Peak Ski Company Earns Unprecedented Ski-Test Praise

In April 2022, when former ski area CEO Andy Wirth teamed up with Bode Miller to launch Peak Ski Company’s first six models, the ski racing legend made a bold claim. Miller asserted that their first lineup of all-mountain skis would contain technology and construction that made them perform unlike any other ski on the market.

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Miller had been contemplating the design of the skis since 2004, when a manufacturing flaw in a pair of giant slalom (GS) skis helped him win three World Cup GS races that season and clinch his only overall title in that discipline. The difference? A technician’s mistake, inadvertently cutting out one layer of the ski, just in front of the binding’s toe piece, resulted in easier turn initiation without impacting the ski’s torsional rigidity—central to holding an edge. Those skis were on their way to the trash bin, but Miller, ever curious, had greater interest.

When a world title validated that curiosity, Miller’s engineering mind understood how the cutout made such a difference—though as he moved beyond his racing career, he couldn’t get ski manufacturers to understand or utilize the cutout. That’s when Wirth, as a friend and business partner, decided retirement wasn’t going to work for either of them and launched the new direct-to-consumer ski company with Miller’s cutout concept as the central design point of the skis. “Andy has built the entire company and team around innovation,” Miller says, “which meant when it came to ski design, there was, in essence, nothing between my mind and the skis.” 

Integrate that cutout design into consumer skis, Miller’s thinking went, and it would make skiing easier and more accessible for more people—not to mention, he notes, “make the skis more fun and versatile for expert skiers.” Wirth and Miller named it Keyhole Technology. Despite their insistence that it and other related design features (notably the reduced side cut) were game changers, many within the industry were skeptical. No company in its first year could produce a halfway decent ski, let alone one that could do all the things Miller was claiming Peak skis could do on the snow.

“That’s never happened,” says Dave Currier, a former World Cup ski racer and ski company product manager who ran the Skiing magazine ski test from 2001 until 2008 and was a ski tester for more than 20 years. “No company comes out and hits a home run in its first year.”

While the industry disposition is well founded, the skeptics were wrong. As soon as the 2022-2023 season started, reviews started to pour in. Ian Prichard, president of Black Tie Ski Rentals, saw the feedback across his nationwide rental company that carried Peak Skis last winter. “We had so many skiers of different levels coming in and telling us how much they loved the skis,” he says. “It’s rare to find skis that can work so well for skiers of so many different ability levels.”  

Though the anecdotal evidence and customer feedback were largely “extremely positive,” Wirth still wondered how the skis would do in the annual ski tests, “which are widely respected and used by so many folks when it comes time to make buying decisions.”

Now we know. The Peak 98 finished third in the all-mountain unisex category in the SKI magazine and Outside test, placing right behind the Nordica Enforcer 100, which has held a top spot in this category for a decade, and the Volkl M6 Mantra. “For so many years, I’ve held the Nordica Enforcer and Volkl Mantra lines in such high regard. To share the podium with those great skis is really great,” says Wirth. “I would hope to be number one, but just to be rated and ranked at the same levels as the Enforcer and Mantra—hell yeah.”

It wasn’t the only ski by Bode that performed well against the industry’s best in SKI and Outside’s collaborative 2024 Winter Gear Guide. Every Peak model submitted ranked highly across multiple ski categories, including the Peak 88 in Best Frontside Skis and Best Women’s Frontside Skis; the Peak 98, which also landed in the top 10 for Best Women’s All-Mountain Skis; the Peak 104 in both Best All-Mountain Wide Skis and Best Women’s All-Mountain Wide Skis; and Peak 110 in Best Women’s Powder Skis. 

And it wasn’t just SKI and Outside testers who loved the whole line. A slew of Peak Skis earned Editor’s Choice nods from Backcountry and Freeskier magazines (the latter including three models in Best All-Mountain Skis, the Peak 104 by Dav in Best Big Mountain Skis, and the Peak 110 by Bode in Best Powder Skis), plus a trio of Tester’s Choice awards from Ski Talk (for the Peak 104 by Bode, 98 by Bode, and 88 by Bode). Six models also earned “Blister Recommended” selections in the 23/24 Blister Winter Buyer’s Guide: The Peak 104 by Dav in Backcountry & Resort; Peak 98 by Dav in Backcountry Touring; Peak 88 by Bode in Frontside Skis; Peak 98 and 104 by Bode in All Mountain (More Stable); and Peak 110 by Bode in Powder Skis (Directional). Now, more reviews are on the way from European outlets eager to assess the lineup of six all-mountain and backcountry touring options, including Sports Medien EU, who recognized the Peak 98 by Dav with an Editor’s Choice award for Women’s Shred.

“I can say unequivocally that there has never been a new ski company that had such impressive results in their first year,” says Currier. “Even when established companies entered new models, those new models typically didn’t do this well in the ski tests.”

Going into its second season providing high-performance skis for skiers of all ability levels, direct to the consumer, the brand added freeskiing legends to its management team, including JT Holmes, Michelle Parker and Chris Davenport (pictured above). And though the 2023-2024 line of six all-mountain and backcountry touring options remains mostly unchanged beyond updating the graphics, Peak is working on notable improvements to the design of its 2024-2025 skis, including the anticipated integration the new proprietary locating and tracking device, Peak Loc8, with all of that season’s skis.

“The team has been grins and high-fives as we all received word of great results from all the ski tests,” Wirth adds. “They helped bring about a sense of quiet pride and accomplishment here at our Montana-based operation. But there’s not been much in the way of resting—our small but high-impact and high-performance team has so much more to get done. We’re just getting started.”

“The results in these tests are testament to the team we put together,” adds Miller. “I’m impressed with what we’ve done so far but we’re far from finished.”

Proudly born in the mountains of southwestern Montana, Peak Ski Company is rooted in innovation. Conceived by co-founders Andy Wirth and six-time Olympic medalist Bode Miller, Peak delivers high-performance, technologically advanced skis for the core of the consumer market.