Another ski season is right around the corner, and that means it’s time for another series of our Ski Comparison articles and videos! We share a lot of information about skis on SkiEssentials.com. These Comparison Series differ from the rest in the sense that we try to focus on how each ski differs from other options in the same category. We talk about overall performance, the feel of each ski, who it might be best for, and more. We’re kicking it off with one of the most popular categories in all of skiing, men’s all-mountain skis around 90 mm underfoot. There’s quite a bit of versatility among this group, although all skis could potentially be a daily driver depending on what type of skier you are. As always, don’t hesitate to leave a comment or reach out to us directly if you have any questions or just want to chat about skis.

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Overview:

The Declivity 92 Ti from Armada is a new player in the 90 mm all-mountain category, and a notable one at that. Armada has created a highly versatile ski with strong frontside capabilities too. They start with a Caruba wood core to keep weight down and utilize their new Articulated Titanal Banding technology. A sheet of metal is split into strips in the forebody of the ski, allowing for smooth turn initiation and an intuitive feel. As you flex the ski in your turn, it’s storing and releasing energy through an elastic compound, resulting in a snappy, responsive feel out of a carve. Subtle tip rocker and early taper help increase maneuverability in moguls, trees, and other off-piste terrain.

Who it's For:

Skiers looking for a high performance all-mountain ski with the benefits of metal, but a little more forgiveness and versatility. It doesn’t have the raw power of skis with two full sheet of metal and denser wood, but it far surpasses those skis in approachability and versatility.

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Overview:

The Vantage 90 Ti from Atomic is back for another season and continues to offer a relatively unique feel among this category thanks to Atomic’s Prolite construction. At just 1750 g in the 176 cm length, the Vantage 90 Ti is very lightweight, especially considering its stiffer flex pattern. The Energy Backbone and Titanium Tank Mesh deliver the performance here, with a tremendous amount of responsiveness. In fact, because of the stiffer flex pattern and lightweight feel, the Vantage 90 Ti is arguably the most responsive ski in this list, or at least right up there. It responds to skier input with lightning quickness, which allows advanced and expert skiers to ski with the utmost precision, although may be slightly too aggressive for less aggressive skiers.

Who it's For:

Skiers looking for a lightweight feel with relatively traditional performance. If you have accomplished technique, you can make the Vantage 90 Ti do anything you want, but it prefers to be driven, rather than ridden.

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Overview:

We get an updated Brahma 88 for the 2021 ski season! Everything we love about the Brahma remains, but the subtle changes have given it a little more versatility and soft snow compliance. Blizzard’s new True Blend technology utilizes different density wood in different areas of the ski, and actually changes depending on length to ensure the proper performance for that particular length. A shorter gap between sizes and 1 additional length option makes it much easier to home in on the right length for you. There are still two full sheets of metal, and the Brahma 88 is still a powerful, aggressive all-mountain ski. Softer flexing tips and tails, although a marginal difference from the previous ski, have given it slightly more forgiveness in softer snow and when releasing your tail edge, but it’s still a relatively demanding ski among this comparison.

Who it's For:

Skiers looking for a powerful, stable ski with really good vibration damping. You ski fast, you ski aggressively, you value edge grip on firm snow, but you also want to be able to get off the groomed slopes once in a while with more capability and forgiveness than a dedicated frontside ski.

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Overview:

The color may have changed, but the performance of the Blizzard Rustler 9 stays the same for 2021. Think of it as a complementing ski to the Brahma 88 within Blizzard’s line. Where the Brahma leans towards power, the Rustler leans towards playfulness. Flipcore DRT technology utilizes a partial metal laminated that tapers and ends as it reaches the tips and tails, which happens to be where the rockered portion of the ski begins. With significantly more rocker than the Brahma and softer flexing tips and tails, the Rustler 9 is more maneuverable (especially in soft snow), more playful, easier to release the tail edge, and easier to ski overall. It doesn’t have the edge grip or power of the Brahma, but it’s also no slouch on groomers thanks to its camber and that partial metal laminate.

Who it's For:

Skiers looking for a well-rounded all-mountain ski that they can take anywhere on the mountain. From groomers to trees and everything in between, the Rustler 9 can do it all, and does it with a fun-loving, playful attitude.

