Ski Buying Guide
Piste, all-mountain, freestyle, freeride or touring? The right skis depend on how and where you ski. Below, we cover ski types, length and width, camber and rocker, bindings, and the mistakes to avoid when buying.
How and Where Do You Ski?
This question narrows the field before anything else does.
Piste skis stick to groomed runs. They run narrower underfoot, hold an edge well through a full camber profile, and stay forgiving enough for a beginner or intermediate to build technique on marked pistes. See All Our Piste Skis here.
All-mountain skis cover a mix of groomed runs, moguls and light powder in one pair, using a moderate width and a balanced camber and rocker profile. They suit a skier who wants one pair to handle whatever the mountain offers on a typical trip. See All Our All-mountain Skis here.
Freestyle skis are twin-tipped, with turned-up tails, and run softer than piste skis. They're built for the park, for jumps, and for landing switch, with a forgiving flex that makes tricks easier to pull off.
Freeride and powder skis run wider underfoot with a longer turning radius, giving float in deep snow and stability at speed off-piste. They suit skiers heading beyond groomed runs into powder, steeps and trees. See All Our Freeride Skis here.
Touring and backcountry skis run light, built for climbing under your own power as much as skiing down. Touring skis usually pair with tech bindings for efficient climbing, and backcountry-specific models go lighter and narrower still for moving through deep snow. See All Our Touring Skis here.
What Length Suits You?
Height, weight, ability and the terrain you ski all play into the right length, but ability is the best starting point.
- Beginners: a shorter ski, somewhere between chin and nose height, turns and handles more easily while you're still building confidence.
- Intermediate and advanced skiers: a ski reaching between chin and the top of the head balances stability with manoeuvrability.
- Expert and racing skiers: a longer ski, above head height, holds stability at higher speeds and in harder conditions.
If you're unsure between two lengths, the shorter one is usually the easier choice while you're still building skills.
What Width Suits the Snow You Ski?
Width is measured underfoot, and it changes how a ski behaves across different snow conditions.
- Narrow skis (65 to 78mm): suited to groomed runs and carving, quick to edge and easy to turn.
- All-mountain skis (78 to 98mm): versatile across light powder and hard packed snow alike.
- Wide skis (98mm and above): built for deep powder and off piste terrain, where the extra width adds float and stability in soft snow.
Camber, Rocker or a Hybrid Profile?
Camber
Camber is the upward curve running through the middle of a ski laid flat on the ground. Standing on a cambered ski presses the middle down, flattening the ski and engaging the full edge against the snow. That longer effective edge gives strong grip and precise carving on groomed runs.
Rocker
Rocker, sometimes called reverse camber or early rise, curves the opposite way: the tip and tail lift off the snow when the ski lies flat. Originally built for powder, rocker now shows up across many all-mountain and freestyle skis, since it makes a ski easier to pivot and turn initiation more forgiving.
Flat
Flat skis, or zero camber, run flat along their full length. They give up some of the edge control a camber or rocker profile offers, so they suit powder or freestyle skiing more than piste days, especially since most flat skis still cross groomed terrain to reach the park or the powder.
Camber-Rocker Profiles (Tip & Tail Rocker, Tip Rocker)
Hybrid profiles combine the two. Tip rocker keeps camber underfoot for grip and power, with a lifted tip that eases turn initiation and adds float in powder. Tip and tail rocker lifts both ends, adding agility and a more forgiving feel in soft snow or technical terrain, at some cost to the raw edge grip a full camber ski holds on hard, groomed runs.
What Turning Radius Suits Your Style?
Turning radius is the size of the smallest circle a ski naturally carves once it's tipped onto its edge, calculated from the ski's sidecut and length.
A deep sidecut, meaning a big difference between tip, waist and tail width, gives a shorter turning radius: agile, quick to turn, easier to manage at slower speeds. A shallow sidecut gives a longer turning radius: more stable at speed, but asking more effort to turn sharply.
Camber and rocker still shape how that radius feels in practice. A camber-dominant ski with a short radius feels energetic and precise through a turn. A rocker-dominant ski with a short radius feels playful and easy to pivot, which suits freestyle and off-piste skiing. A long-radius ski tends to feel stable at speed regardless of its camber or rocker profile, though it gives up some of that nimble feel in tighter terrain.
System Skis or Flat Skis With Separate Bindings?
System skis come with bindings pre-installed and matched to the ski by the manufacturer, ready to use once your boots are fitted to them. They suit beginners and anyone who wants a straightforward setup without choosing bindings separately.
Flat skis have no bindings included, leaving you to choose your own. That suits intermediate and advanced skiers with specific preferences around binding features, weight or brand, and gives more room to fine-tune the whole setup.
Whichever route you take, the binding's brake width needs to match the ski's width underfoot. A mismatched brake width can drag or fail to deploy properly, which affects how the ski stops and handles on snow.
Match the ski type to how and where you actually ski, get the length and width right for your ability and the snow you meet most, then let camber, rocker and turning radius fine tune the feel. A professional fitting is worth booking once those decisions are narrowed down, especially for bindings.
Browse the full ski range, or book an in-store fitting, at Snow+Rock to find a pair built for how you ski.
FAQs
Match it to your ability as a starting point: shorter (chin to nose height) for beginners, mid length (chin to head height) for intermediate and advanced skiers, and longer (above head height) for experts and racers.
Piste skis run narrower and grip hard through a full camber profile, built for groomed runs. All-mountain skis run a bit wider with a balanced camber and rocker profile, covering groomed runs, moguls and light powder in one pair.
Camber suits precise carving on groomed runs. Rocker suits powder and easier turn initiation. Most skis sold today blend both in a hybrid profile rather than using either alone, so the right balance depends on how much of your skiing happens on piste versus off it.
Something in the all-mountain range, around 78 to 98mm underfoot, covers most conditions a beginner will meet without feeling too specialised in either direction.
System skis suit beginners and anyone who wants a ready to go setup. Flat skis suit intermediate and advanced skiers who want to choose bindings separately, provided the brake width matches the ski.
Two, generally. A moisture-wicking base layer against the skin, then a mid-layer such as a fleece, adjusted for temperature and effort on the day.
There's no fixed number of seasons, but watch for a base that won't hold wax, edges that won't sharpen properly, or a ski that no longer matches your ability as it improves.
Related Articles
Let us know you agree to cookies
We use marketing, analytical and functional cookies as well as similar technologies to give you the best experience. Third parties, including social media platforms, often place tracking cookies on our site to show you personalised adverts outside of our website.
We store your cookie preferences for two years and you can edit your preferences via ‘manage cookies’ or through the cookie policy at the bottom of every page. For more information, please see our cookie policy.