2027 Women's Ski Buying Guide

It’s no secret that many of the reviews written about gear are written by men and that shopping for ski gear in a retail setting can often mean getting mansplained by 21-year-old with a sorry excuse for a mustache. Finding ski reviews for women’s skis is like asking men the best spot to go pee outside. Sure, the spot they find you might technically work, but you also might find yourself trying to cover your ass in a place where you really don’t want to. In contrast, if you ask another gal, she’ll likely point out an option with a nice tree or rock you can squat behind and it’ll probably have a good view too. Ski reviews aren’t really that different, yet, more often than not, we’re reading men’s advice on product’s performance or what they think are the best women’s skis.

I’m not saying there’s no value to either of these things, after all, I trust our Gear Editor Max’s opinions pretty unequivocally and frequently bother him with a million gear questions, but not everyone has their own Max.

Additionally, after I published an article on this same topic last year, quite a few women reached out saying how helpful they’d found it or that they’d gotten a pair of skis based on these recommendations or knowledge. Truly, nothing warms my cold, jaded, ski industry heart like empowering other women to nerd out about their own gear and ultimately end up with things they love! 

So, I’m here to give a little background info on things like ski construction and shape as well as few recommendations for women’s skis AND unisex/or men’s skis so when that 21-year-old points at a pink pair of skis first or you can’t find a review on something by anyone who weighs less than 180lbs, you’ve got some tools to help and hopefully get a setup you love. 

There’s two main things to pay attention to when you’re looking to purchase skis: construction and shape/sidecut. The construction determines a number of things like how the ski will feel, how it will handle in different conditions, its weight, and so on. The dimensions of the ski will help determine what type of ski it is (powder, all mountain) and sidecut will help determine how it handles and turns. 

I’m talking mostly about resort (or “alpine”) skis for brevity, but much of this knowledge can be applied to touring skis as well.

Shape

Width

Skis have a few main measurements: their length/size, underfoot width, and sidecut/radius. A great place to start is with the underfoot dimension or waist width of a ski, which can help determine what type of snow it will perform best in. This is the edge to edge measurement of a ski at its narrowest point, usually directly under where your binding will mount (eg. the middle of the ski). 

Generally, skis with an underfoot width narrower than about 100mm are made for on-piste skiing and carving and might not do you much good off-piste. Skis in the 100mm-110mm range often fall into the “all mountain” category, which means, well, they’re good for the whole mountain. If you’re looking for a one-ski quiver, an all-mountain ski is a fantastic choice. Skis in the 110-120mm range get more into the powder ski range and aren’t going to do as well on-piste or on firm snow and are less versatile for most resort skiing. There are some exceptions of course. Some folks will say you don’t need a powder ski, but this is POWDER Magazine, and we say you do. On the other hand, others will say 108mm is too wide to be an everyday carving ski. At the end of the day it is a preference, but there’s something to be said for the performance of a ski in the conditions it’s made for, so take that with a grain of salt. 

Sidecut/Radius

Now that we’ve talked about underfoot measurements, sidecut is another important one. Sidecut, or turn radius, is the imaginary curve created from the widest point in the ski’s tip to the widest point in its tail. Way back in the day, most skis were the same width from tip to tail, making them more difficult to turn. Sidecut has allowed for much more variability in the shape of how a ski will turn, making them more predictable and maneuverable. Generally, a short radius (10-15m) is better for quick carving skis and can be easier to ski. Radii of 15-20m fall into more of an all-mountain range and perform well for most freestyle and freeride skis. Radii of 20m+ are often for big mountain and powder skis, designed for bigger terrain where they have room to run. A larger radius is better for skiing faster because you’ll have more time between turns to pick up speed—the ski will also feel slower to initiate or “fall into” a turn, making it feel more stable, at the expense of agility. Shorter radius skis turn faster and more easily, allowing you to cut speed and stay more in control. Again, there are some exceptions to this rule.

