Our ski test team is made up of passionate skiers from all over the world of snow sports. The eclectic mix brings together ex ski racers, instructors, recreational skiers and even a Junior World Tour competitor. Each of our testers have brought their own unique skills and experience to the table and worked together to put over 100 pairs of skis through their paces on the slopes of Kuhtai, Austria.
Each ski has been assessed by at least 2 different riders and taken all over the mountain to test how they perform on different terrain types - off-piste, on the slopes, in the park. You name it, we've tested it. Every ski is scored against specific criteria for their category, so you'll have all the need-to-know info.
The top 10 brings together the best of the best from across the board in all categories - all mountain, piste, freeride, touring and park & pipe, so stick with us and whatever you get up to on the snow, we'll help you find the right gear this season.
Nordica Navigator 85 | £440 
ALL MOUNTAIN
BEST FOR The intermediate who wants a ski that goes all the way, or the lighter weight expert who is looking for a great all mountain ski.
Nordica’s Navigator 85 are all mountain skis aimed at the advanced skier, but we discover that they were a lot more than that, and a lot less too. Intrigued? Read on to get the full picture.
From the very first turn, our initial indication is that the Navigator 85 are stunningly easy ride. They handle short turns, long turns, moguls and variables so well, you wonder whether the all mountain category was invented just for them.
The extremely lightweight tips just work and they work very well indeed. Slightly rockered tips enter the turns with such ease and then absorb cut up snow, bumps and pretty much anything in their way. They do what you want without asking and somehow turn on a dime.
At the other end of the scale, the Navigator 85 perform at a surprisingly high level for skis that are aimed at the intermediate - advanced skier.
VERDICT - 9/10
Light in the turns, poppy and fun - when pushed hard, they respond with the performance you’d expect from skis that are marketed more towards the advanced - expert. They’re exceptionally stable at higher speed, considering their lightweight construction - incredibly versatile skis, Nordica’s Navigator 85 does not miss a beat at any point of the turn.
Rightly so, they are an all mountain machine and pretty much nails the ‘All Skier’ category too. Great fun, great looking and the lovely round flex would make a superb touring or Telemark ski option. They are sold flat so choose your binding options and head off into the hills. One thing we’re sure about is that you won’t get lost.
Volkl Transfer 85 W | £375 
PARK & PIPE
BEST FOR All mountain skiing for advanced women skiers who might jump in the park once in a while.
Volkl’s Transfer 85 are new skis built upon the previous Pyra model – with a new look and design, they are targeted at intermediate to advanced female skiers who like to get in the park but also want versatility on-piste.
Whilst the versatility is there – they make good all mountain skis that love to carve on groomed slopes – they lacked a little spark in the park for our liking. Highly stable and therefore good on hardpack snow, the perform perfectly well on jumps and rails and any confident skier will handle them, but they felt more like all mountain skis than a park and pipe specialist.
VERDICT - 7/10
Would suit a female skier who mostly skis on-piste but enjoys the odd foray into the park – also good in moguls and variable terrain.
Salomon XDR 84 | £600 (bindings incl.)
ALL MOUNTAIN
BEST FOR Fun all over the mountain for advanced skiers – instructors would get a lot out of them too.
Salomon are without doubt a true innovator of ski technology - think the rear entry boot, the capped sidewall and of course the BBR ski, to name but a few. The impact of these innovations on the ski world is impressive, but perhaps the BBR went too far? This seasons XDR range is Salomon's answer to all mountain, go anywhere skis that combine the BBR and X-Drive philosophies. The XDR 84 Ti looks, on first glance, to be rather less innovative than anything Salomon have produced in years but the reality is, they are an absolute belter of a ski.
The ease of turn initiation means a complete beginner would feel perfectly comfortable using the XDR 84 from the off. But start cranking through the turns and you get a real sense of power, with a razor sharp edge hold and a poppy, playful re-bound into the next carve.