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Overview:

DPS has a new construction for 2021, Pagoda Piste, and along with it comes a whole series of new skis, including this Pagoda Piste 90 RP. This ski is unique among this group in the sense that it’s one of the lightest, uses more rocker and early taper than most, and also has the shortest turn radius at just 15 m. That makes it incredibly nimble and maneuverable. Skiers that love short turns and love technical skiing with fall in love with this ski. It’s super quick when wiggling through the trees and moguls. The new construction is quite impressive, delivering strong vibration damping and a smoother feel than you often get with carbon. The RP shaping concept does result in a relatively short effective edge, so you’re not getting the most edge grip on firm snow, but DPS has other “C2” shaped skis that are more focused on edge grip and firm snow stability.

Who it's For:

Skiers who value quickness, maneuverability, and nimbleness above all else. Maybe you’ve skied a wider DPS like a Wailer 100 in the past, but want a narrower waist width. That’s a great way to think about the Pagoda Piste 90 RP.

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Overview:

Like DPS, Dynastar also has a whole new collection of skis for the 2021 season. This M-Pro 90 is a fantastic new player in the 90 mm category and is also relatively unique. Dynastar uses long rocker in the tip of the ski paired with long, smooth early taper. The tail is flatter and more squared off, and that shape is supported by their new Rocket Frame metal laminate. The metal is thinner in the tip, and ends as it reaches the end of the ski. In the tail, it’s longer, and wider as well, which delivers tremendous power and edge grip when you want to complete a carving turn. The tip shape allows for a lot of versatility, and also allows for a lot of skier input. It’s not the type of ski that will pull you into a turn, rather one that requires skier input to get it to do what you want, but we like that, and think a lot of other skiers will too.

Who it's For:

We’ve described the M-Pro 90 as a “skier’s ski” because of the way it responds to skier input and morphs to different skiing styles. It’s tremendously versatile and feels right at home on and off-piste, although arguably a bit aggressive for an intermediate level skier.

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Overview:

The Ripstick 88 is another ski that’s been updated for the 2021 season. Similar to how we introduced the Brahma, Elan has retained everything we love about the Ripstick 88, just tweaked it to make it that much better. A big part of that was using more carbon along the inside edge of the ski (remember, Elan uses right and left skis in the Ripstick line). That technology was borrowed from the Black Edition skis, and effectively increases edge grip and stability, without taking away their playful, fun-loving attitude. The Ripstick 88 has a relatively soft, yet energetic flex pattern. Tip and tail rocker paired with early taper give it a maneuverable feel in softer snow and off-piste terrain, while the Carbon Rods and that extra carbon layer provides impressive stability and vibration damping without adding excess weight.

Who it's For:

Skiers looking for a well-rounded all mountain ski with a relatively even mix of performance characteristics. It carves turns well, it maneuvers through bumps and trees, it’s approachable for an intermediate, yet will satisfy the demands of an expert skier too. Perhaps most importantly, it does it all with a distinctly *fun* feel.

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Overview:

The Ranger 92 Ti from Fischer has more freeride influence than most skis in this list. Fischer’s Carbon Nose and the relatively long tip rocker gives the Ranger 92 Ti strong ability in softer snow conditions. Its float surpasses what you’d expect from a 92 mm waist width. The tail of the ski, on the other hand, is relatively flat, and the wood core is supported by a partial sheet of metal. So, while you get good float in softer snow, you also get a good amount of power, stability, and edge grip on firm snow. That makes the Ranger 92 Ti quite versatile for a variety of different snow conditions and terrain. Fischer also adds a skin attachment point on the tail, one of the few skis in this list to do so, and we take that as a nod to its versatility and the fact that it can be a lot of different things for a lot of different skiers.

Who it's For:

Skiers who value soft snow performance, but don’t want to sacrifice power or edge grip. It’s a well-rounded all-mountain ski and a really good choice as a one-ski-quiver. If you don’t like over-thinking things and just want to go skiing, you’ll love the way the Ranger 92 Ti adapts to varying day to day conditions.

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Overview:

Like the Ranger 92 Ti, The Kore 93 has more freeride, off-piste influence than a lot of skis on this list. It’s also unique in its construction and its overall feel thanks to Head’s blend of Karuba, Koroyd, Graphene, and Carbon. It’s relatively lightweight, although not the lightest in this comparison, and it uses enough rocker and early taper to give it a relatively playful, maneuverable feel in soft snow and ungroomed terrain. Skiers who value performance in trees and technical off-piste terrain have come to love the Kore 93, but that blend of materials also delivers darn good performance on the frontside too. It’s stiffer than you might expect, despite not using any metal, which translates to good stability at speed. It doesn’t have the vibration damping of a ski with metal, but that’s a reasonable tradeoff considering the maneuverability it provides when you’re off trail.

