 Poster: A snowHead
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Been looking at the Carv Leaderboard thread and a few names pop up that I recognise and have seen ski. I can see the appeal of an absolute score to quantify your skiing ability and "level" as a Golf Handicap does and in some ways what Instructor exams do.
We have our long established Levels Guide and I would be curious to hear what range of Ski:IQ score that all you Carv users would estimate advanced/expert level skiers would achieve for their piste carving and short turn skiing.
Be interesting (at least to me) to try to collate a range of scores that sits alongside the skiers we have on our videos & descriptions.
From the responses my best guess as of March 20 2026 :
IOS Level_&_BASI_____Ski:IQ ___Daily Avg___Ski:IQ Typical Daily
_________________Season Best__Ski:IQ___ Range during a holiday
8 Early Advanced______125+______118______113 to 123
9 Advanced______L1___135+______129_____125 to 133
10 Early Expert___L2___145+______138_____134 to 141
11 Expert_______L3____150+______145_____142 to 148
Where would you put yourself on the IOS Level scale against what your Best , Avg and Typical range of Ski:IQscores are?
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Thu 26-03-26 12:06; edited 30 times in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I would say I’m a level 9 and my high score is 144 on my volkl racetiger SC’s (68 mm wide underfoot) but only a 134 on my nordica all mountains (85 mm wide)
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@skimottaret, pretty sure I got my high score on 81mm, but might have been 95mm underfoot
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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@skimottaret, I'd say 145 is too low for a L3/4. My score is 160 and as you know i'm L3, and attempting the L4 tech in a week and half. I think 150+ for you IOS level 11.
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I'm a 9 at best. CARV high score is 146. Typical range is 135-140, on the rare occasions that I have a fairly empty slope.
MadMiloSkis is a 12, hoping to become a 13 one day. CARV high score is 172, typical range when he tries to score well is 167+.
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Interesting replies so far, keep em coming !
I just activated my carv units and their app says Advanced skiers 120-140 with Expert 140-160.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I’m 137 carving, 138 shorts, 130 moguls,
127 powder (only two runs) BASI l2 and a 9/10 on your scale.
Greg
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Wed 11-03-26 15:48; edited 1 time in total
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Yes I can imagine not a 1:1 relation but zones depending on ski width, slope angle, ice etc (does anyone use Carv on bumps?!).
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@Orange200, yes you get a mogul score and the top scores are from moguls scores
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@kitenski, they were, someone has overtaken the highest score with carved turns now.
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@swskier, oh nice  cheers
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@tangowaggon, interesting, what would you say is your IOS ski level ?
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Poster: A snowHead
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@kitenski, how do bumps scores work? 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Guess I’m pretty much a level 10 (or possibly 9) on your scale and have a max SkiIQ of 151 but more like 135-140 on a daily basis.
Without blowing my own trumpet I’d say that on typical day on the slopes I’m in the top 10%+ of skiers.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Max IQ 133, but day to day I’m in level 8, itching to get better, but not managing to embed flashes of improvement longer term.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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is it possible that there's an unnecessary level of ski nerdiness?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@under a new name, entirely possible!
I enjoy skidding my way down the mountain and couldn't care less what anyone else thinks of my style!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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@under a new name, depends how you use it. For me it's just a game with something to aim for if i'm skiing by myself. If you joined the CARV facebook group, you'd see there's an incredible amount of nerdiness going on, and generally not with the top end skiers.
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| Quote: |
and generally not with the top end skiers
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no, indeed not
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| skimottaret wrote: |
| @tangowaggon, interesting, what would you say is your IOS ski level ? |
Probably scraping into 10, a bit of a jack of all trades that likes a bit of everything, slush, moguls, offpiste, powder corduroy etc
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@tangowaggon, cheers, what you recon you do day to day?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@Dave of the Marmottes, 80 page thread Jesus and I thought we are nerdy on SH's... Defo a bit of gaming the system hence me adding range of typical daily scores as opposed to all time best. For me looking a Max score is rather pointless.. Looking deeper at the app their % scores on skills metrics like edge angle, pressure etc are more of interest to me as a coach and would be what I'd focus on during a weeks camp.
For me, broadly knowing your IQ range helps put you in the right coaching group as per our levels guides/videos.
So far seems the comments are very interesting in that those that put down an IOS Level and a typical range correlate well into grouping into typical advanced and expert categories.
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You know it makes sense.
