2023 Fischer Ranger 90

The 2023 Fischer Ranger 90 is a great all-mountain ski that benefits from Fischer’s past and their forward-looking future. As a revamped model for this year, the Ranger 90 takes a cue from the Ranger 92 Ti from last year and blends it with a narrower, more all-mountain shape and profile. Built with a poplar wood core, the Ranger 90 also gets a partial metal laminate of Shaped Ti measuring .5mm thick. Mainly found underfoot, and extending into the tips and tails, this shaped Ti laminate provides a lot of torsional stiffness and edge grip while leaving the ends of the skis unencumbered by that metal. Skiers who spend a lot of time on the groomers and in carved turns will like the versatility of this laminate, while the more adventurous skiers of the group will favor the more flexible tips and tails when the snow gets soft. Ranger 90 also uses Flex-Cut, which is a narrowed zone in the middle of the laminate that allows the ski to flex naturally in the middle. This does, we’ve found, affect the mount point of the ski, so if you were wanting to move the binding up a few cm’s, this would change the flex of the ski more than you may think. With a 17-meter turn radius in the 177 cm length, these skis are right in the middle of average, which is what we’d expect a true all-mountain ski like this to be. Coming in at 1850 grams per ski in the 177, we again see the middle-range of weight come to the forefront. Suitable and fun in any conditions and terrain, we’re stoked to see the new Fischer Ranger 90 make its presence felt.

Mark Macdonald found the 177 to be a good length for him, scoring it top marks of 4 out of 5 for overall impression, versatility, quickness, maneuverability, stability, and flotation. Torsional stiffness, edge hold, and playfulness all got 3’s while forgiveness got a 2. The metal extending to the tips and tails can certainly make a ski like this feel like it’s on the stiff side for sure. Mark notes that “This is a great ski that demonstrated a lot of versatility and handled the firm hard snow well as well as the soft spring snow piles!” If an all-mountain ski doesn’t really handle those things, then that’s too bad. We’re seeing these ~90mm underfoot skis becoming so incredibly capable and versatile these days, and the Ranger 90 definitely has a lot of the upper-end feel and build to it that allows for this type of performance and well-roundedness.

On the 170, Rick Randall found it to be short. He’s a pretty powerful skier, so this is not surprising. For the 170, though, he does note that it felt true to size. He had all 4’s on his scorecard with the exception of a 3 for flotation. Given the length, I suppose this isn’t that surprising. Rick states that “For as short as this ski was for what I tested (170cm), I was pretty impressed with how stable it was at speed no matter what. Great edge hold, easy to change up turn shape. I like the update rocker profile on the Ranger series, because in the past it was too much and produced a lot of tip chatter. No more, Fischer fixed this and created a series of skis that are easy to ski, great edge hold, stable at speed and playful. I think Intermediate and Advanced level skiers will both like these skis.” The range should include multiple skier types as well as different terrain and snow conditions, so it’s great that Rick brings that up here.

If you’re looking for one pair of skis to get it done no matter what the conditions or terrain may be, it’s hard to do better than a freeride-inspired all-mountain ski, and the 2023 Fischer Ranger 90 is one of the best new skis at this we’ve seen in a while. Thanks to the shape, profile, and construction, Fischer’s got a winner here, likely for years to come.