For most of my life I heavily believed in buying big and wide skis. The first pair I ever owned, not rented, my dad had gifted me for Christmas. They were some edition of Praxis skis with a totally sick top-sheet and I loved them. They were certainly wide and from then on out I thought the wider my skis were the better.
Part of the opinion here might stem from growing up in Colorado. Where, up until this year, the snow was always good and skinny skis made up a nice decoration in the garage. When snow days would come by during my high school days I would always be ecstatic to strap on my 118 underfoot skis and ride from first chair till last. Nowadays my quiver is slightly more extensive, but for a year my daily driver was a 110 and the next year a 115. I thought if the snow was going to keep falling I should make sure I have the skis to keep up. Same with reading reviews and watching ski tests, it seemed to me that the general consensus was to buy a fat ski.
As I’ve gained some more experience in skiing and relocated from Colorado to Montana, it’s started to become more clear that ultimately if you’re good at skiing, buy whatever skis you want. When I first started college I scoffed at the people with any skis under 100, but when I saw how easy it could be to turn a skinny ski rather than a wooden plank, my eyes were opened. I’ve since upgraded my quiver to 91, 96, 106, 110, 115, and 118 waist-widths. With all these skis you can imagine that I’d have pretty strong opinions on the width debate (and also that I must’ve run out of money by now) but truly skiing all my skis only makes me think that I could always just be better.
There is so much more that factors into the ideal ski than just width, professional athletes will tell you what their sponsors tell them and brands will tell you what skis they just manufactured. At the end of the day, they want you to buy more skis. And if it wasn’t clear before I have plenty of pairs so I am here to say that skiing is skiing, skis are skis, and spend your money how you want.
There are days I ski a 96 and wish I had brought a 106 but the grander conclusion is that skiing is already an expensive sport, so don’t feel like you aren’t good enough if you don’t have an extended quiver. I promise you (from experience) if you daily 115 on bullet ice you’ll learn a lot and then the day you ride that skinny ski your world just might explode. If you spend your whole day thinking about the ski you wish you’d bought instead of learning to ski what you already own try to take a step back and remember somebody can always ski a worse ski in worse conditions way better than you can.
I suppose with the conclusion of this I should admit my title was fallacious. I didn’t quite settle the width debate but rather I hope to spread the message that all skiing is for all kinds of skis and if you spend enough time on the hill, blower pow days or not, you’ll be able to turn over any pair of twigs you clip into. My final message is to simply go skiing, enjoy it while it lasts, and the right ski only works if you’re the right skier.