The ease of turn initiation means a complete beginner would feel perfectly comfortable using the XDR 84 from the off. But start cranking through the turns and you get a real sense of power, with a razor sharp edge hold and a poppy, playful re-bound into the next carve.
At 84mm under foot they don't quite sit in the freeride category, but they're still wide enough to handle most powder snow scenarios, especially those unexpected moments when you feel the need to dive off the side of the piste into the soft stuff.
Solid, powerful, responsive and versatile, we can't think of much more you'd need in an all mountain ski. When you dial up the pace they can perhaps be a little hard to handle for anyone unable to take the ride, but then some of the other models in the new XDR range would be suitable alternatives.
VERDICT - 9/10
Overall a seriously impressive ski and at £560 with bindings they add an extra value for money dimension that you wouldn't expect with skis packed full of the kind of tech features that these have.
Rossignol Sky 7 HD W | £525
FREERIDE
BEST FOR Recreation and advanced female skiers looking to get into off-piste and all terrain skiing.
The 2018 Rossignol Sky 7 HD W replaces the Saffron 7 in the women's freeride collection. Incorporating the Carbon Alloy Matrix (ooh, sounds fancy!) and Air Tip construction means these seriously rockered skis travel over just about anything. Initially, they feel wider than expected underfoot which takes a bit of getting used to, but works nicely in the off-piste, giving tons of float.
On-piste we are not too convinced, which when you look at the side profile of the rocker and camber is understandable. The nose is very flappy and the ski-snow contact point makes us a little nervous of ramping up the speed, with the stability feeling questionable - though in fairness held the edge reasonably well. This does fit with the target audience of the entry level freeride skier too.
Off-piste is where the skis are designed to be. Rossignol’s latest core layer is the Carbon Alloy Matrix—a weave of carbon fibre and basalt—that gets added to the paulownia wood core to enhance performance and dampen the vibrations, increasing power and stability through challenging snow or at top speeds. The honeycomb-shaped Air Tip technology designed for flotation and manoeuvrability works well, and the stiffness that works against the skis on-piste gives power to the off-piste performance with the rocker simply gliding over the crud.
VERDICT - 7/10
The advanced skier needs some adaptability to make the best of them, and as long as they aren’t spending too much time on the piste, they could be worth the £525 without binding. The ability to ski with weight and power focused underfoot means we would recommend this to someone who is new to heading off the groomed slopes and into more variable, off-piste terrain.
Black Crows Arto | £630
PISTE
BEST FOR The hardcore freeride skier who has solid piste performance and wants to maintain his integrity in the lift line with all his fellow Black Crows skiers on a piste day.
How do you make giant slalom (GS) skis with a 24m radius so easy to ride? Well, Black Crows have come up with the answer and they’re called the ARTO.
Black Crows are known for producing wide, twin tipped skis for all types of terrain, but much to our surprise, they have now produced GS skis that don’t just look out of this world, but also turn like a dream.
The slick looking shape isn’t what you’d expect from traditional race skis - no red and white lines or graphics that define most thoroughbred World Cup machines. They simply look like Black Crows skis, just a lot thinner.
This in itself can be intimidating - we are familiar with the Black Crows pedigree that oozes quality and style, but once you snap your boots into the bindings and start to slide, this nervousness quickly dispels.
Surprisingly the ARTO also performs well in variable snow conditions. They seem to cruise around and over bumps, lumps and moguls - incredibly light, easy to turn and so sweet throughout the whole arc, regardless of the snow conditions you might encounter.
VERDICT - 9/10
Black Crows have proved they really know how to make skis of all types and the proof is in the ARTO - great fun for advanced to expert skiers, with a unique look that steps outside of the conventional model of a GS race ski and almost creates a unique category – the ARTO, and we bow to it.
Dynastar Intense 12 | £510 (bindings incl.)
PISTE
BEST FOR Expert skier staying on-piste, who likes an aggressive performance.
