by Jackson Hogen | Sep 3, 2024
Salomon’s QST 106 was already pegged as a star product when it was introduced in 2016/17, and Salomon has been enhancing the QST flagship on a regular basis ever since. One trait that has been preserved in the QST 106 over the years is that it maintains the right blend of stability and agility, so it doesn’t ski as wide as it measures. If a typical expert male were to ski a QST 106 in a 181cm while blindfolded (which I am not encouraging), after a run he probably wouldn’t guess he was on either a 106 or a 181, as it has the quicks of a narrower ski and the quiet ride of a longer one. It just doesn’t feel fat, even though its weight and width are roughly average for the genre. “It’s a 106 that skis like a wide 100,” as Jim Schaffner from Start Haus condensed its character. It’s the epitome of an all-terrain ski, in that its competence and comportment don’t change as it moves from corduroy to trackless snowfields and yes, even bumps. In Schaffner’s words, the QST 106 is “very well blended, a true all-mountain all-star!”
Skiers of all abilities, please take note: just because the 2025 QST 106 climbed into the top echelon of our Finesse ratings for the Big Mountain genre doesn’t mean it’s a soft ski meant for posers. Au contraire, its huge performance envelope includes edge grip at least as precise as all but one Power pick and off-piste proficiency that’s unparalleled in the genre. As befits an elite Finesse model, the charms of the QST 106 are accessible to almost any ability. It never hurts to be a better skier, but in a shorter length the QST 106 won’t remind the less skilled of their shortcomings.
Female skiers should be advised that the QST 106 and QST Stella 106 are the same ski in a different graphic and size run. Should a lass pine for a length longer than 173cm, she can traverse the gender divide without penalty.
Because of its brilliant balance between Power and Finesse virtues, we again award the QST 106 a Silver Skier Selection.
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 3, 2024
The Head Kore 105 is the perfect ski for our times. No, it doesn’t promote universal love and understanding among all people, but it does what it can, considering that it’s a ski. It’s not just that it’s the lightest ski in the genre, it’s how that light weight contributes to a quickness off the edge that makes the Kore 105 feel narrower than its actual dimensions.
Another reason that the Kore 105 behaves like a skinnier ski is it adheres to a metal-free diet; the absence of Ti laminates softens its torsional rigidity, enabling it to conform to terrain rather than attempting to subdue it. This business about feeling narrower matters because it makes it reasonable to consider the Kore 105 as an everyday ski for western resort skiing.
Its ultra-light weight also makes the Kore 105 an ideal in-resort/backcountry hybrid. The biggest concern any backcountry skier has about a super-light ski is that it will be great going uphill and suck on the way down, which sort of defeats the whole purpose. There’s zero chance the Kore 105 will flame out on the descent, as it’s far more substantial than any AT model of which I am aware.
Another factor that makes the entire Kore series easier to steer off-trail is a beveled top edge that allows the ski to slice sideways almost without resistance. As foot steering is more necessity than indulgence when the snow is up to your knees, the smooth move the 105 makes laterally drastically reduces the amount of effort it takes to steer.
The final piece of the Kore 105 picture is a size run from 163cm to 191cm at 7cm splits. When selecting your ideal size, think about weight distribution – the more you weigh, the more ski you need – and flex. If you go too long, you might not be able to bend the ski, a necessity both for steering in general and for inducing the rebound energy that makes it effortless through the turn transition.
The current Kore 105 isn’t finicky about anything. There’s no need to adapt to it or ski it in any special way just because it’s light. Just hop on and ski as you naturally would. Only with less effort, a formula that works for anyone.
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 3, 2024
When the Blaze 106 debuted prior to the 20/21 season, it made no pretense about belonging to the same class of ski as the M5 Mantra or Kendo 88, Völkl’s established A-team. It aimed at an open opportunity to hit a lower price point ($599) and thereby poach one or two more slots of rack space from the competition. In order to control costs on this less expensive model, a central channel of the wood core was swapped out for… foam! (Pause for audible gasp from the Völkl faithful). A compensating benefit for the substitution of wood was that the ISO-core material was substantially lighter weight, so if anyone wanted to use the Blaze 106 for touring, the weight loss would be a bonus instead of a demerit.
Then along came a mild market disruption called Covid, and suddenly a ski that could do double duty in-resort or ex-resort was a hot commodity. Once the Blaze 106 established a beachhead, Völkl capitalized on its popularity by creating a full family of Blazes, a clan that now extends from an 82 to a 114. Every model family has an incarnation that maximizes the benefits of the design; among the Blazes, the 104 (née 106) owns that distinction. The narrower versions lack the power and punch of their all-mountain peers, while the widest surrender some versatility that the 104 retains.
