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 what is probably its best women’s powder ski ever, the QST Stella 106 and, rich with irony, it proudly rides on “Full Sandwich Sidewalls 360o,” or in more conventional terms, square sidewalls.
What’s the big deal? The issue is solidity, including how well a square sidewall asserts its authority both off-piste and on. It gives the QST Stella the grit to grab onto 3 mm’s of freshly groomed hard pack or kick aside 18 inches of day-old crud. Its bi-directional build is meant to be utterly symmetrical in Stella’s ungroomed hunting grounds, mixing round, medium-radius arcs with whatever smearing is needed to brake speed, switch fall-lines or simply enjoy the sensation of sliding sideways with your own slough.