1-Ski Quiver: Reviewers’ Choices (17/18)

One Ski, For Every Day on the Mountain, Any and All Conditions

We started out with our 3-ski Quiver Selections, then narrowed things down to our quivers of 2.

And then there was just 1.

The 1-ski quiver is the Holy Grail of the ski world. Practically anybody can make either a really good pow ski or a fantastic carver, but to design a ski that will excel across a whole host of conditions? And that some might want to use both inbounds and also in the backcountry?

That’s another thing altogether.

We say it all the time: a single “Do Everything” ski is basically a fantasy, one that’s easy to dream about but impossible to achieve. All ski designs result in tradeoffs.

But while the single ski that perfectly handles all conditions and terrain doesn’t exist, there are a number of skis that do a number of things well — and that number is increasing.

So in what follows, we’ll name the skis that, in our view, come closest to the ideal given where and how we ski.

There is no best answer to the 1-Ski Quiver question, but there are definitely better or worse answers depending on the tradeoffs you are willing to live with.

So we’ve put the question to our reviewers, and hopefully their answers will help you figure out which single ski would make sense for you. (We’ll be rolling these out over the next two days.)

Finally, if you’d like to see more of our 1-ski quiver choices for low-snow areas and higher-snow areas, be sure to check out our 17/18 Winter Buyer’s Guide, where we offer our 1-ski quiver choices based not on our reviewers’ personal choices, but by width.

The Questions

For each of our reviewers, we asked them to answer the following questions:

I. What’s your 1-ski quiver (of currently available skis) for where you ski most?

V. What’s your 1-ski quiver for the next 3 years, regardless of location?

VI. What ski was the most difficult to leave off your list?

VII. What ski do you imagine has the greatest likelihood of making your list, if and when you get to ski it, or get to ski it more?

NEXT: The Selections:

• Cy Whitling
• Brian Lindahl
• Paul Forward
• Sascha Anastas
• Kristin Sinnott
• Sam Shaheen
• Scott Nelson
• Kara Williard
• Jonathan Ellsworth