AbstractThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the specificity of the hexagonal obstacle test (HEX) as a measure of anaerobic endurance for Alpine skiers. Subjects were varsity Alpine skiers (AS, n = 10), varsity athletes (VA, n = 10) and physical education students (PES, n = 15). The VA and PES had no skiing experience. All subjects performed a 30‐s Wingate test (WIN), a treadmill anaerobic run (TM) and the HEX test. The AS and PES also performed 6 trials of the HEX and examination of these results revealed that the test had high reliability (intraclass r = .96), despite a significant(P.05) with those obtained on the WIN (r =‐.02) and on the TM (r =‐.33). There were significant differences(P<0.05) between the VA and the PES on the WIN (10.26±.38 vs. 8.71±.19 watts/kg, X±S.E.M.) and on the TM (61.5±4.8 vs. 47.9±3.1 s). No other comparisons were significant. Although a popular field test for skiers, it appears that the HEX is non‐specific and is not an appropriate test to measure anaerobic endurance of Alpine skiers.