Like a fairy tale princess, the Salomon QST Lux 92 was born in humble circumstances, endured an awkward adolescence and gradually transformed into a raving beauty. You see, the first edition of the Lux 92 was clearly intended for intermediates, first-time buyers and bargain hunters, as it sold for $499 and didn’t share much of the high-tech construction of its wider siblings, the Lumen and Stella. The current Lux 92 has top-of-the-line features, including a full-length allotment of C/FX, the carbon and flax amalgam that provides the principal structural support for all the QST’s. Also onboard is a Titanal plate underfoot that improves stability throughout its mid-section.
The QST series is a unisex family, so the Lux 92 receives the same bundle of upgrades as the “men’s” QST 92. Part of the most recent package of enhancements is a segment of injected ABS underfoot that boosts edge pressure in this critical zone. The combined effect of these embellishments is an elevation in performance that makes the latest Lux 92 one of the top performers in the genre. It isn’t $499 anymore, but it’s still only $599 – one of the best deals in the sport – with a performance range that runs from the basement to the penthouse.
The 2025 QST Lux 92 is now so substantial that it can be skied in shorter lengths – its size range goes down to a 152cm – with no loss of stability. Sized properly, it won’t overpower a skier still learning the ropes, with a docile personality that doesn’t object to drifting.
Two winters ago, I was able to ski all the new Stances on several occasions, from a foot of fresh to manicured corduroy. The more I skied them, the more I was led to a conclusion that, at first, I didn’t quite believe: they all ski remarkably alike.
That may sound like a particularly unremarkable observation: if they’re all built the same way, why shouldn’t they ski alike? Fair enough, but it’s rarely the case that all members of a product family ski identically, and in the case of the new Stances, they don’t just ski kinda like their siblings: any two adjacent widths are all but indistinguishable on the snow, particularly in the off-trail conditions they were made for.
The obvious implication of this interchangeability is that the middle-of-the-range, All-Mountain West Stance 96 not only exhibits the same quickness to the edge as the All-Mountain East Stance 90 displays on a groomer, it also mimics the Big Mountain Stance 102’s Finesse properties in broken powder. That’s a great thumbnail description of what one hopes to find in any All-Mountain West model.
Every tester account makes some reference to how easy the Stance 96 is to guide into a smooth, balanced turn that it exits as gracefully as it enters. Like most of the double-rockered skis in its genre, the Stance 96 uses a tapered tip that isn’t going to connect to the tippy-top of a carved turn, but once one accepts that the shovel is just there as a terrain buffer, the skier can focus on how well it holds from the forebody back to the end of its square tail.
Skiers who want to smash through crud at max velocity have plenty of other options; the Stance 96 is more for the technician than the daredevil. Its defining trait is its predictability, moving confidently from turn to turn whether the snow surface is perfectly manicured or a hot mess that’s never seen a grooming machine.
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.
When Salomon launched the first edition of the Stance series in the 20/21 season, they were well aware that they were entering all-mountain categories already brimming with options. Most of the established image leaders in the pivotal All-Mountain West genre were Power models loaded stem to stern with dual Titanal laminates. To create some space for Stance in this crowd, Salomon had to both match what the category leaders were doing yet somehow be different from them. The solution was to replace swatches of Ti in the top sheet with its proprietary C/FX fibers, so the Stances would feel a bit less ponderous than the competition.
The changes instituted in the latest Stance series took this effort at differentiation a step further, slightly disengaging the Ti top layer from the core, creating the sensation of a softer-flexing ski that’s still torsionally rigid enough to bite into boilerplate. Sally also lightened up the core by adding Karuba to what had been an all-poplar affair. The net effect is a high-octane ski that is simplicity itself to steer. As incarnated in the Stance 102, the new changes transformed what had been a back-of-the-pack wannabe into one of the very best Finesse skis in the over-served Big Mountain market. Its nickname should be Crud Lite, for it excels in soft snow, where it maintains a mellow, fall-line orientation through thick and thin.
One of the Stance 102’s most striking attributes is how it feels narrower than it measures. At least part of this sensation is due to a tail that is, in fact, narrower than the norm in the Big Mountain genre, so the ski has a tendency to gently release the turn after it crosses the fall line. The perception of being on a more tapered platform is accentuated by smooth, even flex that bows under modest pressure.
Salomon’s R&D department must be constantly fiddling with fibers, for every few years they re-arrange carbon, flax and basalt into different combinations that somehow out-perform the previous generation. In 2023, Salomon applied the same, end-to-end layer of C/FX’s latest incarnation that debuted three years ago in the QST 98. The 2022 Stella already had a Titanal mounting plate in its mid-section, a critical component in that its stabilizing influence extends beyond its borders. The fact that the skier has trouble defining the metal/non-metal border is a testament to just how substantial a weave of fabric can be, for the presence, or more accurately, the absence of Titanal is usually instantly detectable. In the Stella, the full-length C/FX factor is more dominant than the metal element, delivering a balanced flex stem to stern with a bite underfoot that won’t wilt in the face of boilerplate.
Reinforcing edge grip on the 2024/25 Stella is a “double sidewall” comprised of injected ABS strips just over the sidewalls in the middle of the ski that focuses pressure where it counts and when it’s needed. (The idea of getting more direct pressure applied precisely to the edge is the central concept behind the monocoque design that launched the Salomon ski into immediate importance when it debuted in 1989.) The QST’s happen to all have square sidewalls – somewhat debunking the monocoque myth – which is one reason the Stella has been so good for so long.
