Peak Ski Performance—Bode Miller’s New Ski Brand Is A Big Hit

With Olympic Gold, World Championship Gold and Overall World Cup season titles, Bode Miller is the winningest American male skier of all time – by far. He is also one of only five racers in history to win World Cup races in all five alpine disciplines.

Miller’s championship pedigree is well-known, but what is less talked about is his opinionated passion for equipment, tinkering and perfection. As a pro, he worked endlessly on his own skis, sanding the sidewalls to reduce aerodynamic drag, and helped develop the sidecuts that are popular industry-wide today. At one point when he was sponsored by Rossignol (he raced on K2, Fischer and Atomic as well) he cut a hole in the top of his skis before a World Cup Giant Slalom (GS) race, noticed the skis were easier to turn and edged better, and proceeded to win the season’s World Cup GS Crystal Globe. From boots to the fabrics in his clothing to bindings, skis and everything else on the mountain, he is obsessed with design, quality and function.

A few winters ago, I had the pleasure to spend two days skiing, eating, drinking and chatting with him at one of my favorite ski destinations, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. It was during this trip that he shared his thoughts on what was wrong with the ski market, what could be better and how we wanted to change things. That was when he was still planning his next career move, and this thought process led to the 2022 launch of Peak Skis, a brand Miller started with his friend and longtime ski industry executive Andy Wirth, who was previously the president and CEO of the giant sibling Palisades Tahoe/Alpine Medows resorts near Lake Tahoe.

Peak Skis launched in time for the 2022/23 season, and while they are still very new, they are quickly rewriting the industry playbook – and winning fans. Peak is based in Montana, where Miller has designed and tested his protypes at the second largest ski resort in the nation, Big Sky. But more important than its prodigious size, Big Sky has some of the toughest terrain around, especially its notorious Lone Peak, which Miller told me is one of his favorite spots in skiing.

It is important to note that these days former pro athletes and entertainment celebrities often hitch their names to just about anything they can sell – especially tequila, wine and other spirits – whether they have anything to do with the production or not. Just about every golf ball and club on the market has PGA Tour players as sponsors, but how often are they in the labs helping design gear? In sharp contrast, as Peak’s Chief Innovation Officer, Miller is very hands-on, and when he revived his hole in the ski concept, he was up late at night in the Montana workshop cutting models by hand until he perfected what is now Peak’s signature “Key Hole Technology.” This is an oval cutaway in the upper layers (not all the way through the ski), which according to Miller, creates an inflection point in the ski flex that serves two purposes, making turn initiation easier up font and getting better edging along the entire ski.

“Using my 25 years of experience as a professional ski racer, we set out to develop skis that advance the sport by changing the way people ski,” Miller said. “Our intense focus on performance and precision are coupled with innovative design features, including Keyhole Technology, that make skiing fundamentally easier. Ski design can only happen holistically. If you alter rocker, you alter turn initiation, which means you must adjust flex and torsion. These details matter. My name is on the skis.”

He is not the only one with his name on the skis. For this winter, legendary big mountain free skier Chris Davenport, 2-time World Extreme Skiing Champion and 24 Hours of Aspen winner, joined his friend Miller to add input, and now has two Peak signature models of his own.

Peak recently opened its own showroom/café in Bozeman, Montana, but for the most part, has further shaken up the industry as a major direct to consumer brand. It sells its skis only in the store and on its website. They also offer bindings from major manufacturers chosen by Miller to match the skis, but these come unmounted. They have accessories from other companies such as poles, goggles, boots and climbing skins pre-cut to fit their skis. All models come with free shipping, and as premium skis they are not inexpensive, with all six models priced at $1,090. This is more than the most popular models from most of the big brands such as K2, Atomic, Volkl and Salomon, but less – often far less – than niche brands such as DPS and Stockli.

One other unusual thing about Peak is that they do not make men’s skis or women skis, just skis, all marketed as unisex. That said, as you can see in the tests and awards below, the models won acclaim from top ratings in both men’s and women’s categories, from all-mountain to powder. If you go to the Peak website and click on women’s skis, you are greeted with this message: “If you landed on this page it’s because the ski industry has lately done an exceptional job convincing women skiers that they need women’s skis. That is not our position at Peak Ski Company. We just make really good skis, ensuring that the flex and performance of each length is correct – meaning that lighter weight women can easily bend them into turns. Ditto with lighter weight men…They aren’t dumbed down. They aren’t pink. They aren’t ‘women’s’ skis. In keeping with who we are as a company, they’re just really good skis.”

