Skiers who are looking to go fast in the early morning hours or who are in the market for a fantastic citizens race ski should take a square look at the 2024 Volkl Racetiger GS. With a bit of a graphics update for this year, the ski returns otherwise unchanged. For advanced and expert skiers as well as former racers, the Racetiger GS uses a lot of the shaping and technology passed down from Volkl’s race room in order to provide mere mortal skiers the best in carving power, edge grip, and smooth turn initiation and completion. Most skiers spend most of their time on groomed terrain, and if you’re like us and ski in a relatively icy zone, it’s very beneficial to have a ski that can withstand some of the hardest snow on the planet. While not married to the racecourse, the Racetiger GS is certainly at home in the gates thanks to a blend of construction and shape.

As opposed to the full-on race build, the Racetiger GS is constructed with Volkl’s Multilayer Woodcore consisting of 33% poplar and 67% beech, so while it’s not the super-sturdy ash that we see in race skis, it’s still on the burly side of the spectrum. We also see two full titanal laminates to boost the stability and dampness while the 3D Glass bolsters the energy and pop. Any time that fiberglass is used in a 3-dimensional format, it makes it stiffer and more responsive, and that’s exactly what happens here with the Racetiger GS. In addition, Volkl adds their Tailored Carbon Tips to the mix, enhancing turn initiation and torsional stiffness in the shovel of the ski. By implementing carbon stringers that increase the quickness, Volkl takes the race-like precision to the next level. In this ski, we’re happy to see their Motion 3 12 GW binding system as well, as it’s one of the stronger and more burly systems out there, closely mimicking a race plate and binding while still being adjustable through a worm screw.

There’s not a whole lot to talk about when it comes to taper and rocker. This Racetiger GS does have a slight tip rocker to aid in the smoothness of turn entry, but there’s no tail rocker or taper to speak of. The camber underfoot makes the ski very grippy and energetic. At 67 mm underfoot, this ski has more of that race-like width, and while this can be unnerving for some skiers as it’s a pretty thin balance point, others wouldn’t have it any other way when it comes to hard pack and ice. Either way you look at it, for a GS ski, this is about as narrow as it gets. Bookended by 115 mm tips and 98 mm tails, this ski generates a 17.5-meter turn radius in the 178 cm length. This is a big difference between what we see in a citizens race ski like this and an FIS shape like you’d see on the World Cup. This shorter arc is better for mid-range carves and more of an all-mountain turn shape and style.

In our local Ski Bum race series, we see a ton of Volkl Racetiger GS skis, as their shape and style align well with the course design and snow conditions. They’re also great for the firm snow that we encounter here in Vermont, so many of our testers were super-impressed with the edge grip and carving power of these fantastic GS skis, whether you’re skiing in the gates or not.