The unusual look of the new QST Pro models suggest that they’re hybrids of a sort, and indeed they are. Made from equal parts of MTN and X Pro elements, QST Pro boots are an amalgam of on-trail and out-of-bounds properties. On the OB side, the skier is dropped as close to snow as he’d be in a rock-climbing shoe, and the Surelock hike-mode mechanism provides more than adequate range of motion when open and unyielding support when latched.
From the perspective of the in-bounds skier looking to expand his options, the QST Pro is an everyday boot that’s equipped for those extraordinary days when the OB beckons. It’s like owning a BMW SUV: you might never take it off-road, but you’d be in good hands if you did.
QST Pro models are absurdly light, using a skeletal 3-buckle shell design with a polyamide sole and spine and a floating external tongue. With a forebody that looks low enough to be a track shoe with buckles, you’d expect the last geometry to be as narrow as a race boot, but “Pro” in Salomon-speak means “100mm last,” or roughly speaking, medium volume. The butter-cream icing on the cake is that nearly the entire shell is heat-moldable, so it can be custom fit to a very wide population of feet.
The tip-off that the stock QST Pro is made for an in-bounds skier with OB ambitions lies in its sole, made to the ISO5355 standard for alpine boots. Ninety dollars buys a set of rockered ISO9523 soles with Tech inserts that can be used with multi-norm bindings or full-on touring set-ups. For 2018, Salomon does the sole conversion for you; the QST Pro 130 TR comes with rockered 9523 soles as standard equipment.
Skiers using wider skis in mixed terrain are the best QST Pro candidates; if you prefer to cruise groomers on narrow skis, the standard X Pro collection is a more likely field of candidates. Note that both the X Pro models and QST Pro boots use the Twinframe2 chassis with a polyamide foundation for lighter weight and greater resilience.