Algae-Core Skis Are Full of Surprises: WNDR Nocturne 88 Review

By ignoring obvious warning signs, I found myself staring down 3,000 vertical feet of nasty breakable crust in Colorado’s San Juans last spring. Optimistically hoping for lap after lap of spring corn harvesting, I grabbed one of the skinnier skis I’ve been testing — WNDR’s Nocturne 88.

The descent was downright horrifying. Thankfully, there was a lot more to the Nocturne 88 than the conservative dimensions would suggest. These skis are a big departure from most skinny backcountry skis on the market. They’re designed for light-and-fast ski mountaineering and scraping down near vertical ice. They pack an electrifying freeride flare.

And that’s not even the interesting part. The Nocturne 88’s cores and other components are made from algae. WNDR put the ski industry on notice with its bold dedication to sustainability and innovative bio-based materials. Based on what I felt over several months of skiing in Colorado, algae may be the new king of freeride. And despite my initial doubts, “FreeMo” might actually be a thing.

But I couldn’t help but wonder: Why would I pick the Nocturne 88 if I could grab a wider ski at a similar weight?

In short: WNDR’s Nocturne 88 backcountry touring skis have an algae-based freeride core that’s damp, stable, and energetic. They’re designed with a little rocker fore and aft, making for a ski that defies traditional norms and is just downright fun. It moves edge to edge quickly, as its dimensions would suggest, but also gobbles up tricky snow, powder, and corn alike. It jumps, smears, drives, and pivots — not your typical descriptors for this ski class.

WNDR Nocturne 88 Review

I’ll be honest: I rolled my eyes when I heard WNDR’s new marketing term to describe the Nocturne 88. “FreeMo.” As in freeride mountaineering. Heck, I was even skeptical of the ski’s premise. I like freeriding, I like ski mountaineering, but skis at both ends of those spectrums come with massive benefits. Mashing them together would surely relinquish their best characteristics, right?

As a skeptic, it’s the worst when the marketing is spot on. I gotta hand it to WNDR. The Nocturne 88 is a category-bending ski. Simply put, this is more fun than you’re supposed to have on skis this skinny.

The Nocturne 88s land at 117-88-108 and three sizes: 166, 172, 178, and 184cm. Given their long-day intentions, I sized down to the 178 length, which is short for my 6’1” height.

Going a little shorter has two benefits. They’re obviously lighter than the longer skis, but it also makes them easier to ski with super-lightweight boots like my SCARPA F1 XT.

I also skied them with the more freeride-oriented SCARPA Maestrale RS to add a little more muscle.

Construction

WNDR made a big splash in the ski world when it was founded in 2019. It went all in on sustainability, which became the foundation of its brand. It’s still leading the way in utilizing not only recycled materials but also algae and ski-specific bio-based resins and other materials.

The Nocturne 88 shares its algae-based core with its bigger siblings. According to WNDR, the heart of that core is a high-density polyurethane derived from microalgae formed into a vertically laminated composite.

Domestically sourced aspen is also included in that core to give the ski some of that traditional pop and liveliness. Poplar wood, the heart of all my favorite skis, is in the Nocturne’s core.

It doesn’t stop at the core, though. WNDR also uses sidewalls made of 67% microalgae oil. Through testing and iteration, WNDR claims that its newest formula increases damping by 192% over traditional petroleum-based ABS sidewalls with virtually no weight penalty.

WNDR finishes the core off with binding plates forged from its own scrap material. Even at a slim 3mm, WNDR found the binding plates are significantly stronger than maple while also allowing it to dial in the flex characteristics so they work in harmony with the rest of the ski.

The best part is that WNDR didn’t need to sacrifice core performance in exchange for more sustainable materials. The cores bring a lively character like you’d expect from a fun-first freeride ski. Longitudinally, they’re energetic yet damp. The shovels and tails are poppy — so much so that I surprised myself into the backseat a few times.

The Ascent

Ski mountaineering skis are typically skinny and shorter than other touring skis for saving weight while skinning uphill and carrying on your backpack. The Nocturne 88 is far from the lightest in its category at 1,650 g in the 178 length I tested. That’s nearly a pound heavier per ski compared to category leaders like the Fischer Transalp 92 CTI. That ski clocks in at 1,260 g in the 176 cm length.

But again, the ride and intention of these two skis are quite different.

The demo skis I tested came from WNDR with a powerful and heavy Marker Kingpin binding. A solid binding, but not what I’d recommend for this ski. It kind of defeats the purpose of going shorter and slimmer. If they were mine, I’d probably slap a 270 g Marker Alpinist 12 on these skis to drop a bunch of weight while retaining some elasticity.

Aside from the weight, the Nocturne 88s were solid on the skin track. They’re rockered, but there’s still plenty of surface area pressing into the snow when it gets steep and icy. The progressive forward mount point and solid torsional stiffness made them easy to kick-turn even over spooky exposure. They’re freeride skis built for uphill.

The Descent

At least some of the Nocturne 88’s category-bending nature can be chalked up to what freeriders often take for granted and ski mountaineers wince at: tail rocker.

