Fischer Outback 68 Crown/Skin Xtralite 26/27

68mm underfoot with the Offtrack Crown fishscale base and Easy Skin compatibility, so it grips waxless on ordinary days and takes a clip-in skin when the ground steepens. Steel edge down both sides, Xtralite core.

That combination is the whole argument for this ski. A Crown base handles rolling terrain well and gives up on anything genuinely steep; adding a skin turns the same ski into something that climbs properly. You are buying flexibility rather than specialisation, and a specialist will beat it at either end.

For the skier whose days mix trail and woods and who does not want two pairs. At 68mm it is past what fits most set track, so treat it as an off-track ski that tolerates a groomer rather than the other way round.

Sizing is by weight as much as height in nordic, and this one runs long like the rest of the range. Bring both numbers and your boots.

This is the one we point most people toward first: wide enough for unbroken snow in the woods, narrow enough to still glide down a road.