Dynastar has a long-standing heritage of producing high quality skis for both the piste and powder with some absolute classics in their historic line up – think, Course and Cham. So anything that comes though has a lot to live up to. The Intense was launched during the 16-17 season and is kept in the Dynastar collection for 17-18, and for good reason.
Exciting and thrilling are the two words that immediately come to mind with the Intense 12. Easy to turn, they’re a joy to play on whether you’re performing short or long radius turns on groomers. The edge hold is strong and solid, gripping into hardpack snow like an ice axe on a frozen waterfall. They love higher speeds too, there just doesn’t feel like there’s any limits to these skis
They’re the kind of ski that nurtures confidence, yes they are aimed at expert women skiers, but if you’re the kind of rider that wants to improve the technical side of your skiing on piste and you’re starting to get into carving, then they will look after you on that journey.
VERDICT - 9/10
Don’t judge a book by its cover – yes the topsheet is fine but didn’t inspire us much, but that doesn’t matter, it’s what’s inside that counts and they hold all their intensity within.
On the higher side of the price range but you get a lot of ski for the money.
Blizzard Black Pearl 88 | £490 (bindings incl.)
ALL MOUNTAIN
BEST FOR Advanced women riders who enjoy experiencing all conditions from piste to powder.
Blizzard has continued with the popular Black Pearl 88 skis for the 2017-18 winter season, whilst building around them with two further models (78 and 98) – we feel the 88 model provides a great balance between piste and powder for advanced women skiers and they are one of our favourite skis for 2018.
If you’re looking for the skis of the year that scored high across all our ratings then you’ve found it in the Black Pearl. Not only do they make us feel like ski gods on the slopes, we’re convinced we looked like it too. No matter what we asked of these skis, they were able to perform and delivered every step of the way.
We even feel they perform at the highest levels when pushed hard – not like a race ski, but certainly as a performance ski that experts will enjoy. Easy turning too, they will suit a female skier looking to improve their carve turns on-piste as well as explore more variable terrain beyond the boundaries.
On groomed snow they are the only ski we know that can handle everything from slow, short turns on piste to long fast turns in the powder – a true all-rounder and more than worthy of being labelled with the ‘one ski for everything’ tag.
Off-piste and into the deep snow, we love the playful energy and stability the skis have.
In the moguls, they handle brilliantly and don’t demand too much work from the legs to keep your chosen line.
VERDICT - 10/10
The simple top sheet design is a little understated, but we like that, although the show isn’t all on the surface, it comes from the performance.
Not the cheapest in the category but worth every penny.
Rossignol HERO All Turn Elite | £495
PISTE
BEST FOR Ski Instructors who need one ski all day
The Rossignol HERO All Turn Elite has a lot to live up to with a name like that. All Turn. Elite. HERO. So what is this ski good for? Well, they are in fact good for all turns! Well, all turns on-piste that is - but it’s not called ‘The HERO All Turn Elite On-Piste Only’, but they might have well of called them that.
At first glance, at least alongside the other HERO Skis, the All Turn Elite (HATE) looks a bit cheap. If Rossignol had spent another few quid on the same top sheet as the race skis, they would stand out and look a Million Bucks, but instead they look more like a Million Lira.
We like to question skis that claim to be dual side cut, or all turn, as we have never quite worked them out – do they really work? Well, the HATE really does. In short turns they are extremely quick edge to edge with the initiation into the turn spot on, grabbing the skis bang on the sweetspot without kicking you out of the turn. They release with ease and put you right back on the front of the ski, just at the right moment. Overall, a super playful ski with outstanding edge hold, even at higher speeds.
Being an ‘All Turn’ ski, we took them out of their comfort zone too – moguls to ridges, off the side of the piste, into short turns to longs and back to shorts, slow fast and “ski instructor” turns. The HATE slows down with so much ease and then opens up again into longer turns with the slightest of change without the aggressiveness of a slalom ski at speed, nor the longer sidecut challenge of a GS ski. They give you confidence to stand on the outside ski and let it do its thing. This is also down to the 74mm waist that allows you to stand on a ski with this sidecut (14m) and not get thrown out at speed, but is not too wide to stop them from having outstanding edge hold.