Ski touring skis this skinny are usually flat at the rear end. That elongates the ski’s effective edge (i.e., more edge on the snow and less rocker means better grip on steep ice). Flat tails give skis a “business first” character. But tail rocker makes skis a lot more fun, playful, and maneuverable in tight spots. It also means the tails don’t get hung up in breakable crust or chunky couloirs.

Combined with a solid tip rocker, the Nocturnes are downright quick. Their 19m turn radius suggests as much. But arching big 19m turns are not what these skis are made for (even though they’re fun there too).

They’re quick in the trees, and they can jump-turn on a dime. But they’re not squirrely. That’s where the freeride DNA really shines through. When I opened it up on bigger, open faces, the Nocturne was right there with me.

Yes, sizing down lengthwise put a cap on how much I could lay down the power. In terms of performance, though, the Nocturne was much damper and more stable than you’d typically get from a lightweight, skinny ski. That’s the flip side of ski weight.

On Backcountry Crust

I love it when skis surprise me. Having ascended an objectively horrifying breakable crust on a familiar peak in the San Juans, I knew it wouldn’t be a particularly fun or friendly ride down. And on most other skis, especially in this class, it would have felt like survival skiing.

But the Nocturne brought an energy and charisma that I wasn’t expecting. They plunged into the crust, sliced right back out, dove again, and allowed me to bounce through it without sending me over the bars. Their light(ish) swing weight made them easy to jump turn. They released from the snow like they were born to be airborne.

On Backcountry Powder

The next day, we pivoted to a different zone, more protected from the spring sun. We were rewarded with laps of coldsmoke powder. Those were also not the conditions where I’d typically grab something as skinny as the Nocturne 88s, but I gave them a shot anyway. Most modern skis, even skinny ones, can do pretty dang well in good powder.

The Nocturne 88’s rocker and relatively big shovels gave them an edge. They didn’t float like powder skis, but they held their own. They aspired to float up high and were easy to pivot. These skis even stayed composed on small, fluffy pillow lines. The next size up would have been better. But once I found the right balance point, they were a blast.

On Ski-Mo Terrain

So what about more traditional ski mountaineering terrain? If there’s one thing that’s basically guaranteed in ski mountaineering, it’s that you’re going to encounter just about every type of snow. And most of it is bad. It’s a broad category, ranging from big glaciated volcanoes like the Cascades to steep couloirs and icy faces in the Rockies.

The Nocturne can handle both and thrive on terrain like the former more so than the latter. Don’t get me wrong; the algae core gives them the dampness and torsional strength they need for steep ice. But like I mentioned before, relatively generous rocker front and back limits their bite into ice just a little bit.

However, given the choice to bring a little more freeride fun deep into the backcountry in exchange for a slight amount of steep ice composure, I think the vast majority of backcountry skiers would make the tradeoff.

In Resort

I searched out just about every snow condition I typically encounter in Colorado during the test period. I even took the Nocturne 88 out for a few days of resort shredding. It was their energy that continued to impress me on piste.

They’re not carving skis, but they were confident when I leaned them over and pushed into my boot tongues. Their medium stiffness throughout gave them a fun, engaging pop into and out of turns. The Nocturne 88s were intuitive in just about every snow condition and terrain type.

Where They Didn’t Work

The only place where I felt like the Nocturne 88s actually suffered is exactly where all lightweight skis suffer: hard chop. They (and I) got tossed around like we didn’t know what we were doing.

WNDR would need to add a lot more weight to make them thrive in this snow type. It wouldn’t be worth it. For their weight and conservative dimensions, the Nocturne 88s are solid in most snow types, just as they are.

WNDR Nocturne 88: Conclusion

Why would you choose the Nocturne 88 over a much lighter ski with similar dimensions or a bigger ski with a similar weight? Gram counters probably won’t. But there’s a lot more to skis than what shows up on the scale. In the Nocturne 88, you get the benefits of going skinny — they’re very quick edge to edge and easy to maneuver in tight spots.

Oh, and they massively reduced the environmental footprint with bio-based materials. And honestly, they’re light enough for most backcountry skiers out there and massive days in the mountains with the right lightweight boot and binding setup. They’re also more versatile across snow conditions, relatively damp, and distinctly more lively than others in this class.

Would this be my first choice for a quiver of one? Maybe if I exclusively skied PNW volcanoes between May and July. Otherwise, I’d probably bump up to something a little bit wider underfoot, like WNDR’s Vital 98. The Nocturne 88 is better suited as a narrow addition to a ski quiver for big days and spring snowpacks.

There are plenty of really lightweight, good-in-the-steeps skis with dimensions nearly identical to WNDR’s Nocturne 88. And there are plenty of great bigger, heavier, backcountry freeride skis out there (including the rest of WNDR’s lineup).

But WNDR found a niche with the Nocturne 88 — authentically blending ski mountaineering with freeride. Maybe we call it Free-Mo? Crap, WNDR’s marketing got me again.