Depending on the model, ski radius also changes depending on ski length, which can be something to take into consideration if you’re deciding between two different lengths in a ski. This also brings us to ski length–which is a time-honored debate that there’s really no right answer to. A great place to start is with skis that hit right about at your eyebrows, but newer skiers might want something shorter and more advanced skiers might want something longer. It’s really a preference at the end of the day. 

Profile

The last key piece of a ski’s shape is its rocker profile. If you look at a side from the side as it’s sitting on the snow, you can see that skis either have a cambered profile, a rockered profile, or some combination of the two. Camber is when the ski is more of a concave shape underfoot and has contact points on either end of this arch. Generally, a cambered ski provides a longer effective edge because it allows a point for the edge to engage easily towards its tip, which provides more edge grip in a turn and more stability. Rocker is what keeps the tip and sometimes tails of a ski off the snow. Tip rocker is often what allows a ski to plane above deeper snow, or float. Tail rocker can mean that it’s easier to disengage the ski’s tail from a turn (as opposed to a flat tail, which also provides a longer effective edge), and allow you to ski switch more confidently. 

Then, there’s reverse camber, or full-rocker skis, which have kind of a banana shape and only contact the snow directly underfoot with more rise in the tips and tails. While about a decade ago, this was an extremely popular design, many ski brands have strayed away from offering true reverse camber skis. These types of skis are traditionally great for skiing in powder because they have less of that effective edge, and are often playful and slashy, but can be a slightly more advanced ski because the edges are harder to engage and less intuitive to use in firm conditions. 

In recent years, many ski brands have also played with these combinations of camber and rocker to make shapes that have things like “all-mountain rocker” or “multi radius rocker” or even “mustache rocker.” In some of these shapes, camber is initiated closer to tails of the ski and the tips of the ski have more rocker. In other, camber close to the tip and tail of the ski changes the radii without changing the ski’s ability to carve or float. 

On groomers and firm snow, camber also adds pop and energy to a ski, allowing you to pressure the ski into a turn and use that stored energy to “rebound” back and engage into your next turn. While easy to pivot and slash, Reverse-cambered skis often feel dead on firm snow because that springy feeling isn’t there.

Construction

Damping, Flex, and Torsional Stability

When it comes to ski construction, you’ve probably heard people talk a lot about how “damp” a ski is, and, no, that doesn’t refer to how wet the snow makes it. Damping refers more to how well a ski absorbs vibration. Think of it this way: “damp = de-amplify.” Think about the feeling of carving turns on some slightly choppy hardpack—the more your ski vibrates underfoot and rattles you around, the less damp it is, so generally damping is a good thing. However, it is certainly possible for a ski to be too damp and feel lifeless.

There are several ways ski designers aim to reduce vibration via construction, and one is not necessarily better than the other. Many skis, especially stiffer, more aggressive skis use metal like Titanal to dampen and stiffen the ski. Other skis that are trying to maintain lighter weights will use things like rubber and neoprene inserts in the tips, tails, and along the edges to absorb vibration. Some even use rock (rocks?! rocks!) stringers to dampen skis. The double edged sword of a damp ski is that it can also affect the flex pattern of a ski and its torsional flexion.

(If you’re thinking ‘what on God’s green earth is torsional flexion, please stop throwing crazy words at me,’ bear with me.)

Roll your foot from the outside edge to the inside edge and back. If you a) did ballet ever b) have worn ski boots for years or c) are otherwise afflicted by weird feet, odds are you can feel all those tiny bones move as you roll, but hopefully not so much that it feels like one side of your foot is collapsing. These bones (they’re called metatarsals!) are what give your feet torsional rigidity. Skis kind of have the same thing, but it’s often made from some kind of fancy carbon braid weave, or changed based on the wood used to construct a ski. Generally speaking, you want a ski to have a good bit of torsional rigidity, so it doesn’t feel like it’s collapsing under you as you roll it edge to edge on hardpack. The wider and more soft-snow geared the ski, the less this matters.

