The top model in Salomon’s Frontside Performance family of X-Max carvers, the X14 Carbon is easier to steer than a GS race ski, but it has the same notions about how to attack a fall line. (We interrupt this review to report that Salomon’s X-Lab 175, a state-of-the-art non-FIS GS race ski, requires the skier to commit to every turn like it was a 30-year mortgage; relatively speaking, the X14 Carbon only requires the involvement of a one-night stand.)

Lighter than most skis in the Technical genre, the X 14 Carbon keeps its clean connection to the snow without Titanal laminates, substituting an end-to-end carbon frame plus the shock-sucking services of Powerline, a mobile carbon piston that slides inside a sleeve atop the core. (Your esteemed Editor once proposed such a dampening system to Scott when creating their first ski line, but I digress.)

Able to squeeze out slalom-tight turns that GS skis have no talent for, the X 14 Carbon is the lazy man’s high-tech carver, delivering more power output per erg of input.