As the fate of the Soul 7 HD W is inextricably linked to that of its unisex twin, the improvements made to one apply equally to the other. For 2018, this means the tip, while remaining rockered and tapered, is now integrated into the main body of the ski and makes contact with the snow closer to the widest point on the ski. The net effect is to improve edging effectiveness on those irksome occasions when hard snow is all there is to ski.
You might expect Line to make cores from hemp stalks and use ayahuasca as a base treatment. But there’s nothing particularly avant-garde about how Line builds its skis. Yes, there are full-length carbon stringers in the new Sick Day 104, always a nice touch, but this hardly qualifies as cutting edge. The wood core is all aspen, a nod to the current obsession with lightness. Wood layered with glass and a dash of carbon is as traditional a recipe as pot roast. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; it’s just more mainstream than you may realize given Line’s anti-Establishment posturing.
“Stable in all conditions,” coos a member of The Sport Loft coterie. “Carves well for a big ski; holds edge very well.” After a season on the QST 106, I not only concur with this assessment, I can expand upon it. I was so confident in the QST 106’s capabilities that I took them to the MasterFit Boot Test, where they skied all manner of chopped-up powder, from the wind-hammered moonscape of the upper mountain at Bachelor, to the stash-filled glades that were on our regular route, they delivered the sort of even-tempered support that made them such a solid reference ski.
Making lighter weight skis has been a Salomon specialty since it concocted the first commercially successful monocoque skis many moons ago. Now Salomon has made its best women’s powder ski ever, the QST Stella 106, that proudly sports “Full Sandwich Sidewalls 360o” or expressed in generic terms, a square sidewall, the very design feature that the monocoque cap obsoleted for several seasons.
Although the new Soul 7 HD looks dramatically different from earlier editions, its basic shape and character haven’t changed. While the sexy-looking tip gets all the attention in the store, the Soul 7 HD’s most distinctive feature on the snow is its springy camber pocket that unloads with an elevating pop off the bottom of every arc. This gives the ski its energetic personality that persists in all forms of powder, from Sierra sludge to Wasatch Champagne.