Often, the materials added to skis to dampen them run the length of the ski (carbon, hard woods, metal, etc) and the layout of those materials affect torsional flexion or rigidity. As you can imagine, the skis that use metal are also going to be stiffer end to end than a ski that uses softer materials. This isn’t really something you have to think a ton about unless you know you want to be able to absolutely trench GS-style turns and have that ski stay super stable as you go from edge to edge (hint: you want metal) or on the flip side, like a surfier feel to your turns and a lightweight ski (try carbon or full wood with damping materials in the tips and tails!). 

Lots of brands will come up with fancy marketing terms about tech that ends up doing the same thing, but know that when you see something that’s called “Magical TriBlend SuperNeoprene Carbon Tech,” it just means that their ski designer came up with a cool new way to reduce vibration the ski or adjust the torsional rigidity. It can be a bit tough to tell what a ski will feel like just by thinking about these materials so take it all with a grain of salt. 

Wood Cores

Most skis these days are made with a wood core, but not all woods are created equal. Different woods have different weights, response levels, and dampening effects. Maple and ash are both dense, stiff woods, known for being stable, strong, and having excellent power transmission for more advanced, aggressive skis. Aspen, poplar, bamboo, and paulownia (Karuba) are all known to be lightweight, poppy, and playful keeping skis lively while also offering solid damping. Of course there’s more nuances beyond that, but I’d be writing a novel if I got into every single detail I could with ski construction. 

To Metal or Not to Metal?

Lots of women’s skis are built with no metal or less metal than a brand’s “male” counterpart ski because women are small and weak and can’t drive metal skis, right?

Wrong. Ya girl LOVES a metal ski. Honestly, the more the better. So don’t let a metal ski scare you away if you want an aggressive ski that is stable as heck. A 115lb skier like me might not be able to tail press a Blizzard Rustler 11 like a 180lb guy, but I’ll sure as heck have fun charging through whatever snow I want and auto-stomping any landing because the metal in that ski provides the stabilization I don’t have as a lighter skier. 

On the other hand, there are skis with no metal in them that I also love. Built right, a ski with no metal can be plenty stable and damp, and often be more playful than one with. They can also be a bit more approachable and easy to ski than metal skis. Like all things, it’s a preference, but there’s no reason women or lighter skiers can’t ski metal skis and no reason they need to either.

Women’s Specific Ski Recommendations

As the token woman on POWDER’s staff and also someone who is deeply (to the point of being pretty annoying) passionate about gear, I put together a list of some of the women’s specific skis I loved while testing this year as well as some recommendations from others. I also wanted to make a list of a few recommendations of skis that aren’t built as “women’s specific” because women are strong as hell and fully capable of skiing a men’s ski, but are rarely marketed these options. 

Like all reviews, these are just the opinions of me and a few other folks, so read critically and take it all with a grain of salt. The best skis for you are the ones you have the most fun on. 

As a reference point: I’m about 5’5” and usually in the 120lbs range and ski between a 170cm and 180cm length ski. 

Nordica Santa Ana 102

• Specs (179cm): 133-102-123 mm, 18m radius, 2160g per ski
• Sizes Available: 155, 161, 167, 173, 179

The Nordica Santa Ana 102 is a fantastic women’s ski that splits the difference between performance and playfulness. The Santa Ana 102 has a sidecut that sits in that middle all-mountain range and a super versatile 102 underfoot width. The ski has a cambered profile with a bit of tip rocker, allowing it to pivot really easily and stay afloat in deeper snow. However, most notably, the Santa Ana 102 is a women’s ski built with two sheets of Titanal that sandwich a wood and elastomer core, which like we mentioned in our women’s ski construction guide, dampens a ski and provides tons of stability.

Nordica has tailored the width of the Titanal layer to be specific to the width of the ski in the Santa Ana line up. The 102 is actually the softest ski in the line as it’s designed to be more of a freeride ski. However, if you tend to like a bit narrower ski (or live on the East Coast!), the Santa Ana 97 is also pretty sweet and has a little more metal, giving it more edge to edge stability (torsional rigidity, weee!). 

