All things being equal, what's the greater factor for ski length: height or weight?

[Rideski]

[Conundrum]

What foggy said. Ability and preference is the answer. Ability=strength and skill. Preference=where you are skiing and how you want to ski it. Height may play a role but you need some pretty long levers vs someone whose really strong. Heavy dudes can bend a ski more but only as speed increases. Do they have the ability to control it? Now build in sidecut and how a ski flexes. I’ll leave that topic to the gynecologists. Pretty easy formula for deciding on length huh? Go ski. You’ll figure it out.

[gaijin]

5'9" 165. Fairly advanced skier. Rule of thumb has always been one size down from the longest offering by the manufacturer. 186 is my standard, but I've been told now that I'm old I should be sizing down to 177ish. I've never skied anything that short. Will I hate it? Considering one of the new mantras or some other frontside/crud/non-deep pow ski.

It'll definitely be more maneuverable and likely fine... but I tend to decide after a few turns that I need to haul ass for the rest of the day. Genuinely scared of sizing down for the first time in my life.

[mr_pretzel]

5'9" 165. Fairly advanced skier. Rule of thumb has always been one size down from the longest offering by the manufacturer. 186 is my standard, but I've been told now that I'm old I should be sizing down to 177ish. I've never skied anything that short. Will I hate it? Considering one of the new mantras or some other frontside/crud/non-deep pow ski.

It'll definitely be more maneuverable and likely fine... but I tend to decide after a few turns that I need to haul ass for the rest of the day. Genuinely scared of sizing down for the first time in my life.

Dont let people tell you you're old. Get a 192 and change it up

[nickel]

As so many others have stipulated, there is so much more to this than height and weight of skier. Ski shape (philosophy), rocker profile, flex, intended use, terrain of most frequent use, preferred turn shape, ability and preferences of the rider...

I'm 6'0 and 220lbs and stay away from anything under 190cm. My resort crushers are 196 and I'd like to get a hold of something over 200cm. The only ski in my quiver under 190 is a 184 pair of race stock gs skis. I have not even considered bd skis for this reason. Both my touring skis (pow and low tide) are 192 and any claim of this being an uphill impediment are patently absurd unless I one day contemplate a ski strictly devoted to multi-day traverses. Even then it would have to be 185 minimum. My balance does not suck.

No one can truly answer this for you unless you have a regular ski partner who is a consumate gear nerd and also able to remove all personal biases to give you accurate feedback. Given these factors, get the longest red ones you can find.

[klauss]

Speed > weight > height. Back in the day I had a custom detuned billy goat made for my nuts to ride on, but looks like i'm mellowing out in my TGR sunset years. quiv is currently in motion

[old goat]

Generally speaking the manufacturer takes into consideration terrain, expected snow condition, construction and shape of the ski in setting the range of lengths of a given model. So for the same skier piste skis < powder skis. Take the ski you love best, figure out where in the available range of lengths for that ski your ski is and usually you'll be happy with skis in the same relative length in other makes and models. Example--if your favorite ski is the second longest length for that model (me), you'll most likely be happy with the second longest ski in another make and model, at least until you get into the downward part of life (me again). (Please don't ask me what to do if your favorite ski comes in 3 lengths and the new ski comes in 4. Flip a coin I guess.)

[XXX-er]

Generally speaking the manufacturer takes into consideration terrain, expected snow condition, construction and shape of the ski in setting the range of lengths of a given model. So for the same skier piste skis < powder skis. Take the ski you love best, figure out where in the available range of lengths for that ski your ski is and usually you'll be happy with skis in the same relative length in other makes and models. Example--if your favorite ski is the second longest length for that model (me), you'll most likely be happy with the second longest ski in another make and model, at least until you get into the downward part of life (me again). (Please don't ask me what to do if your favorite ski comes in 3 lengths and the new ski comes in 4. Flip a coin I guess.)

and then get the red ones man