Are expensive skis better? 28 tested skis say: not reliably
Are expensive skis better? Do pricier skis score higher in tests? We lined up GearLab list prices and overall scores for 28 all-mountain skis (13 men's, 15 women's).
The finding
Price only weakly predicts the score. The Pearson correlation is 0.22, and the rank-based Spearman correlation is 0.06. (Both run from -1 to 1; 0 means no relationship.) Men's skis alone give 0.17 and women's alone 0.24.
There is a small lift on average. Splitting the skis into equal thirds by price, the mean GearLab overall score rises from 4.13 to 4.28 to 4.37 on a 5-point scale. That is a 0.24-point gap, with wide overlap: the top price tier includes skis scoring 3.8 and 4.8. The thirds are our own cut, not an industry definition.
Four skis tied for the top score of 4.8, at list prices of $800 to $930. At the top of the price range, the three skis over $1,000 scored 4.4, 4.5 and 4.7.
The data
| Tier (price third) | List price range | n | Mean GearLab overall |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower | $699-800 | 9 | 4.13 |
| Middle | $800-850 | 10 | 4.28 |
| Upper | $899-1,300 | 9 | 4.37 |
| Top scorers | List price | Overall |
|---|---|---|
| Volkl M7 Mantra | $930 | 4.8 |
| Nordica Santa Ana 97 | $800 | 4.8 |
| blackcrows Atris Birdie | $899 | 4.8 |
| Blizzard Black Pearl 94 | $800 | 4.8 |
Full per-ski table: data.csv in the post folder; method: analysis.py.
Caveats
- One tester site (GearLab), one category (all-mountain), n = 28. This is a pattern, not proof.
- Prices are GearLab list prices checked Oct 30 2026. They name no retailer and are not sale prices, which change often.
- One ski from our wider set (Faction Agent 2) is not on the GearLab page and was left out.
What to do with it
Read the test for the specific ski you want. Price gives a small average edge here, but little certainty for any single ski.
Related
- Does a wider ski carve worse? Waist width against the same kind of test scores.
- How we work: where our numbers come from and how we check them.
Sources
- GearLab (OutdoorGearLab), Best All-Mountain Skis: outdoorgearlab.com/catalog/all-mountain-skis (list prices and overall scores, checked Oct 30 2026)
- Analysis ours.
Get the next one
Next up: how testers score skis, and why scores differ. Follow on Instagram.