How to Choose Freeride and Touring Skis: Width, Length, Rocker and Weight

Walk into any ski shop today and you will find a wall of touring and freeride skis in every shape, width and colour of regret. Nearly every brand makes them now. The bad news: there is no best ski, and no ski that does everything. The good news: choosing gets easy once you answer one question honestly.

How and where do you actually want to move on skis? Not your dream season in Alaska. Your real winter. That answer picks the category, and the category does most of the choosing for you. People who ride a lot end up with two or three pairs anyway: one for training laps, one all-rounder for the season, one fat pair for the deep days.

Match the ski to the mission

• Skimo racing: short, skinny and feather-light, usually under 900 g per ski. The ISMF rulebook sets minimum lengths and weights so nobody turns up on toothpicks.
• Fitness touring and long traverses: light, narrow skis up to about 80 mm underfoot, classic camber, shorter than you are. The uphill is the point. The downhill is about getting home without falling too much.
• Classic ski touring and ski mountaineering: all-mountain touring skis of roughly 80 to 100 mm with tip rocker, around 1,000 to 1,400 g per ski. If steep, narrow couloirs and jump turns are your thing, go straighter, narrower and shorter.
• Freeride touring: 100 mm and up, tip rocker as standard, often tail rocker too, and long. Every climb is supposed to end in the best possible descent, and the ski is built for that.

Waist width: narrow, medium or fat?

Narrow, up to about 80 mm. The big win is weight. On a packed skin track you barely feel them, and kick turns in the trees are effortless. On a dusting of fresh snow or soft spring corn the descent is lovely. In deep powder, breakable crust or heavy slush it becomes a survival exercise.

Medium, 90 to 100 mm. The sweet spot for most people. Enough float for deep days, enough edge for hard snow, and it copes with slush. You pay with some weight on the climb, plus the brakes and sturdier bindings that go with it. If you want one pair that climbs and still rips on the way down, shop here.

Wide, over 100 mm. Freeride touring and deep snow. For Japan or interior British Columbia, do not even look at anything narrower. They used to be heavy planks. Not any more: modern wide touring skis are remarkably light for their size. The climb costs more energy and traversing a frozen skin track can be awkward, but when you are breaking trail in deep snow the surface area keeps you on top while your narrow-ski friends sink to their knees. On the way down they are stable at any speed, on any snow, and let you do things you would not dare on anything else.

Camber, rocker or flat?

• Classic camber: for fitness laps, hard snow and steep, narrow couloirs. Maximum edge grip.
• Tip rocker: the modern default. Works in open terrain and mixed snow, and keeps things fun when conditions are not.
• Tip and tail rocker: made for deep snow and playful riding, including landing or riding switch. On long skis the raised tails can tangle under the other ski in kick turns until you get used to them.
• Flat: a powder specialist's choice. Less stable running straight and harder to hold on an icy traverse.

How long should touring skis be?

Fitness and race skis: shorter than you. All-mountain touring: around your height. Freeride touring: from your height up to 10 to 15 cm longer, depending on how well you ride. Yes, longer. People worry about kick turns and tight trees with long skis. Try it for a few days. You lengthen your step a little, spread your stance a little, and the problem disappears.

Construction and weight

Look for a wood core, usually poplar or other light woods, often wrapped in carbon or reinforced with titanal for torsional stiffness. The wider the ski, the more the internals matter, because a wide ski has to resist twisting when you push it hard. Foam cores are light and cheap and fine for mellow uphill-focused touring, but they feel nervous in chopped snow and do not float as well. If you ride aggressively, go wood.

Then do the maths on yourself. If you weigh 90 kg and carry a 15 to 20 kg pack on a multi-day traverse, that is well over 100 kg on the ski. Race and fitness skis are not built for that. Buy for the load you really carry.

One small detail people forget: skin attachment. Every brand shapes its tips and tails differently, with notches, holes or inserts, so check that your skins fit the ski before you are standing in a car park at 7 am finding out.

New or second-hand?

Your first touring skis do not have to be new. Rental-fleet sales and ski swaps are full of good options, and while you are still working out which kind of touring you love, a cheap pair is the smart way to experiment. It also hurts a lot less when you find the season's first hidden rock.

Or just try before you buy

The Snowbusters crew rides DOWN SKIS, and we carry a demo fleet on most of our trips and courses: the COUNTDOWN L 114 and L 104 and the SHOWDOWN 108 and 100. Ride them in real snow for a week and you will know more than any buyer's guide can tell you, this one included. Details on the DOWN demo page, and the rest of the kit is covered in our freeride touring gear guide.

Quick answers

What width is best for freeride touring skis?

100 mm underfoot or more. Around 100 to 108 mm is the versatile end, 110 mm and up is for deep snow.

What is the best one-ski quiver for touring?

Something between 90 and 100 mm with tip rocker and a wood core. It handles powder, hard snow and slush without punishing you on the climb.

Should freeride touring skis be longer than me?

Usually, yes: your height up to 10 to 15 cm more, depending on ability. Rocker shortens the effective edge, so a rockered ski skis shorter than its label.