This Titanal layer does mean that the Santa Ana is a more aggressive ski, but hey, women can be aggressive skiers too, and we appreciate that it doesn’t leave anything out. If you’re an intermediate to advanced skier who wants a daily driver for anything from ripping groomer turns to leading your buds into gnarly resort and sidecountry terrain, the Santa Ana 102 or Santa Ana 97 could be a fantastic pick.

Elan Ripstick 100 W

• Specs (168cm): 134mm-100mm-114mm, 16.8m radius, 1535g per ski
• Sizes available: 154cm, 161cm, 168cm, 175cm

The Elan Ripstick is perhaps the biggest dark horse in the all-mountain/freeride ski category. A combination of an innovative and interesting construction, a wild shape, and a sweet spot of “put this ski on edge, but then probably jump off something too” sets the Ripstick 100 W aside from other skis in the same category. While the 100mm underfoot width would put it pretty squarely in the middle of the road for all-mountain skis, a substantial, shovel-shaped tip, just a touch of flare in the tail, and good amount of camber also make this ski pretty darn versatile when it comes to skiing deeper snow and staying maneuverable. However, what’s even more interesting about the Ripstick 100 W (and the rest of the Ripstick lineup) is what the brand calls Amphibio Technology, or in other words, the skis are asymmetrical. The inside edge of the ski’s contact point is closer to the front of the ski than on the outside edge, meaning there actually is a left and right ski.

Elan keeps the ski super light with a laminate wood core that has two carbon tubes inserted in it along the length of the ski to add edge stability, without adding a ton of extra weight. A layer of Flax Fiber is placed in the tip of the ski to reduce tip vibration and dampen the ski in firmer snow at high speeds. Those who want a lightweight ski that rips in a variety of conditions, allows for exploration and play, and comes in sizes ideal for smaller skiers should not overlook the Ripstick. 

Armada AntiMatter 100W

• Specs (168cm): 130mm-100mm-120mm, 16m radius
• Sizes available: 154cm, 161cm, 168cm, 175cm, 182cm

The mid-width of Armada’s new ski, the Antimatter 100, was made to be an ultra-versatile ski that bridged the gap between a narrower, more freestyle inspired ski and the burly big mountain feel of the 108 and 114. Although the Antimatter 100W is effectively the same as the regular version, it comes in a different/smaller range of sizes and with a different colorway (that’s way sicker, IMO) and is a reminder that women also love an aggressive freeride ski. 

Like Armada’s ARV series, the Antimatter uses a 100% poplar core which cuts down on weight and keeps the ski light and full of life. However, Armada layered in what they call Speed Metal, which is actually just Titanal layers placed underfoot that taper towards the tip and tail of the ski to beef the ski up a fair bit. The design of the metal layers allows for all the damping and stability of a ski you’d want to take on big terrain with, but allows the playful nature of the 100% poplar core to shine through as well. Although the Antimatter 100 doesn’t really have a gentle ‘hop on and feel it out’ setting, it’s also not a ski that punishes the skier when things get a little loose. 

Armada team skier Anne Hjorleifson said that the AntiMatter 100W was “everything she’d always wished for” in a ski and if that’s not a good endorsement, I don’t know what is. 

More Women’s Skis to Check Out

• Moment Bella 108 – fun all-mountain twintip
• Blizzard Sheeva 11* – hard-charging powder ski
• Atomic Maven 103 CTi – great mid-width all-rounder

*The Sheevas use a women’s specific construction until the 180cm size, where they adopt the Rustler construction

Unisex/Men’s Ski Recommendations for Women

4FRNT Devastator

• Specs (172cm): 137-108-131mm, 17.5m radius, 1780g per ski
• Sizes Available: 172, 179, 186

4FRNT doesn’t make any of their skis gender-specific, except the Hoji CC and MSP CC, but they do make many of their skis fairly aggressive and notably, they make many of their skis with a reverse cambered design. The Devastators are their 108mm underfoot freeride skis, making them right at the top end of that all-mountain waist size. They also use something called a multi-radius rocker along with that reverse cambered shape which means that even with the reverse camber shaped has been tweaked with multiple rocker points, allowing skiers to engage more effective edge, or carve more easily in firm and variable conditions than on a traditional reverse camber ski.