Who it's For:

Skiers who want a versatile all-mountain ski that won’t hold them back when you’re feeling more adventurous. The Kore 93 will take you into the sidecountry and perform admirably, while still being able to lay over carves on groomers.

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Overview:

K2’s Mindbender collection is back for another season with just a graphics update, and we’re excited to see them return. The Mindbender 90 Ti utilizes K2’s Titanal Y-Beam technology, with metal along the edges in the forebody of the ski, full width metal underfoot, then metal just in the middle of the ski in the tail. That gives the ski a powerful, precise feel when you’re driving turns on firm snow, but allows for easier tail release than skis with full sheets of metal. There are a number of skis in this comparison that love speed, like the Brahma 88 and a few skis we’re about to get to that also use two sheets of metal. While the Mindbender 90 Ti might not have quite the power of some of those skis, it’s darn close, and it’s more versatile and a little more forgiving too, which is certainly nice to have and a valuable ski in this category.

Who it's For:

Skiers who value powerful, edge grip, and stability in their all-mountain skis, but don’t want a ski that’s going to feel tremendously demanding or too unforgiving when you take it off trail. An advanced/expert level skier will have no problem maneuvering the MB 90 Ti through bumps and trees.

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Overview:

Remember when we mentioned skis with two sheets of metal, strong edge grip, and really good stability? The MX88 from Kastle is perhaps the best example of that type of ski. New for 2021, the updated MX88 now has subtle tip rocker and carbon inlays in the classic Kastle Hollowtech design. It still has a whole heck of a lot of camber and a flat, squared off tail. It also still has two sheets of metal, and guess what? It still absolutely rips. The tip rocker and updated construction does make it a little more compliant when entering a carving turn than the previous, although it still feels like it comes alive at higher speeds. Kastle’s skis have a distinctly high-end feel, and the MX88 is a perfect example of that. Precise, powerful, stable at speed, and a rewarding skiing experience, although it’s not going to be the most versatile ski for off-piste terrain or technical, tight lines.

Who it's For:

Skiers looking for a powerful, smooth ski with no speed limit whatsoever. If you like charging down the mountain and linking high speed turns, there aren’t many skis in this category that can match the performance of the MX88, and even those that come close, don’t have that Kastle feel.

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Overview:

The evolv90 from Liberty impressed us when it was launched for the 2020 season, and continues to do so into 2021. Liberty’s use of vertical metal struts in the evolve series delivers strong vibration damping and good overall stability at speed. In fact, it’s one of the quietest skis in this category in terms of vibrations and feel, as well as actual sound. Seriously, it’s like weirdly quiet, which is a good thing. The evolv90 supports aggressive, high speed skiers, and lays over impressive carves on firm snow. It doesn’t use a ton of rocker or early taper, although the relatively low rise camber does allow for easier edge release than some. It’s one of the best skis in this list for blasting through choppy snow conditions due to its stability and the fact you can throw them sideways if need be.

Who it's For:

Skiers looking for a powerful, stable feel, with more of a counter-culture attitude and a little more versatility than most competitors’ skis that use metal. An excellent complement to a wider, more playful ski like a Liberty Origin 106.

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Overview:

When it was released for the 2020 season, we were psyched to get a more groomer-focused Enforcer, and we’re just as excited that it’s back unchanged for 2021. Some of the technology in this ski has trickled (up?) into the new 94 and 100, a nod to its success in the 88. With 2 sheets of metal, the Enforcer 88 is right up there among the most powerful skis in this list with the best stability at speed. Among that group, however, it’s also one of the most energetic, and has a slightly softer flex pattern than some. This allows for a little more skier input, and the Enforcer 88 will adapt to different turn shapes and styles more easily than, say, the Kastle MX88. The Enforcer line started as skis that bordered between all-mountain and freeride, so it’s not surprising that some freeride performance has worked its way into the Enforcer 88, despite it being such a ripping ski on firm snow.

Who it's For:

Skiers who want a high performance all-mountain ski with seemingly endless edge grip, stability, and power, but with a slightly softer flex pattern and just a touch more compliance. That said, it’s still likely too much ski for most intermediate-level skiers.

