In this ski’s original incarnation, the lightweight Blaze 106 W seemed best suited to intermediate to advanced skiers looking for a mellow drifter, but it found a second calling as an in-bounds/backcountry hybrid for experts who appreciated its light weight off-trail and more-than-passable performance on piste. For 2025, the newly anointed Blaze 104 W has been given such an appreciable upgrade that experts may gravitate to it based on its in-bounds performance alone, although its raison d’etre remains its proficiency off-piste.
What could have elevated the Blaze 104 W from an intermediate’s crutch to an expert’s daily driver? Part of the transformation was as simple as augmenting the core thickness, but more significant is a clever allocation of Titanal and glass that gives the cambered center of the ski far more power and bite when driven into the turn, married to an energy-fueled exit that makes flowing through the turn transition automatic.
Titanal laminates that run wall-to-wall in the ski’s midsection induce a calming effect that extends well past their footprint, giving the Blaze 104 W a security on edge you wouldn’t expect in such a light, fat ski. The new Blaze 104 W is skinnier than its predecessor, but that’s not the only reason it can cut a tighter turn. Völkl made the Blaze 104 one of the first of its collection to be the recipient of a 4-Radius Drive sidecut; an interesting choice, as 4-Radius Drive exists primarily to engage the first few cm’s in a short-radius arc, part of the ski every other model in the Big Mountain genre treats like a forgotten relative.
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. Three years ago, Nordica found the solution, Terrain Specific Metal: the wider the ski, the more metal is cut out of its forebody. The widest model in the 2025 Santa Ana series is now the Santa Ana 102, an acknowledgement that the best women skiers don’t need skis the width of a barge to float their petite frames in deep powder.
Opening up the Santa Ana 102’s performance envelope is largely attributable to a new Pulse core that bisects its vertically laminated wood core and inserts an elastomer laminate in the middle. Splitting the core makes it easier for a lightweight skier to bend it, and the shock-sucking center smoothes out the ride from tip to tail. The top Ti laminate of Terrain Specific Metal provides more than enough bite for hard snow, and keeps the ski calm underfoot on choppy traverses and tracked-up run-outs.
All powder skiing entails some foot steering, which is lots easier when there’s less mass to toss around, so the trimmer shape of the new Santa Ana 102 helps make it more maneuverable.
Blizzard’s Sheeva 10 optimizes the best qualities of Blizzard’s latest freeride technology, FluxForm. Fluxform deploys Titanal in a different fashion than was last used in these models’ 2023 iterations. Instead of a single, truncated top sheet of Ti, FluxForm concentrates its Ti laminates directly over the edges, in strips that run nearly tip to tail. In the center of the Sheeva 10, roughly where the Ti plate used to be, is a women’s-specific platform that helps distribute force evenly underfoot without the heft of metal.
This redeployment of Titanal is the major reason the Sheeva 10 feels more stable from end to end, but it isn’t the only reason it feels at once smoother and more powerful. The other major contributor to the Sheeva 10’s stellar handling is the switch to Blizzard’s carefully crafted TrueBlend core. TrueBlend combines slender tendrils of dense beech interspersed with lightweight poplar and Paulownia in a precise pattern that is adjusted for every size. Note that the Sheeva 10 offers six different sizes on 6mm splits, so women can dial in exactly the right length, which is key for maneuverability in off-trail conditions.
While the Sheeva 10 is a powerful ski compared to its predecessor, it’s still simplicity itself to steer. Using Paulownia in the extremities and trimming the Titanal strips down at the ends lowers swingweight, making it easier to swivel, an essential trait in deep snow.
Salomon’s R&D department must be constantly fiddling with fibers, for every few years they re-arrange carbon, flax and basalt into different combinations that somehow out-perform the previous generation. In 2023, Salomon applied the same, end-to-end layer of C/FX’s latest incarnation that debuted three years ago in the QST 98. The 2022 Stella already had a Titanal mounting plate in its mid-section, a critical component in that its stabilizing influence extends beyond its borders. The fact that the skier has trouble defining the metal/non-metal border is a testament to just how substantial a weave of fabric can be, for the presence, or more accurately, the absence of Titanal is usually instantly detectable. In the Stella, the full-length C/FX factor is more dominant than the metal element, delivering a balanced flex stem to stern with a bite underfoot that won’t wilt in the face of boilerplate.
Reinforcing edge grip on the 2024/25 Stella is a “double sidewall” comprised of injected ABS strips just over the sidewalls in the middle of the ski that focuses pressure where it counts and when it’s needed. (The idea of getting more direct pressure applied precisely to the edge is the central concept behind the monocoque design that launched the Salomon ski into immediate importance when it debuted in 1989.) The QST’s happen to all have square sidewalls – somewhat debunking the monocoque myth – which is one reason the Stella has been so good for so long.
When Fischer made the decision to be gender neutral in its 2023 Ranger ski line – meaning men’s and women’s models would use the identical recipe and even the same names – it did so by blending the constructions (and consequent behaviors) of its existing Ti and FR designs. As the Ti designs entailed metal (duh) and the more rockered FR skis did not, the blended design was almost certain to have Titanal in it, just not as much as the Ti’s of yesteryear.
The 2025 Ranger 102 is a product of this design union, retaining the loose and smeary extremities of the old 102 FR, with a patch of .5mm Titanal in the binding zone that palpably augments its gripping power. Of its two parents, it takes after its maternal (non-metal) side, limiting its displays of muscular power to the critical area underfoot. If you loved the retired FR for its surfy attitude, you’ll be at least as enamored of the 2025 Ranger 102.
Whether the Ranger 102 is a woman’s cup of tea depends on style and weight more than ability, although the Ranger 102’s soft flex is especially well suited to those making their first forays into sidecountry. The Titanal plate in its midsection sits astride a substantial beech and poplar core, so security underfoot shouldn’t be an issue for most female skiers. All things considered, the 2025 Ranger 102 amplified its forebear’s best assets without changing its fundamental character.
