Next up from our annual week of smashing up gear at Sunshine Village, All-Mountain skis. We have a fantastic crew of testers, and thanks to our pals @sunshinevillage, we had an incredible variety of terrain to test skis on, which is fortunate because All-Mountain skis are a hard category to define. It's causing a few issues for the incels in the YouTube comments but we'd like to set out our stall here. These are skis we could conceive of happily doing everything from lapping groomers to skiing the best pow day of the season. And this is Newschoolers, they have to be able to handle a park day too. Obviously, none of these skis (and no ski out there) will be THE perfect tool for any of those things, but they will make a decent go of anything.
https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/1096985/--YouTube
So how do you choose an all-mountain ski? Well, use your common sense for one thing. We need to write a proper article about this but basically, we reckon the three main things are these:
Where do you ski and how much does it snow?
If you ski a lot of fresh snow and powder, a wider daily driver is going to suit. If you ski a lot of hard snow but still want a floaty ski, look at the narrower skis. If you just want to rip groomers and ski park and never ski fresh, these will probably all be on the wide side because we tested as Sunshine, where the snow is generally pretty damn good.
Do you have other skis in your quiver?
If you have a park ski, don't worry about the park performance of your all-mountain ski too much. If you have a pow ski, the float won't matter so much. It isn't rocket science.
How heavy are you and how hard do you ski?
Weight and strength, along with technique matter way more for ski choice than height. Heavier skiers will generally want wider skis to help them float in pow. They will also more easily bend a stiff, wide ski into aggressive turn shapes, as will stronger heavier skiers negating some of the downsides of wide ski. If you're light, you can often get away with narrower, softer skis and benefit from a generally lighter more easy-to-flex ski.
Please note, if you live with the misconception that you are too 'real' a skier to ski the mountain on anything with a twin tip, none of these skis will suitably massage your ego. We'd recommend ski school.
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Put simply we didn't really like the old Bent 100. It was good on groomers but the tail shape was all wrong and the flex was too directional for the type of ski. It behaved nothing like the Bent 110 and Bent Chetler, which was also a strange clash. Twig vowed to hate the new one too (he's good at that) but ended up coming away wanting to ski it most of the time at the test. Some small changes have really elevated this ski. The whole ski is a bit stiffer and the flex is much more consistent through the ski. There's still abundant tip rocker, but the tail shaping in particular works a bit better in powder, going sideways easier. Generally, this ski is just way better than it was before, it's stronger and more precise while also feeling more drifty when you want it to be. If you have a wider ski, or you ski somewhere with relatively modest powder days, these are an absolute banger. Read more.
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The elephant in the room. Is it a park ski, is it an all-mountain ski, is it a BBR in disguise? Yes, yes, and definitely not. Honestly, these skis are a masterpiece and they might be what we've been waiting for a long time, a ski that a park rat and a weekend warrior dad can enjoy equally. So they might actually you know... sell. They carve well, have enough power for most conditions and the shape is ultra surfy in 3-dimensional snow. Daily driver just about anywhere? Don't mind if we do. Read more.
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Ski Everything Anywhere 108... in fairness, at least the ski does do what it says on the tin. It's not nearly as freestyle-friendly as the Bent 100 / Depart, despite the fairly forward mount (-5cm). The flex of the ski is pretty directional (stiff tail, softer nose) meaning it's more of an occasional jibber than a Ski Everything Backwards kind of ride. Very good in pow, very loose and drifty in all conditions, and generally very very approachable. These are definitely the easiest ski to ski on this list so if you aren't the most aggressive skier, they are well worth a look. Read more.
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It's back with a revamped core and new graphics and it's... exactly the same. Luckily, that's a good thing. These are one of our favorite ever skis and they make the Best Of Test list again, and with ease. Every year they get nearly perfect scores from our testers, and if you're a strong skier, these are one of the most versatile skis ever built. We think the mounting point (-8cm or so) is nonsense, we'd go somewhere from -5 to -2cm from true, but that aside, they do the best impression of doing it all we've tried. Crank on groomers, float pretty well, charge pretty hard and we like them for stunting too. Read more.
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The Rossignol Sender Free 110 Ti (supercallifragilisticexpialidocious) is ever present at resorts the world over for a reason. It's very good. These are more of a freeride-focused ski than the others here but they are still happy throwing tricks. They have the most float here, but they do suffer a bit on hardpack from the width and relative lack of taper. We don't particularly like how metal laminates feel in the park but people are clearly managing out there in the wild world of 'ze gram. Powerful, decently light, and predictable in mixed snow, these skis are a big resort skier's daily dream. Read more.
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Check out all of the best 2024/25 goodies in our Gear Guide. Our other best test videos are live on YouTube, with articles dropping here in the coming weeks.
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