How to Pick the Perfect East Coast Ski

What makes the ideal ski for our region? How do you choose a width, construction, and length? Ryan walks you through his best tips after having worked at a ski shop for over a decade.

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0:00 - Intro
1:50 - Where do you like to ski?
3:10 - How aggressively do you ski?
5:55 - How fast do you want to go?
6:38 - Summary

[faceinthecrowd]

As an east coast skier for 60 plus years I’ve seen and skied a lot of trends the latest being the wider ski fad. For the last 2 years I have skied 89 to 104 underfoot and my experiences have brought me back to skiing a 74 under foot. Why?
I am an advanced carver that skis the edge of the trail with a variety of short turns and opening it up to more GS at 40 to 50 MPH, 5’8” and 155lbs. I found my K2 mindbender 89TI in 177cm as an east coast daily driver to be solid but not as good on hardpack/ “ice” as I prefer. The edge to edge response was sort of sluggish and not as playful as I like. I took my Elan fusion 14’s out for a try after dusting them off and immediately wondered why I ever thought I wanted to follow the trends! 168cm, 74 under foot and super heavy with 2 full layers of TI, the grip…..holy shit…amazing! Radius, tight and speeds, stable.
People pick skis for personal reasons and at the end of the day I don’t care what anyone one else likes, it’s about what I like or what you like. But as a ski culture observer what I see on the east coast in lift lines and coming down the hill is a reflection of intermediate skiers on wider, rockered skis and the result is more straight line skiing, more skidded turns and less carving. The skiers who carve and handle the ice, the afternoon scratch snow are not on powder park west coast planks they ski the more narrow waisted heavy axes.

[mitchellhart]

I worked by butt off as a ski instructor and picked up a pair of atomic bent chetlers 100s last year. Love those sticks, they are my babies

[jeffmorrow]

I'm a ski tech from New England with 50 yrs on skis who skis primarily in the Whites, Greens, and the mountains of Western Maine. I'm 5"11, 185lbs. These are the same three questions I ask people when they ask me to recommend a ski. My go to ski is the Volkl Mantra M5 (96cm underfoot and 177cm long) ) but I will go to the Rossi Experience 82Ti in 178cm for those pure groomer days. I prefer to wander off trail but sometimes in the East groomers are all you get. The Mantra is exceptionally stable, good on hardpack, can rip, and excel in the crude and chopped up snow, but not much float in the deep stuff (over 5-6 inches). I find that with All-Mountain skies you got to give up something. But for the majority of what we ski in the East, the Mantra gets in done very well. They are also the skis I take West and have found its a good big mountain all mountain ski except for those big powder days. For that 1-3 days a year when the Nor'Easter hits us just right and dumps 2-feet on us and you get to be out there, or if your out west when the big storm hits rent yourself a playful powder ski in the 105-110cm range, maybe wider if your west. For those days where for whatever reason you're limited to the groomers, and that's a lot of the time in the East, I've found the Rossi Experience 82Ti to be a fun ski that's stable at speed and a quick turner so its good in the bumps, and even in the trees when they're skied out. Everybody's different and will settle on a ski they think in the best, but focusing on the three areas highlighted in the video will help you zero in on the best ski for you. The skis I mentioned here work best for me. Your "best ski" might be different. If you're looking for a "one ski quiver" get a ski that does most of the stuff you like to do. That's the Mantra for me. Lot's of good skis mentioned in these posts. If you can, demo multiple skis before you buy. It is the best way to find the ski that's right for you.

[fortyfour]

K2 102 Reckoner 177cm did well for me this season on the east coast!

[davidgrattan]

Holy smokes. That was an insanely well done tutorial.

[HelloWorld-zggs]

You can tell he's from Vermont because of the way he is.

[chrisdelbonis]

my go to ski is the k2 shredditor 102 perfect for everyday ripper and handles the pow just fine

[chrism]

0:25 Those are Rossignol 4M Equipe. Got those for my birthday back in 88. Great mogul ski.,

[karlhoffman]

pretty good advise, also true for west coast.

[WayneInRome]

I'm riding Dynastar Legends 96 underfoot - I love them, powder, carve, whatever. Fantastic ski.

[DuxGoProvids]

Rustler 9 or 10s are perfect for everything.

[levrac]

I have both the 2023 Elan 96 RS Black in 172 and the Atomic Maverick 95tis in 180. I'm a solid intermediate (5'11" 190LBS) middle aged male doing 3 trips out west and 6 weekends up to Vermont. I'd like a better choice for the Vermont/NH hard pack/ice. I've been looking at the K2 Mindbender 89s, the Nordica Enforcer 88s, Volkl Mantra M6 and the Kendo 88s. Whatever I get will be strictly for the East Coast. Thoughts???

[predatorpwr]

The real solution, have multiple options and deploy the pow slappers when needed.

[adubs]

So, the take away is to have more than one pair of skis?

[rasik]

Ok man I have seen a lot of ski reviews! This has been the most entertaining and informative. I ski in mid west we don't have deep powder days but the logic applies 😁

[_curtis]

Your width scale needs to slide down! Groomers: <80mm. All mountain: 80mm - ~95mm. Anything wider than that you are really hindering yourself unless you are in powder deep enough to actually float. Unnecessarily wide skis are bad for your form and the health of your knees! I'd strongly recommend against buying anything 100mm+ for a one ski quiver, especially for the east coast!

[jonnytest]

I got atomic backland 100's. They are the perfect ski for me. Im pretty tall so i guess they might feel like a 90mm ski for someone like 5'10 or below. they are light, poppie, turn pretty good and float thru just about anything on the east coast.

[zanaevans]

I'm so tried of chubb's & PSA instructor types saying you can't ski the east coast with skis wider then 90mm under foot. Come on out to Mad River Glen we'll show you how it's done. I don't care if small width skis are for you, but don't tell me I can't ski 108 under foot skis! You have no idea

[mikehoffman]

I discovered the Lib Tech Backwards. i think it is the perfect East Coast ski

[fastbladeproductions]

Eastcoast Frontside aggressive skier here....this relates back to 5:29 time mark.... Morning I run my Fischer Rc One 86 gt and in the afternoon I run my Kore 93... love this combo so much I bought another pair of both....