Once a brand has a star product, the tendency is to extend this concept in every direction as far as it will go. This is how we end up with a model like the Santa Ana 84, an all-terrain design shrunk down to the dimensions of a Frontside ski. Bear in mind that its five Santa Ana sisters are all broader in the beam than the svelte 84, which suggests that the youngest member of the family may be the runt of litter, with less of whatever made the design popular in the first place.
Ah, but Nordica was prescient enough to realize that a narrow ski will probably spend more of its life on groomers, so it came up with Terrain Specific Metal, a formula that adds more metal as the model’s surface area shrinks. Thus the Santa Ana 84 runs its top metal laminate to within 14mm of the edge, so it will grip the snow surface more tenaciously than its plumper sisters.
The first edition of the Santa Ana 110 swapped the Enforcer 110’s poplar/beech core for balsa, but otherwise faithfully replicated its unisex structure, including two full sheets of .4mm Titanal. That’s a lot of ski, too much for most women hoping to make powder skiing easier, not more demanding. Last season, Nordica found the solution, Terrain Specific Metal: the wider the ski, the more metal is cut out of is mid-section. The widest models, the Santa Ana 110 Free and 104 Free, went from charging like barges to pivoting like catamarans.
Taking some of the Titanal out of the Santa Ana 110 Free certainly helped its maneuverability, but it’s still favors the expert who knows how to get after it. For a slightly less aggro personality who doesn’t want to run as hot through a crud field, the Santa Ana 104 Free may be a better choice. With its slightly lower price and thinner waistline, the Santa Ana 104 Free may seem like a step down from its big sister, but if anything, she may be a better match for most women, a classic case of less-is-more.
Fischer maintains that your skis don’t know your gender, and our ladies’ limited experience with the RC One 82 GT WS (for Women’s Series) tends to support this contention. Both Clare Martin from Peter Glenn and Lara Hughes Allen from the Mt. Rose Ski School raved about it, despite having very different ski bios. For Clare, who works retail in the southeast, the RC One 82 GT was a huge step up from her norm, liberating her to make turns for the first time that the Level-3 Lara could make in her sleep. Their verbatim reports indicate just how large a slice of the women’s ski population the RC One 82 GT might serve. (Note the humongous size range).
Lara Hughes Allen wrote, “This ski skied like a very tuned-down GS ski. It held the turn well, even on very firm conditions. This ski felt versatile in a variety of turn shapes and sizes as well as snow conditions. Its stiffness and edging mean that it will run away with you a bit if you’re not balanced and dynamic over the ski.”
Fischer doesn’t differentiate its Ranger series of off-trail skis according to gender, but according to attitude. Those Rangers with Ti in their name and Titanal laminates in their guts are all business, while the FR fold are all fun and games. No feature says, “let’s party!” as loud as twintip construction, and no other Big Mountain ski comes dressed to rock the joint like the shocking pink Ranger 102 FR WS.
Whether one prefers the more accurate carving of the Ranger Ti models or the looser steering of the FR camp isn’t about ability as much as it is flavor. There’s more than one way to attack a crud field, and the extra smear of the Ranger 102 FR just adds to the fun. It also makes for a more forgiving ride for those still getting the hang of skiing chopped-up snow. Note the depth of the size run: the woman who’s ready to wrangle a 191cm across the fall line certainly isn’t playing the same game as a relative neophyte timidly swiveling a 156cm.
QST is an abbreviation of Quest, Salomon’s umbrella label for off-piste gear, the first tip-off that the QST Stella 106 comes from a family of off-trail tools. While the Quest name and its various abbreviations have been part of the Salomon lexicon for over a decade, the skis that bear the QST mark have evolved considerably over that span.
The current Stella 106 uses a trifecta of technical fibers to get just the flex and torsional rigidity that works best in choppy terrain, which sounds like it’s trying to be as light as possible, but that’s not really Stella’s calling card. Her core is all poplar, not Paulownia, balsa or Karuba, and her secret sauce is a Titanal mounting plate that influences the ski’s entire mid-section. If you’re looking for a cross-over model you can put a Salomon Switch binding on and toddle off into the backcountry, there are lighter options available.
