Ski Wisdom

Touring Ski
I used to insist that I could skin anything on my 140 mm wide inverse skis in half the time.... Maybe I could.... but I doubt it was ever the case. Skit touring has helped bring me back to the roots of ski design. For touring I've come to respect and appreciate the traditional ski shape; you get good stability and control on hard and icy snow, and a ski that skins and traverses very well. 90 - 100 mm under foot is just enough to float most snow, but still small enough to put 2000 vertical meters on the ski in a day. Around 20 m radius, it gives you the good response, but not to grabby to push you around at the end of a long day. A nice addition can be to add small tip and tail rocker, combined with standard camber in the center of the ski; with this you get a little extra float, without loosing much in the way of stability and hard snow performance. Its the latest upgrade on a tried and true concept. Its also possible to go a little inverse with side cut in the tips and tails, but this will cost you a bit of stability on hard snow and especially on the traverses.

Do it all Resort Ski
First of all It should be a ski at least 100 mm under foot to give you decent flotation under foot, but probably not more than 115 mm to make it possible to ski aggressively on hard snow. Otherwise there is a lot of room for personal preference. You could go with a standard shape, 20 meter radius for a quicker turn on hard snow, or up around 30 meters for high speed stability. There is also the inverse option, but with a bit of radius under foot to give some control on the piste. My personal pick is our Early Bird with rocker star camber (tip and tail rocker combined with standard camber under foot) Its a hard charger, big radius, stable ski, with float in the ends for the soft snow. But there are as many possibilities as there are riding styles, endless options to fit the ski to the rider.

Powder days
I would say120 mm minimum under foot, at least a bit of rocker tip and tail. You need to float, but the choice of inverse or a traditional shape? If you ski British Columbia style snow, steep trees, pillows, than an inverse shape ski is super fine, quick turning, massive float, the most playful powder ski you can find. But if you ski in the Alps you always have to deal with the hard windblown snow, slid out couliors, etc. For big lines the high alpine I would stick with a traditional shape, long radius and moderate rocker in the tips and tails. A ski that floats easily, but can run out the frozen debris at high speed and in fine style with full power.