6 Best Hardpack Skis For The East Coast

East Coast skiing is complicated. You can have storms that drop feet of snow, and you can have rain in the middle of winter. In between those two extremes is bulletproof hardpack snow and ice. Falling on hardpack hurts a lot, but luckily, the best skis for East Coast shredding can handle the variable snow conditions with ease.

If you’re an East Coast skier, you know how important edge control is. You need skis that can grip hardpack and ice without letting you slip. Wider and floppier skis just aren’t going to cut it. What works out west will not always work back east.

In this guide, I’ll review the 6 best skis for the East Coast and explain how to choose the best one for you.

My Review Process

I’ve been skiing for 25 years. I spent seven years as a ski instructor at Beaver Creek Ski Resort in Colorado and do the majority of my resort and backcountry skiing in the Centennial State. However, I learned in upstate New York. My first ski hill was tiny Oak Mountain in the south-central Adirondacks, so East Coast conditions are not new to me.

When looking at the best skis for East Coast shenanigans, I look at a few key factors, including width, metal edges, profile, turn radius, and dampness, or how smooth the ride is over bumpy terrain. If you zero in on those factors, you get a better sense of how well or poorly a ski will perform out east. The skis in my list below excel in at least one of these categories.

Do I Really Need Different Skis For The East Coast?

I would argue yes. The east coast (a.k.a, the ice coast) can get plenty of soft snow. However, the snow presents differently than in the West. You’ll be dealing with long stretches of bulletproof ice and hardpack. It’s a difficult type of terrain to ski, and floppy powder skis are not going to work here.

Could you ski with wider skis out east? Sure, and in deep snow, that's recommended, but the ice is no joke. If you hit a patch of firm snow on floppy skis and can’t get onto your edges, you may end up sliding down the entire run. Skiing out east is, in a lot of ways, harder than out west. If you don’t have experience on ice, it will be shocking. Having the right ski helps a lot.

What Type Of Skis Are Better For The East?

You need directional carvers, thinner widths, and skis with a lot of dampness for the East coast. Dampness is the ability of the ski to absorb the shocks from bumpy and uneven surfaces. Hardpack is not only hard, it's often uneven, and instead of bouncing around in your boots all day, a damp ski helps absorb that shock for a smoother ride.

All-mountain skis are great, but unlike the West, where it's perfectly acceptable to have over a 100mm width, I’d opt for something thinner. Ideally, you want an all-mountain ski with quicker edge transitions, metal to help dampen the impact of rough snow, and a short to medium turn radius.

How Wide Should East Coast Skis Be?

For East Coast hardpack, I’d say get something between 80-96 mm. Could you get something a little wider? Sure, but make sure you can get onto your edges quickly. Powder skis for the occasional East Coast dump are fine, but you better be living right next to the resort, or it's all going to be tracked out by the time you make the commute.

Armoring up with a thinner, metal-edged, and damp ski is going to create a better skiing experience, no matter what the conditions offer. If you’re positive you can catch powder at a place like Jay Peak (which has the highest average snowfall on the East Coast), I’d still exercise caution when considering a width over 100 mm.

East Coast Skis Buying Guide

Not all skis are built for the same snow conditions. East Coast skiing means dealing with a wide range of variable conditions that you don’t always experience out west, and that mentality has to guide your buying process. 

In this review, I offered six excellent skis that do one (or more) critical East Coast things:

• Provide quick edge grip via metal edges
• Enable easier transitions into and out of turns with thinner widths
• Provide smoother rides at speed and through tough terrain (dampness)
• Reinforce maneuverability in tighter spaces
• Provide a short to medium turn radius

Here are a few more things to consider before you settle on your next East Coast ski.

Cost

The price range for skis varies, but for newer models, you can expect a price of around $7-800. Models from the year prior can be hundreds of dollars less. However, you can’t ski without bindings, so skis are only part of the equation. Where able, I put options for both skis and bindings. If you go for a combination, expect the price range to be from $600-1000.

Skis by themselves, which assumes you have bindings or plan to buy and mount some, can float between $300-800. If they are specialty skis, the price can push past $1000, but none of the skis in this roundup cost that much unless they come with bindings.

Brands

For East Coast hardpack and firm conditions, Volkl, Rossignol, Nordica, and Atomic are the most well-known brands. If you’ve ever rented skis, it’s likely you’ve skied on a pair of Rossignols or Volkls. And while Line and Faction are certainly not small brands and boast excellent skis, they're still less known than the others.

Versatility

East Coast hardpack demands a certain type of ski build with an emphasis on edge grip and stability. As far as versatility goes, this means any ski on this list can hang with hardpack, ice patches, groomers, light trees, and some moguls. The Line Blade Optic, with a width of 96mm, can float a bit on powder, but generally, these skis are not for big powder days.

East Coast versatility means you have speed control, minimal chatter, a bit of maneuverability, and a smoother ride, so you hit the entire mountain. Like on the West Coast, the best and most versatile category is all mountain skis, but for the East, remember to keep the width between 85-96mm to get the most out of its downhill performance.

If you’re unsure about your ski size, make sure to check out our ski length guide.

Edge

The bottom of a ski has three components, two edges, and a flat base. The edges are usually built with a metal piece. The metal piece is what gives you an “edge.” Getting onto those edges and letting the shape of the ski dictate your turn is how you lean carving. Carving is great because if that edge is locked in, it can ride you through ice and hardpack without slipping.

Skis like the Atomic Maverick and Faction Prodigy have reliable edge grip but don’t have the metal, so they won’t be the best in challenging conditions. However, their playful nature makes them great in their respective fields. If you want a ski that locks you into your edges and can ride through the East Coast hardpack, you want the Kendo 88 or Enforcer 94.

Turn Radius

Each ski in this list has a medium or small turn radius. Generally, this is about 18 meters or less. Once you tip on your edges, the turn radius is how long the ski takes, on average, to make a turn. Smaller and moderate turns are great for tighter spaces, turn practice, and challenging conditions like hardpack.

Each turn has you scraping against the snow, so more friction more often translates to more control, especially if you’re scraping your edges. Long turn radiuses are great for ripping fast and keeping speed, but too much speed over an icy patch can lead to disastrous results. For ice and hardpack, you want a medium or short turn radius.

Durability & Dampness

Durability is related to dampness or the ability of the ski to take a beating from challenging terrain. Lighter skis are more nimble and great for activities like the terrain park, but if you go faster, the skis may smack up and down against the snow, causing what's known as chatter. Not only is chatter distracting, it feels less stable to ski on.

A heavier ski, with a metal edge and a thicker wood core, can get on its edges and blast through complicated terrain without bouncing you all over the place. The Line Blade Optic 96 is an example of a durable ski because of the smooth ride it offers through variable terrain. The trade-off is that a durable ski is often less playful, which is where the Atomic Maverick 86 C shines.

Summary

If you’re trying to get the best East Coast hardpack skis, I would go for the Volkl Kendo 88s. They can chew up hardpack like no one's business. However, if you’re an East Coast skier who likes to dabble out west, the Line Blade Optic 96s provide a dependable ride in a wide range of snow conditions.

If you’re looking for an all-around smooth operator in the all-mountain category, I’d check out the Nordica Enforcer 94s. And, for our terrain park aficionados, the Faction Prodigy 2.0 is a sweet, flexible twin-tip offering that can handle big jumps and delicate buttering.