Carve: the freeskier's carving ski

We're freeskiers. Deep powder, park laps, side hits, the odd backflip off a cat track. So when we said we were making a carving ski, a few people laughed. Fair enough.

But here's the thing. Most days on the mountain aren't powder days. They're groomer days. Hardpack, corduroy, maybe a bit of soft snow at the edge of the piste if you're lucky. And every carving ski we tried felt like it was built for someone else. Stiff, serious, made for gates.

We wanted one that turns hard and still feels like ours.

How it came about

I was a racer. All through my childhood, up until I was 15 or 16, I raced. I was pretty good at it, too. But what I really loved wasn't the podiums. It was the turning.

When I stopped competing, it had nothing to do with the skiing. It was everything around it. The format, the politics, the rules. And honestly, I never found a good way to handle the pressure of a start gate. Contests just weren't home for me.

So I quit racing. But the carve never left.

Here's what I mean. A carving ski is shaped like an hourglass. Put it on edge and there's a gap between the middle of the ski and the snow. Stand on it, and the ski bends until that middle touches down. That bend is the turn.

And the feeling of it? You're physically bending something under your feet. You're on rails. With a good flex, the ski loads up, then fires back and shoots your legs under you into the next turn. I've never found anything that feels quite like it.

Now mix that with freeskiing. A side hit here. A nose butter there. And in between, proper turns. For a long time freeskiing and carving barely talked to each other. I wanted a ski that does both.

That's Carve. It launched for the 2025 season. Made by freeskiers, for the turns between everything else.

Like every pair we make, it's built by hand at Åre Skidfabrik in Åre, Sweden, using renewable electricity.

What it actually is

Carve is a ski for turning. 93 mm underfoot, a tight 15 m radius at 175 cm, and a metal layer inside. It's an arrow-shaped titanal sheet, thickest underfoot and tapering toward the tip and tail.

What that means on snow: grip where you need it, under your boots. Softer tip and tail, so it doesn't fight you. Edge to edge, short and snappy, with real energy coming out of every turn.

The tip has a decent amount of rocker. The tail is nearly flat, but turned up a bit more than most carvers, because old habits die hard. And 93 mm is no skinny race ski. Plenty of brands would call this width all mountain, and that's fair. Carve is an all mountain ski that's geared toward carving. It's happy in softer snow and the odd run through the trees. It just wants to turn while it's at it.

What Blister said

Carve is Blister Recommended in their 26/27 Winter Buyer's Guide. Not bad for a ski built by people who'd rather be doing backflips.

In the guide, they say Carve loves tight carves and is a ton of fun on piste. And if you want to mix airs and butters between your turns, "few skis feel more aptly suited to that approach."

Blister called Carve "a very exciting and unusual option in the frontside category." They also measured the flex and summed it up as "a pretty easy ski to bend."

That's exactly the point. You don't need to be a racer to make it work.

One of our riders put it even better in a review: "Stiff enough to rail carves, and be supportive in bumps with enough flex to still butter and let the creative juices flow." He called it the ultimate piste jib ski. We'll take that.

Who it's for

You're basically looking for an all mountain ski. But if you're honest, most of your days aren't spent in powder. You want to lay down a turn that feels good, not just get to the lift, and still hit a side hit on the way down. Maybe you just love carving.

It comes in 161, 168, 175 and 181 cm. Man, woman, big, small. Doesn't matter. Pick your length and go turn.

Take my sister. She runs her Carve with a hybrid touring binding, a Shift, and it's her daily driver. She tours on it. She skis the piste with her kids on it. Same pair, every day, and she loves it. So if you're only getting one pair, and you're honest that most of your days are on the piste, that setup is hard to beat.

Then Carve is your ski.

Specs

• 161 cm: 130 / 93 / 121 mm, 13 m radius, 1640 g per ski
• 168 cm: 131 / 93 / 122 mm, 14 m radius, 1760 g per ski
• 175 cm: 132 / 93 / 123 mm, 15 m radius, 1840 g per ski
• 181 cm: 133 / 93 / 124 mm, 16 m radius, 1990 g per ski

• Construction: wood core, pre-preg fibreglass, arrow-shaped titanal underfoot
• Profile: tip rocker, near-flat tail
• Built at: Åre Skidfabrik, Åre, Sweden
• Mounting: our team mounts -5 cm from center. Drill bit 4.1 x 9 mm

Want to see it move? Check out Carve. Or come say hi and ask us anything.