X-Drive 8.0 FS

Crisp turn entry, clear snow sensations shining through the turn midsection and confident finishing power are traits any Frontside ski would be proud to possess. Salomon’s X-Drive 8.0 FS is built on these principles and it lives up to them every day it’s allowed out to ski.

The X-Drive 8.0 FS gets its gumption from a blend of three dampening elements. Like it’s big bro, the 8.8 FS, it uses basalt as a base layer, then adds a sheet of Titanal and an X-shaped structure over the rocker zones to keep them from acting up. This creates “a great combination of edge grip (torsional stiffness) and off-piste versatility,” pens Sturtevant’s Olin Glenne, placing it on his personal podium in the Frontside category.

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.

Salomon 2016

In the interests of full disclosure, the purveyors of realskiers once served in product management roles at Salomon, although our tenure was so long ago that the company we toiled for bears little relation to the Salomon organization of today. All that remains on our...