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Overview:

The Experience 92 Ti is a new ski for the 2021 season, although carries forward the trends we’ve seen in the past few years in the Experience line. Slightly narrower than the 94 it replaces, and perhaps slightly softer flexing, the 92 is now the widest ski in the Experience line. What we’ve come to love about these skis is how well-rounded they are. Vertical metal laminates provide good stability at speed, but the ski is lighter overall than most skis with metal, especially in terms of swing weight. The tip borrows a lot of technology and design elements seen in Rossignol’s more freeride-oriented skis, which really increases versatility in softer snow conditions and ungroomed terrain. Quite similar to the next ski we’re going to talk about, the 88 version, but the 92 is a little more powerful, and of course 4 mm of extra width helps in softer snow.

Who it's For:

Skiers looking for a relatively even mix of performance characteristics. It feels right at home both linking turns on groomers as well as making more skidded, shorter turns through trees and bumps.

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Overview:

Pretty darn similar to the Experience 92 Ti we just talked about, the 88 uses the same technology, same shaping concept, but is a little softer flexing, and more approachable for intermediate level skiers. In fact, the Experience 88 Ti might have the widest audience in terms of the varying ability levels and skiing styles that can enjoy its performance. It’s stable, smooth, and has solid edge grip, yet it’s also intuitive, relatively forgiving, and pretty easy to ski among this comparison. There’s a reason why it’s one of the most popular all-mountain skis out there, and a big part of that is the fact that such a wide range of skiers can enjoy it. An intermediate won’t feel overwhelmed, while an expert will appreciate its versatility and willingness to adapt to different turn shapes and styles.

Who it's For:

One of the best choices for a less aggressive intermediate/advanced level skier looking for a versatile, well-rounded all-mountain ski. There isn’t really anywhere you can’t take it, making it a good choice as a one-ski-quiver if you don’t often encounter really deep snow.

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Overview:

The Stance 90 is the narrowest ski in a new line of all-mountain skis designed to complement the existing, more freeride-oriented QST skis. It uses Salomon’s new Metal Twin Frame design. A full sheet of metal just under the top sheet essentially has windows cut out of it in the middle of the ski both in the fore and aft. Instead of metal in those spots, Salomon integrated their C/FX material. This takes the weight down, while still providing the benefits of metal like strength, stability, and power. It’s right up there among the most powerful skis in this category, although the construction and its rocker profile gives it a touch more freeride performance than most skis that achieve this level of stability and vibration damping. It’s not the easiest to ski, but advanced/expert level skiers will appreciate the performance provided by metal paired with its ability to release its tail edge.

Who it's For:

Skiers who value metal construction, but want a little bit more versatility and a more freeride feel than most of the existing players in the 90-mm-skis-with-metal category, which features an ever-increasing amount of skis.

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Overview:

The Stormrider 88 has been updated for the 2021 ski season and is a little stiffer, a little more aggressive, and still 100% Stockli. Stockli skis, kind of like Kastle, just have a distinctly high-end feel. The Stormrider 88 is one of the smoothest skis you’ll ever encounter, much in thanks to the metal topsheet, your very first connection to the ski, and thus the snow. By making the wood core denser, Stockli has increased the power in the Stormrider 88, which really comes through in its edge grip and the way it stays composed at speed. Interestingly enough, the flex pattern is softer than even some skis that don’t use metal at all, which is another reason why it feels so smooth. The softer flex and premier vibration damping keeps the ski glued to the snow surface, not skipping over it and losing effective edge.

Who it's For:

Skiers who value firm snow performance and are looking for an all-mountain ski that will deliver satisfying carving turns, but don’t want something that’s planky, jarring, or that will beat you up. Cadillac smoothness with Ferrari precision.

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Overview:

The Kendo 88 was given a massive update for the 2020 season, and it’s back again for 2021. Volkl’s Titanal Frame construction uses metal under the topsheet that runs along the edges and through the tips and tails, but not in the middle of the ski, and it also doesn’t connect underfoot. That provides a lot of edge grip and stability, but allows for a bigger sweet spot than skis with full sheets of metal. That’s enhanced by Volkl’s 3D Radius, which features bigger radii in the tips and tails, and a tighter radius underfoot. If you let it run, the Kendo 88 will make some of the biggest carving turns of any ski in this comparison, but give it more skier input and you can gas pedal it into nifty little short turns. The longer radii in the tips and tails paired with low rise rocker also increases its ability in soft snow. In fact, this version of the Kendo 88 is easily the best ever in off-piste terrain, and in our opinion, the best ever across the board.

Who it's For:

Skiers looking for a powerful, stable ski with metal, but one that doesn’t feel pigeon-holed to just carving turns on groomers. Like the Stance 90 from Salomon, there’s a little freeride influence in the Kendo 88.

Written by Jeff Neagle on 10/01/20