It may seem silly to profess that merely slimming down a 106 to a 104 makes a difference in how a ski handles, but balancing the shape of the overall sidecut provides a better balance between how the ski handles manky crud and the inevitable hardpack. Of course, it’s hard to separate how much difference the skinnier silhouette makes compared to the contribution of an edge-to-edge Ti plate underfoot and further tweaking of the footprint to create a 4D Radius sidecut.
Taken as an ensemble, the improvements made to the Blaze 104 make it a substantially better ski than its predecessor, no matter who is using it or where it’s going, whether on the trail map or off it. Its light weight and peppy rebound will remind Old Schoolers of how all-glass skis used to feel, and skiers of all ages will like its ease of operation and confidence-building stability.
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 3, 2024
The Atomic Bent Chetler 120 has been a headliner in the Powder genre for over 15 years, and like any ski with that long a life span, it has evolved in order to survive. But it hasn’t changed its essential character, which is an uncanny naturalness for a ski this massive. Its shape alone would give it the same flotation as an aircraft carrier, yet it doesn’t feel ponderous; quite the contrary, in fact. Certainly, part of the reason the Bent Chetler 120 maneuvers as adroitly as a much narrower ski is the way the tip and tail are rockered on both axes, so the ski is predisposed to drift just where it might otherwise over-react or hang up.
Driving the modifications to the 2025 version of the BC 120 is Atomic’s rekindled commitment to lowering the environmental impact of ski production. The core has been re-engineered with more wood (poplar), less metal (Titanal), and less fiberglass and its noxious companion, resin. Even the decoration on the topsheet – a Chris Bentchetler original design, of course – uses recycled materials. Taken together, the changes result in a 13% reduction in CO2 equivalent emissions compared to the Bent Chetler 120 of two seasons ago. The changes to the BC 120 are part of a larger effort on Atomic’s part to encourage collaboration across all brands to improve the industry’s performance in reducing its environmental impact.
All these modifications to the BC 120’s make-up don’t compromise the ski’s flotation or drift-ability, as its sidecut dimensions, HRZN 3D curvature on the tip and tail, size splits and weight didn’t change, but the core re-design compromised some of the skis’ hard-snow attributes. It needs some loose snow under it to push against to stabilize its trajectory. This is hardly a crime, as the Chetler 120 was always intended as a pure Powder ski (waists > 113mm), and none of the core changes have diminished that essential aptitude. It remains one of the elite in a genre that is gradually shrinking as brands thin the ranks of their fattest skis.
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 3, 2024
There are three balancing acts that a Big Mountain ski needs to pull off in order to rise to the top of the ranks. One, it has to make the transition from firm snow to soft and back again feel so smooth it’s barely perceptible. Two, it has to execute short turns and long turns without an obvious bias for one or the other. And three, the ski itself needs to feel balanced, with a round, even flex that allows the skier to always feel on center. I’m sharing this nugget of wisdom here because if the essence of the new Rustler 10 could be distilled to a single word, it would be “balanced.”
The erstwhile owner of Start Haus in Truckee, California, a longtime Realskiers Test Center, Jim Schaffner is also a world-class bootfitter and race coach. His thumbnail portrait of the Rustler 10: “Balanced and very comfortable to ski in all conditions. It felt seamless to move from firmer to softer to broken pow. Predictable and smooth, with surprising power and rebound when you stomp on it. If I owned this ski, I would ski it on most days in Tahoe.”
Bear in mind, Schaffner is both big and strong, so the idea of a Big Mountain ski as an everyday driver makes perfect sense in his case. The more skilled the skier, the more he or she can appreciate the full performance range of this ski. Skiers with a less polished skill set can adopt the Rustler 10 as their designated powder/crud ski, but for everyday skiing, the Rustler 9 is a better tool for the skier who is less talented or less aggressive.
There’s a reason the latest Rustler 10 is noticeably better than its forebear; two reasons, actually. Its core was given the Trueblend treatment, blending lightweight poplar laminates with sturdy beech underfoot, and adding Paulownia at the tip and tail to reduce overall heft and swingweight. Trueblend alone probably would have made the Rustler 10 a better ski by itself, but swapping a single, truncated sheet of Titanal in the old Rustler 10 for the new FluxForm chassis made the Rustler 10 makeover pack a bigger punch.
