Best Men's All Mountain Skis: Northeast 2020 Review

'What skis are best for the Northeast?' 

 First, let's talk about what we have here in New England -- it's a mixed bag, snow conditions can be anything and change at a moments notice for the better or worse.  Skiers that live the weekend warrior lifestyle might have the best conditions or may have the worst; regardless they're packing up on Friday and heading North (saying North as I'm sitting here in Boston) to go shred.  The East is known for hardpack, but we also have a lot of loose granular, tons of man-made snow, slush and believe it or not the occasional powder day.  The majority of skiers have one pair of skis, and for those that have multiple sets, they still want a swiss army knife that can hang in whatever the day may bring -- the weather, she changes quick boys.  

While most skiers in the Northeast want a ski that can do most everything well, priorities can be different, grip is important but it might not be the most important to everyone, just because we have harder snow here doesn't mean you're spending all your time on groomers/on-piste.  To each their own, with that in mind we created this graphic for how our favorite skis for New England feel and compare to one and other.  The graphic below takes into account all the skis we're stoked on for the East Coast for one reason or another.  

Every one of these skis is on this list because they're an awesome all-mountain ski, just with their own strengths and weaknesses, 'all' mountain doesn't mean they are all created equally.  

**K2 Mindbender 99 Ti is left of Mindbender 90 Ti due to space, it should be on the same longitude. 

So you may be wondering why do we think this or feel this way about these skis.  Well, most of our days on the hill wherever we may be skiing is essentially a ski test.  Some days we're at an actual ski test, like the Powder Magazine test that Eric and I have done the last 4 years, or one of the other guys, Matt does the Freeskier test in Aspen.  All of the buying meetings we do on the mountain (trade shows are a thing of the past -- sorry we're not sorry), we can talk about skis on the chairlift, at lunch and spend most of our time on the hill.  We get emails, phone calls and people coming to our store because we continue to recommend the right stuff to the right people, we're able to do that because we spend our ski days testing all the gear -- while I may have made that sound like work, it's actually a lot of fun.  That K2 Mindbender test when we went heli-skiing was one for the books.  

Reading the matrix is pretty easy, not as complicated as looking at thre feen code as depicted in The Matrix movie.  For the sake of argument let's pretend you want a super versatile ski.

If you're looking for a ski that is going to be great at everything but not amazing at any one thing, the closer you are to the middle of the matrix the more versatile of a ski you'll have for Northeast conditions.  This is not to say that being in the middle is bland by any means, honestly it's the goal of creating an all-mountain ski.  If you ski in New England and want a ski that will ski great everywhere, in every condition that we could be presented with, it's really tough not to go with an Enforcer 100 or 93.  They are an insurance policy for weekend warriors that want to have fun even if Mother Nature doesn't want to cooperate.  Maybe you've skied the Enforcer and you wanted more grip than it had, that's cool -- everyone is different.  You should really check out the Mindbender 90 Ti, that thing isn't like any K2 you've skied in the past.  The Mindbender 90 Ti doesn't get nervous at speed, you might, it won't.  It's wider sibling the Mindbender 99 Ti, is a smidge more playful making it more appropriate for off trail situations.  Maybe the Mindbender 90 Ti's are too much for you on a groomer, but the Enforcer 93's aren't enough, time to get a Kendo 88.  

Our favorite 2019/2020 all-mountain skis for New England -- in no particular order. 

Nordica Enforcer 93 $649.99

Nordica Enfocer 100 $699.99

Volkl Kendo 88 $649.00

Volkl Mantra M5 $699.00

K2 Mindbender 99 Ti  $699.95

Fischer Ranger 99 Ti $699.99

Wondering what ski is best for you, contact us or visit us in Boston MA and we'll guide you towards what's best for you.