QST 106
When Salomon concocted the QST line, it didn’t just make one construction cut into 4 different silhouettes; it made 4 distinct skis, each with its own, adapted construction. In our panel’s opinion, the QST 106 is the best among unequals. We don’t just recommend the QST 106; we believe it’s moved to the head of its class in the Big Mountain genre.
If you attack the fall line like a German Shepard attacks his dinner, then you’ll probably find one of our Power picks to be preferable. But if you’re like most powder skiers well past their adolescence, you like to enjoy the embrace of every turn, sinking into a sequence of soft swooshes as gently as you’d slip into a warm Jacuzzi.
X-Drive 8.3
If you’re in a quandary over which X-Drive to chose, the 8.3 or 8.0 FS (reviewed above), relax. It’s a simple matter of structure and shape.
The 8.3 is wider in the waist, but it’s wider still at tip and tail, so despite having more surface area, it actually scribes a shorter radius arc than the X-Drive 8.0. This doesn’t change its off-trail competence as much as it snugs up its natural turn radius, controlling speed by issuing more arcs.
X-Drive 8.8 FS
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.