Additionally, the Devastators are made without any metal like many women’s specific skis which keeps them light, poppy, and maneuverable, but the Aspen/Maple construction keeps them stiffer than other full wood core skis. A neoprene rubber tip insert also keeps the Devastators nice and damp as well, so you’re not getting flung around in chopped up conditions. In short, they’re a light, playful ski that’s still aggressive. If you love smearing turns, hopping off sidehits, and skiing fast, the Devastators are definitely worth a look. Skiers especially in wetter climates like the PNW and British Columbia will appreciate the reverse camber in heavier snow. 

Salomon QST 100 & QST 106

• Specs (188cm, QST 100): 135-100-123mm, 18.5m radius, 2000g per ski
• Sizes available (QST 100): 148cm, 156cm, 164cm, 172cm, 180cm, 188cm
• Specs (181cm, QST 106): 139mm – 106mm – 126mm, 19.5m radius, 2000g per ski
• Sizes available (QST 106):157cm, 165cm, 173cm, 181cm, 189cm

Salomon has made exceptionally high quality women’s and unisex skis for many years now, but the QST line they introduced for 2025/26 that remains largely unchanged for 2026/27 really knocks it out of the park. In years prior, Salomon had a women’s version of the QST 100 and 106 (the Lumen and Stella, respectively), but the French brand has now decided to simply offer the same ski with two topsheets. The QST 100 specifically is an excellent all-mountain width and has a particularly playful tip and tail rocker as well as a generous camber, making them easy to turn and excellent for carving. The 106 is similarly playful and versatile, save for its wider underfoot width, wider tip and more pronounced rocker lines, which make it a pretty excellent soft snow and powder ski. 

Both are made with a lightweight, responsive poplar wood core and to dampen the ski, Salomon uses a sci-fi cool combination of cork in the tip of the ski and superlight Basalt fibers. There is a piece of Titanal in them, but only underfoot as a binding reinforcement and for a little extra edge grip. I’ve heard both described as a “hangover ski,” which isn’t a bad thing. Rather, it’s an indication of how approachable and fun these skis are, and skiing is supposed to be fun. 

Blizzard Canvas 108

• Specs (186cm): 140mm – 108mm – 128mm, 19m radius, 1870g
• Sizes available: 168cm, 174cm, 180cm, 186cm, 192cm

For an entire generation of skiers, Blizzard has undoubtedly been a brand geared towards hard-charging resort skiers looking for powerful on-piste skis and crud-blasting performance. That is, until they released the Canvas, and shook things up with a progressive, playful, twin-tip ski designed by their freeride athletes. The Canvas 108 skips the stiff nature of just about every other ski in the existing Blizzard lineup–its poplar and paulownia wood core provides a soft, poppy, and very round flex profile and a super light ski.

The 108 in particular falls in the middle of the Canvas line, (rounded out by the Canvas 100 and Canvas 118), and performs well in a variety of conditions. The shape makes it easy to ski, approachable, and by extension, pretty darn fun. Yet, it’s still a Blizzard, meaning advanced skiers that can push this ski will have a blast on it (except maybe in super wet snow…). It comes in a nice range of sizes for a range of skiers, and has one of the coolest topsheets I’ve seen Blizzard put out, courtesy of artist Penelope Misa. 

More Unisex Skis to Check Out

• Atomic Bent Chetler 110 – lightweight freestyle powder ski
• Nordica Unleashed 106 – approachable but hard-charging all-mountain ski
• Salomon QST Blank – one of the friendliest powder skis ever made