Does a wider ski carve worse?

The common advice is that wider skis are slower edge to edge and worse on hardpack. We checked it against 29 tested skis.

October 2026 · Data: GearLab, Best All-Mountain Skis of 2026

The data

GearLab tested 29 all-mountain skis (14 men's, 15 women's) and scored each one from 1 to 10 on stability at speed, carving, powder and crud. Waists ranged from 88 to 105 mm. GearLab doesn't score edge-to-edge quickness directly, so we used carving as the closest measure.

Raw scores: width doesn't predict quality

Plotted directly, carving barely moves with width (correlation −0.03). The reason is simple: a well-made ski scores well everywhere, and a mediocre one scores low everywhere. Overall quality swamps the effect of width.

Remove quality, and the pattern appears

To separate the two, we compared each score to that ski's own average. A ski that scores 8 on carving but averages 9 overall is relatively weaker at carving, even though 8 is a good score.

• 88–93 mm (7 skis): carving 0.5 points above their own average, powder 0.5 below.
• 94–96 mm (13 skis): roughly balanced.
• 97–105 mm (9 skis): carving 0.7 below their own average, powder 1.1 above.

Measured this way, the correlation between width and relative carving is −0.52, a moderate effect. Powder goes the other way (+0.35).

What that looks like on snow

A wider waist puts the edge farther from the center of the boot, so it takes a little more effort and time to roll the ski onto edge. In return, more surface area floats better in soft snow.

So what should you buy?

• Pick a good ski first. Quality mattered more than width in every category.
• Then pick a width for your snow. Mostly groomers and firm days: high 80s to low 90s. A mix, or lots of fresh snow: high 90s and up.
• A wide ski that carves well exists (the Atris Birdie scored 8). It's just relatively less of its strength.

Caveats

• 29 skis, one test, one group of testers. This is a pattern, not proof.
• Width comes bundled with rocker, turn radius and construction. This analysis doesn't separate those.
• Wider skis also tend to be designed for softer snow, so part of the effect is design intent, not physics alone.

Full data

Scores are GearLab's. Waist widths are the nominal figures from GearLab and 2026 manufacturer and retailer spec sheets. Skis marked * get 1–4 mm wider in longer lengths; the nominal width is the mid-size.