Salomon put their considerable marketing and promotional oomph behind the launch of their off-trail QST family this past spring, so no Realskiers tester cast a second glance at the returning X-Drive 88 FS. Its appearance here is based on its scores and comments from 2016, a fair barometer in that the ski hasn’t changed in the interim.

Last season Salomon pulled off a bit of sleight of hand when it slipped in a layer of basalt, the most common mineral in the earth’s crust, in lieu of the Titanal (less common) laminate that the first year 8.8 deployed to improve high performance. Our test crew barely batted an eye, because the material that actually rules the energetic response of the X-Drive 8.8 is carbon, the key component in an X-shaped matrix of fibers that mellow out the ride longitudinally and stiffen it torsionally.

The result is a ski that rewards technical chops but isn’t so plastered to the turn that it feels like you’ve commandeered a battleship. The X-Drive series is every centimeter a Frontside ski family, but pater familias is the only member of the clan with the requisite girth of an All-Mountain model. But its width doesn’t dull its craving for carving, which is how it prefers to be steered no matter what terrain it’s trying to slice like lunchmeat.