Last winter I got to demo a couple of pairs of Peak skis, including their widest model, the Peak 110, which I took to Japan to test in the deepest, most acclaimed powder on earth. I also tried the Peak 98 by Bode on the slopes of Sun Valley. Peak’s stated long-term goal is the Holy Grail of skiing, the true do-it-all, all-mountain ski, the much sought after “one ski quiver.” While that dream is still in the future, the 98 is the model Peak markets as its most versatile, designed for 50/50 off and on-trail, intended to perform well on groomed slopes, or in powder, crud, chalk, or corn.

Sun Valley (Ski Magazine’s number one rated resort in the West, which I recently wrote about in detail here at Forbes) is famous for its long and consistently steep groomed runs, and these were perfect for exploring the turn initiation and carving, which lived up to the hype. But surprisingly, I was most impressed in the crud off and between trails, my least favorite snow condition. The skis seemed to ignore the broken and irregular snow and turned just as if they were in softer powder, cutting right through and not getting bounced around.

In Sun Valley, I rented my Peak 98 boards from Black Tie Ski Rentals, a national chain that operates hotel room and in-home delivery of high-quality rental gear at major resorts all across North America (a great ski travel convenience, no lugging your skis on planes, no standing on long lines at rental shops, just great gear fitted to your family while you sip a cocktail and relax). Black Tie is a company I have used before and respect, and they were one of the first to embrace the new Peak brand. Black Tie president Ian Prichard told Outside Magazine that, “We had so many skiers of different levels coming in and telling us how much they loved the skis. It’s rare to find skis that can work so well for skiers of so many different ability levels.”

While I have been skiing expert terrain for over 30 years, I am not a professional ski tester, so I turned to those who are.

Recently two of the most important reviews in the industry, Ski Magazine and Outside Magazine, combined forces and do a joint annual testing. For this winter, the Peak 98 came in third in the All-Mountain Unisex category, and the reviewers wrote, “Do we really trust Bode Miller, the man with the most unconventional but inarguably successful style in alpine racing, to make a set of planks for your average skier? As it turns out, being a genius innovator in the sport isn’t a bad place to start. The Peak 98 is the flagship of Miller’s new ski brand and is charging out of the start gates at, well, Miller’s pace, impressing our testers across the board… our testers were most surprised by the Peak 98’s capabilities in soft snow. Intermediate to expert skiers who want to rail groomers and bite into chalk will be as impressed as we are by this new offering. If we didn’t know any better, we’d think Miller pulled this ski straight out of the stone.”

In fact, every model Peak submitted to the Ski Magazine/Outside 2024 Winter Gear Guide did well, with the Peak 88 making the lists for both Best Frontside Skis and Best Women’s Frontside Skis, while the Peak 104 made both Best All-Mountain Wide Skis and Best Women’s All-Mountain Wide Skis and the Peak 110 made Best Women’s Powder Skis.

Among other important publications, Freeskier named the Peak 88 by Bode the number two all-mountain ski on the market, and wrote, “It’s no surprise Peak Skis has quickly created some of our testers’ favorite skis. The 88 by Bode is the thinnest underfoot offering from the company. It caters to the skier who lives to trench groomers day in and day out. It’s an on-piste weapon, as the ski will eat crud and firm snow, giving you confidence on days when others won’t even step out. Part of the control and stability lies in Peak Skis’ Keyhole Technology. A strategic keyhole cut in the ski’s inner metal gives an easier initiation into the turn and allows you more stability with a balanced flex. Our testers felt the difference immediately, and we wager that you will too. This isn’t your traditional carving ski. It is the peak of carving skis.”

Freeskier also picked Davenport’s contribution, the Peak 104 by Dav, for its Best Big Mountain Skis, writing: “This is a great ski for Jackson Hole,” tester Phil Maslow adds. “Light but strong, holds its own in all conditions and you wouldn’t believe it’s their side country option.” To round out the results, the Peak 110 by Bode made the Best Powder Skis of 2024 list.

Backcountry Magazine named the Peak 98 an Editor’s Choice, and it is important to bear in mind for all of these reviews that this is the first year Peak skis were in the magazine tests at all. I look forward to trying other models this winter.