VERDICT - 9/10
HATE these skis we do not, we just wish they looked a bit classier, because they really deserve it.
Volkl Bash 116 W | £525
FREERIDE
BEST FOR Expert skiers looking for a versatile freeride ski.
One of the widest skis the Snow Magazine test team got to ride this winter and fortunately we had ideal powder snow conditions in the resort of Kuhtai to put these new skis through their paces. The re-branded Bash 116 includes a slightly stiffer nose and less rocker than their predecessor, but this just adds to the overall effect of fun you can have with this power of flower.
Despite the sheer volume of ski underneath your feet – their a true heavyweight in freeride terms but remains fairly light in construction - the Bash 116 floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee, in the words of the great boxer Ali, who was clearly thinking about these skis when he uttered those words.
Instantly, we forget about the size as they respond to the slightest command in the deep stuff to make short, sharp and snappy turns with ease. Usually, a 116mm width would be too much for zipping through a tight tree line, not these – they are playful and fun at both higher and lower speeds.
That access to the amount of power and finesse combined makes the Bash 116 one of the most versatile Big Mountain Freeride skis out there and one of our favourites for 2018. They’re liked by both our larger and smaller members of our test team too and perform a sterling job on groomed slopes, if you feel the need to get home quickly after that epic day in the pow.
VERDICT - 9/10
A lot of ski for your money at £525 (flat ski) that would suit expert freeride skiers looking to create fun and havoc wherever they travel on a powder day in the mountains.
Rossignol SEEK 7 | £565 (bindings incl.)
SKI TOURING
BEST FOR The randonnée skier who wants an easy up and a great ride down, regardless of terrain.
The new Rossignol SEEK 7 glides onto the end of the popular ‘7’ range and enters with more of a bang than a slide. These skis are one of our ‘Surprise’ skis of the season. Fortunately the surprise was a good one, in fact a good three.
Extremely lightweight, but with the freeride look of their larger siblings in the 7 range, when travelling uphill, you really feel that lightness and they handle with ease, but remain solid underfoot - making idle work of rough snow conditions and any undulations.
The first surprise kicks in on the way back down.
Rossignol have somehow managed to pack similar performance into a pure touring ski as they have in the now legendary Soul 7. They’re fun and have a pop in them that we have rarely felt in touring specific skis, with a light touch that also gives you confidence to let them go, eating up powder, chowder and bumps along the way.
Surprise number two comes with their on-piste performance, which is nothing short of amazing - solid throughout the turn, even when using pin bindings and touring boots. Then comes surprise number three - the price, which at £565 with PIN touring bindings offers fantastic value for money.
VERDICT - 9/10
Combined with great all round performance on-piste, off-piste, up or down, the Rossignol SEEK 7’s are not only fantastic value, not only great touring skis, but simply, just great skis.
Armada ARV 86 | £330
PARK & PIPE
BEST FOR Freestyle skiers who like the park and the rest of the mountain too.
The Arv 86 from Armada might be categorised as park and pipe skis but don’t keep them locked up there – versatility and performance are the trademark qualities and for freestyle skiers looking for an all mountain tool for the park and beyond then the Arv 86 is bang on the money.
Although not the widest skis in their category, the 86mm underfoot makes them ideal for hardpack territory and the edge grip and responsiveness is excellent. When riding switch, we like the way they move quickly and spin with ease.
Tech wise, the Armada AR Freestyle Rocked tips and tails and positive camber provide a fairly traditional ride through varied snow conditions and good technical skiers will get the most of them.
VERDICT - 9/10
Excellent value for money at £330 – they would suit everyone from the ‘Fridgekid’ indoor freestyler to a seasonaire who likes to jib when it’s dry and hit the pow when it’s soft.
