Skis · Analysis

Metal is the baseline, not the guarantee: stability scores of 28 skis run from 2 to 10

Skis with a metal sheet are sold as the stable ones. We checked how much the label tells you.

November 2026

What we did

We took the 28 all-mountain skis from OutdoorGearLab's 2026 test that we could classify (29 tested; one had no construction text). Stability is their 1 to 10 score from one test team. We flagged a ski "metal" when its construction text names a titanal or other metal sheet; it is a yes/no flag, not a measure of how much metal or where. Flags come from Ski Essentials and OutdoorGearLab text, plus maker pages where we could fetch them. Five flags rest on one source (Dynastar M-Pro 98 W, M-Pro 94Ti, Fischer Ranger 102, Armada Reliance 92 Ti, Faction Agent 2); results hold with and without them.

What we found

24 of 28 skis have metal (20 of 23 counting only skis with two sources).
Metal skis scored 2 to 10 on stability. Lowest: Atomic Maven 94 CTI 2, Dynastar M-Pro 98 W 3 (single-source flag), K2 Mindbender 89Ti 4. Highest: Volkl M7 Mantra and M7 Mantra W, both 10.
The 4 skis without metal scored 5 to 7; none reached 8, while 13 of 24 metal skis did.
Mean stability: 7.1 for metal, 6.3 for no metal (difference 0.8; permutation test p = 0.52, so it could be chance).

Group	Skis	Mean stability	Range
Metal	24	7.1	2 to 10
No metal	4	6.3	5 to 7

Caveats

Only 4 skis have no metal, which is too few to state a direction. One test team scored everything, men's and women's skis were tested separately, and metal skis tend to be heavier, so metal and mass cannot be separated (weights known for 11 skis). It is a pattern, not proof.

Sources

OutdoorGearLab, Best All-Mountain Skis of 2026 (stability scores), checked 2026-10-31.
Ski Essentials 2026 ski test pages and OutdoorGearLab reviews (construction), maker pages for Black Diamond and DPS; per-ski sources in data.csv and sources.md.
Analysis ours: analysis.py, analysis.txt.

The slides

Cover: "Metal skis scored 2 to 10 on stability." 28 skis, one test. Does a metal sheet guarantee a stable ski?

Dot chart of 28 skis, waist width (88 to 102 mm) against stability score (2 to 10). Most dots are grey metal skis spread from 2 to 10; four teal dots are no-metal skis scoring 5 to 7.

Bar chart: 24 skis have metal (lime bar), 4 do not. Counting only skis with two sources: 20 of 23.

Bars of the lowest stability scores, all metal skis: Atomic Maven 94 CTI 2, Dynastar M-Pro 98 W 3 (metal flag from one source), K2 Mindbender 89Ti 4.

Bars: Volkl M7 Mantra 10 and M7 Mantra W 10, both metal; the best no-metal skis, DPS Wailer 100 and DPS Carbon Wailer 100, score 7.

Takeaway "Read the score, not the label": metal is common (24 of 28), scores vary a lot (2 to 10), a pattern not proof (4 no-metal skis, one test team). Question: which metal ski felt less stable than its label promised?