to riders without a formal background. The raised and rounded tails make it much easier to disengage an edge, smear your turns, and are going to comprehensively offer a much more forgiving ride than a pure directional ski. They were first popular in the freestyle world due to their stability upon landing, as well as their ability to be easily skied backwards.

Sidecut and Turn Radius

Sidecut is used to talk about the “figure” of your ski, and is going to impact performance through turn radius, or how tight of an edged turn your ski can make. You can approximate the sidecut of a ski by looking at the narrowest point in the middle or the “waist” and comparing it to the widest points on either end. The more more dramatic the hourglass profile of your ski, the more aggressively you should be able to make a tight, carved turn.

To be more clear about turn radius, it’s the imaginary circle that any ski or snowboard would trace in the snow if it were to be placed on its edge and told to “go”. A smaller turning radius implies a more pronounced sidecut.

Flex

The stiffness or “flex” of a ski is a measurement of the amount that it will bend when a rider pressures it towards the tip or tail. Stiffer skis are usually your more aggressive race style, while softer skis tend to either be for beginners, or built around playfulness and powder conceptually.

Camber vs Rocker vs Mixed

Camber and rocker are two more concepts behind ski construction that are pretty easy to get a visual handle on. Rocker is also called “reverse-camber” describing. Rocker and camber relate to the way that the ski is shaped when you look at it from the side. In other words rocker and camber are used to describe what parts of the ski are touching snow, versus what parts are lifted up off of the snow when it is placed flat on the ground.

Camber is a measurement of how the ski rises from the ground underfoot. When you step on your ski, you squish this cambered section flat to the snow which distributes your weight more evenly and creates some powerful tension for you to harness while riding. Traditionally cambered skis are likely going to be directional and built for going fast. Think race skis, or anything where you would need to trust your edges on hard snow while cranking out fast turns.

Rocker is that the tips and tails rise off of the snow. A “full rockered” ski will look like one of the legs from a porch rocking chair and good in deep powder. It will be much easier to pivot, slash, and rotate than a cambered ski because only the edges underfoot are making any contact with the snow. They’re much less dependable and have difficulty engaging an edge on hardpack for the same reason. The dramatic upward scoop in the shovel helps riders float in deep snow, so they can get the most out of the powder days.

Aside from outliers at either extreme, most contemporary skis employ some sort of rocker/camber blend. Ask yourself what kind of performance aspects you need to highlight,  and you’ll be able to find your place on the spectrum.

If you already have a mountain ski or you just bought one, leave a comment in the comment section below and share your experience with it.