The Vantage 85 W is so affordable because its construction sticks to the essentials and eliminates the extraneous. A light wood core encased in a slip of fiberglass provides support and energy; a thick vertical sidewall puts direct pressure on the edge, giving the Vantage 85 W the tenacity of pricier rides.
Last season Salomon pulled off a bit of sleight of hand when it slipped in a layer of basalt, the most common mineral in the earth’s crust, in lieu of the Titanal (less common) laminate that the first year 8.8 deployed to improve high performance. Our test crew barely batted an eye, because the material that actually rules the energetic response of the X-Drive 8.8 is carbon, the key component in an X-shaped matrix of fibers that mellow out the ride longitudinally and stiffen it torsionally.
If everyone in skiing is part of a family, then the Orb is for the young uncle who only gets out on weekends. He spends most of his precious ski time inside the resort boundary but prefers to get off-trail if conditions are decent. He’s a good skier and would be great if only he skied more.
If he gets a pair of Black Crow Orbs, he may chuck work all together. The tapered forebody and mildly rockered baseline are ready to party off-piste, but with two Titanal laminates on board, the Orb is so strong on edge it doesn’t really care where you send it. Its tip design obliges the Orb to be loose at the top of a laid-over turn, but once it settles into the arc it’s as solid as the Mont Blanc massif. The once rebellious boys of the Chamonix backcountry now are making perfectly balanced skis that any member of the ski culture can climb on and relate to immediately.
The new and improved Stormrider 88 would win top honors in “Switzerland’s Biggest Loser,” as it shed 570g from its 2016 frame. They say fat equates with happy, but getting lighter seems to have made the Stormrider 88 mellower and easier to handle at low speeds.
The Stormrider 88’s crash diet raised its scores for Finesse properties across the board, and its global Finesse grade from B+ to A+. That the 2017 model became so much easier to ski cautiously without paring away the high-octane performance with which Stöckli is synonymous, is a remarkable feat of ski engineering.