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 its best women’s powder ski ever, the QST Stella 106, that proudly sports “Full Sandwich Sidewalls 360o” or expressed in generic terms, a square sidewall, the very design feature that the monocoque cap obsoleted for several seasons.
The reason the sidewall construction matters is that it makes the ski more torsionally rigid and therefore better at holding an edge. This may not seem too important in 18 inches of fresh, but by late afternoon, when powder fields have turned into mogul fields, it matters. The Stella’s bi-directional build is meant to be symmetrical, the better to smear around in uneven snow, but the Stella knows how to mix in 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.