Gear Picks

At this year's ski test, we loved the Bonafide as a men’s all-mountain shredder. The double sheets of Titanal make these skis stable “steamrollers” for fast, aggressive skiers. One tester said the skis were “both stout as hell and an easy round-turn carver.”

We gave the Switcher MIPS a Gear of the Year award. “After more than a dozen testers placed the Switcher on their noggins, all agreed that it was the most comfortable helmet they’d worn,” we wrote. The helmet ticked all the boxes we wanted (like a MIPS construction and a magnetic closure on the strap).

This past winter, our writer tested 20 new ski and snowboard goggles and the Scott Linx came out on top. He called these the best “performance bang for your buck.” “We took the Linx out in storms and blue-sky sessions through the spring and forgot we weren’t wearing goggles twice as expensive," he wrote.

In this year’s alpine touring ski boot test, the Celeste III became a favorite because of its roomier lower portion of the shell and the cuff. “The Celeste performs more like a ski-mountaineering boot than a four-buckle powerhouse,” we wrote. Plus, the boot has a 60-degree range of motion in walk mode so climbing is smooth and efficient.

The Völkl Secret is the sister ski to the Gear of the Year–winning M5 Mantra. We featured the Secret in our 2019 Winter Buyer’s Guide because of its ground-up approach to making these women’s-specific. One of our testers—a former instructor—said: “It’s powerful enough to bite into the hardest snow, but you can back off the gas and ski it easy, too.”

Unlike Salomon's earlier boot, the MTN Lab, the updated Salomon S/Lab MTN has Custom Shell HD technology making it heat moldable to accommodate your foot specifically. When we tested this boot for our 2019 Winter Buyer’s Guide, our testers said “it skied like a boot with twice the buckles.”

Several years ago, Dynafit introduced a turnable heel to prevent pre-release and the new ST Rotation 10 improves on that. This new version includes a spring-tensioned toe piece that auto-realigns itself so it’s easier to step back into the heel piece. This feature is why we included the Rotation in our 2019 Winter Buyer’s Guide.

Salomon took its women’s all-mountain board, the Pillow Talk, and sliced it in half to get this splitboard. This past winter, when we rounded up the best splitboarding gear of 2019, the Pillow Talk was our favorite women's splitboard in spite of the name. "The flex is on the soft side, but the board handled well in mixed conditions,” we wrote.

In our review of the best ski pants of 2019, our tester wrote, “the Patsey Marley excels on all-day missions.” Convenient features like side zippers and four pockets allowed us to store plenty of snacks and easily use the bathroom when we needed.

In our roundup of the best jackets of 2019, we dubbed the Ventus Light the top backcountry shell. “Neither flimsy nor overbuilt, this three-layer shell is breathable enough for high-output climbs and just tough enough to spar with errant ski edges,” our tester said. Bonus: it packs down to the size of a grapefruit so it’s easy to stuff when traveling.