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@Dave of the Marmottes, I actually think the stupid human tricks has been greatly reduced this season, since they brought in the new way of calculating IQ rewarding steeper slopes and the best 8 turns. Of course you need to ski in a certain way to achieve a high score, but it takes a lot of skill to be able to change your skiing to influence different individual metrics and work out what is needed to get a high IQ.
Obviously you can only achieve high ski IQs in the right conditions, because CARV is asking you to perform a very specific task, be it carving, short turns or moguls. You can't carve optimally for your ski level in soft bumpy conditions, hence why all alpine ski races are done on the smoothest firmest tracks possible, so that everyone can compete in roughly the same conditions, because it's known how much harder it is as the course deteriorates. In the same way that all the high mogul scores on CARV are done in competition courses, which have the right pitch and evenly spaced moguls.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Dave of the Marmottes wrote: |
There are a bunch of points about Carv rewarding Stupid Human Tricks rather than plain good skiing |
I would argue that CARV rewards good skiing full stop. Look at the top skiers on the leaderboard, they're some of the best skiers in the world outside the racing circuit.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| swskier wrote: |
| Dave of the Marmottes wrote: |
There are a bunch of points about Carv rewarding Stupid Human Tricks rather than plain good skiing |
I would argue that CARV rewards good skiing full stop. Look at the top skiers on the leaderboard, they're some of the best skiers in the world outside the racing circuit. |
Also the top male and female scores for moguls both won medals at the Olympics, so they seem to have that metric fairly accurate.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I'm a BASI L1 instructor so a 9 on Inside Out. Best score 132, typical day 120 to 130.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| swskier wrote: |
| Dave of the Marmottes wrote: |
There are a bunch of points about Carv rewarding Stupid Human Tricks rather than plain good skiing |
I would argue that CARV rewards good skiing full stop. Look at the top skiers on the leaderboard, they're some of the best skiers in the world outside the racing circuit. |
I’m not so sure on the shorts, you can game it a bit with high tempo shorts without much grip but I’d suspect there is a ceiling on that.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Sure but surely the algos are only picking up certain aspects of the best skiing in the world and punters are learning the trick to game their scores e.g. fishhook the ends of turns to boost points for turn completion.
Why is it so easy for people to gain highish scores for moguls when the general standard of mogul skiing is so poor? I'd suggest because it's rigged to tempo and edging and says nothing about the size and fecked up zipline lots of moguls have.
I think it's a useful tool but I think it's probably got poor correlation with relative overall ability down among the huddled masses at 120-140+ish. There is something about the compressed scale there that likely makes things tricky.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Valkyrie, interesting as that ties up exactly with others with BASI quals
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| doddsie wrote: |
Also the top male and female scores for moguls both won medals at the Olympics, so they seem to have that metric fairly accurate. |
You would absolutely expect that i.e. that they would calibrate their model off such people. Did they set their scores on perfect formation seeded moguls by any chance i.e. the sort we never encounter in the real world?
Do people get their personal high scores in moguls by picking the shallowest bump pitch they can and pumping through a bunch of high tempo turns? Or do they get them for dealing with gnarly as feck off camber nightmares with stumps and dirt patches in reasonable style?
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Is there a Season Average IQ score available or just Best?
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@Dave of the Marmottes, Of course the best scores are on competition mogul courses, much as the best carving scores are on steep empty slopes, with no camber and hero snow.
But that's not the point of CARV, you use it to see your metrics and what you can improve on the slopes and conditions that you are skiing.
I would imagine that most people get their best moguls score without even realising it, as not many go out to purposefully work on mogul skiing. But steeper slopes would be rewarded, so I'm not sure pumping through a shallow pitch would work. I'm also sure that the top mogul skiers would score very well on off camber nightmares with stumps and dirt, but just not as well as they do on a competition course, because the corridor would be wider and the speed slower.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I note former sH Paul Hothersall is high up on the leaderboard only 1 pt behind some guy called Ted Ligety.
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I’d say I’m probably a 10ish on your scale.
Top score 149 - down from 154 last year, but all metrics except parallel above 145, parallel 140). In pin bindings, 96mm skis and touring boots (albeit Zero G pros) - might be able to score higher with more piste orientated kit?
In terms of daily average, on a week in February I scored 144 or above every day. This was largely skiing with the kids in half term rather than using the training side of the app.
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FAQ
if theres 50cm of fresh powder, I won't be carving the corduroy 