The Second American Revolution: How North America Won the War for All Mountain Skis
- Henry
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
This year’s crop of new skis has made one thing clear – the European idea of an all mountain ski is dead.
Dividing Opinion
For starters, what do we mean by “European” versus “North American” all mountain skis? This is more about an idea of what all mountain skiing is, first and foremost, which then influences the design of skis to reflect that.
North American resorts are focused around one mountain face, or at least concentrated on one mountain. A small number of lifts serve a huge amount of terrain, both pisted and unpisted. Critically, everything within the resort boundaries is patrolled, opening up huge areas including bowls, glades, and couloirs safe in the knowledge that ski patrol is there to pick up the pieces should the worst happen. “Resort boundaries” are also clearly defined by a rope, meaning you know exactly where help begins and ends.
As a result, the journey from getting on the lift in the resort to stepping off piste and finding powder is a short one; occasionally some more extreme routes can be found with a bootpack, but a vast majority of off piste skiing in North America involves very little travelling from the top of the lift.
By the same stroke, once you’re done scoring powder? A short hop back to the lift – the same one you’ve lapped multiple times already today – and you’re off again.
Contrast this with Europe, where the resort ends long before the best off piste begins. Hundreds of kilometres of pistes are strewn across multiple valleys and mountains, and to score some of the best off piste lines involves organising a small military campaign to reach. Take Cunaï, in Val d’Isere, one of my favourite off piste lines. To get there requires three lifts from the resort base, with a good bit of skiing in between; a short bootpack up beyond almost imaginary resort boundaries (although this is actually one of the few places where you’ll find a rope); ski the line; traverse out to the base of another lift; and, if you want to return to the line, it’s three lifts and a good bit of skiing to have another crack.
As an aside, this is one of the few areas where, in this author’s humble opinion, North American resorts have the upper hand on Europe – everything, everything accessible from one or two lifts.
North American skiers therefore need a different ski; something that is more designed for powder where the short hops of piste don’t matter, whereas Europeans need a ski that can do anything, well. Add in the need for a “one ski quiver” that is popular, say, for Brits fighting low-cost airline baggage allowances contrasting with throwing five skis in the back of your truck for a day on the mountain, and there are a long list of reasons why perceptions of an “all mountain” ski are divided.
The Difference Maker
This has manifested itself in two distinct styles of all mountain skis, defined most clearly by differences in width and construction.
A “European” all mountain ski has traditionally sat at around the 90mm mark underfoot, reaching down to 88mm and up to around 100mm. It also offers more in the way of shape – in the way a piste ski might – to give it more life when making turns on the corduroy.
I’ve been skiing on the Atomic Vantage CTI 90 for the last decade or so – beautifully shaped to turn easily on piste, stiff as anything to float off psite, and tonnes of metal in the core to provide wonderful feedback when skiing on piste. I’ve loved it for all of these reasons, and taken them all over the world for this time. It is a great example a “European” all mountain ski.
By contrast, a “North American” version of the same will be wider, at least 100mm underfoot and sometimes pushing as wide as 115mm. It will also be have a host of features that are more at home in the powder than on piste: this includes softer tails and a recommended mountain point more towards true centre of the ski, making it more suitable for performing tricks and “buttering” turns in all conditions rather than simply scoring some nice turns on between the piste markers.
The Vantage range from Atomic was discontinued a few years ago, and its replacement marked a distinct shift from Atomic (an Austrian brand, for what it’s worth). The Ben Chetler range is a great example of a “North American” all mountain ski – really soft through the tail (whereas the Vantage is stiff its whole length) with a really central mounting point. It’s one to bounce of pillows and butter through some knuckle hucks as much as it is to float through powder.
The Death of the All Mountain Ski
Readers of this blog will know how much I have banged this drum since the beginning of this year.
Over the past few years, the level of high quality technology – normally reserved for piste skis – that has made its way into wider and wider skis has grown. Considerably.
Of particular note has been vibration dampening technology and multi-radius edges. The former has made wider skis really really smooth underfoot, making them easier to control when pushing over on to your edges, and the latter makes it easier to initiate your turn with a smaller radius at the toe-edge but retains stability and strength with a wider turn radius towards the rear of the ski.
This is allowing wider and wider skis to fill the niche of traditionally narrower skis, performing as well – if not better – that traditionally “European” all mountain skis. Now skis of 104 and 108mm underfoot are doing the job of 90mm skis.
Overtime, this will chip away at the all mountain category until it no longer exists. There will still be skis designed for skiing across all of the mountain, but they won’t be standalone, unique category with their own names, topsheets, and identities.
Final Thoughts
So the Americans and Canadians have won. Wider all mountain skis will swallow their narrower cousins until there is nothing left. And you know what? I’m all here for it. These skis are seriously fun to ski and increase capability regardless of where you are skiing them. Bring it on.
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