The Blizzard Rustler 10 wants you to look good, so it makes everything about off-trail skiing easier. There’s a long, central band of Titanal on the top to stabilize the ski underfoot while allowing the tip and tail to twist. The idea is to keep the tapered tip from getting involved with every obstruction it meets; instead of trying to hook up at the top of turn like a hard-snow-oriented ski is meant to do, it politely deflects all rough treatment by bending with the blow. The same basic idea at the tail keeps it from insisting on finishing every arc on a hairline trajectory, as if skiing were trying to emulate figure skating.
A more powerful skier who takes his hard-snow technique with him when he travels off-trail might prefer the more connected feel of the Blizzard Cochise 106. But for the majority of off-piste skiers, the Rustler 10 is a better fit. When the nearly expert skier really needs help, the Rustler is a godsend. Imagine being in flat light – a common condition when the goods are there to be gotten – and not being able to tell what your tips are going to encounter next. That’s where the Rustler 10’s innate surf-ability takes over, smearing over the unseen obstacles as if they weren’t there.
Another milieu in which the Rustler 10’s looseness contributes to its maneuverability is powder-laden trees. Of course, you can’t carve through a forest on a 17.5m sidecut, but you can swivel through it without ever engaging an edge and you won’t have to worry about the ski’s shape specs. So, don’t let the Rustler’s 10’s low score for short turns steer you away from the woods. It’s inability to carve a tight turn on diamond-hard snow has nothing to do with the way it can sashay through the trees.
There are several clear signals that the Rossignol Sender 104 Ti isn’t meant for the same skier as its big brother, the Sender 106 Ti+. While the only difference in their sidecut is the 104’s narrower waist, that’s about where the similarities end. The first hint that they aren’t equals is the plus symbol attached to the fatter ski. It’s meant to imply that there’s an extra dose of Titanal in the slightly more expensive ($100) 106, as indeed there is. But the 106 Ti+ also sports other embellishments that make it preferable for an expert who knows how to charge the fall line.
As important as Titanal is to ski behavior, it only covers so much territory, as neither model runs its Ti laminates from tip to tail. The end-to-end element that governs both skis is a weave of carbon and basalt fibers; on the Sender 106 Ti+ the combination dubbed Carbon Alloy Matrix is richer in carbon, so the ride feels more cushioned throughout and remains calm at higher velocity. The basalt-biased blend in the Sender 104 Ti, called Diago fiber, serves the same purpose but with less pronounced shock damping for the skier who isn’t pouring on the gas.
To adapt the top Titanal laminate to the less aggressive target skier, Rossi trims the Ti down 2mm on the sides, so it doesn’t reach the edge, and limits its longitudinal reach to just past the binding. Two millimeters may not sound like much, but keeping the Titanal away from the sidewall allows the latter to flex, mellowing the connection to the snow. Concentrating the Titanal underfoot keeps the swingweight down, for easier swiveling, and lowers the overall mass so the ski feels more nimble and easier to foot-steer. While the Sender 104 Ti’s extremities are fairly loose, the grip underfoot is confident and secure. For the Finesse skier for whom it is intended, the Sender 104 Ti is a better ski than its beefier bro.
Any clear-eyed assessment of what transpires on a powder day at any popular resort would conclude that the “powder” part of the day begins around 9:00 and ends around 10:00. For the rest of the day, all accessible terrain devolves into something considerably less idyllic. The Kästle FX106 Ti is built to cope with this reality, for it wields its smear-ability like a weapon when deep snow switches from a fluffy texture to something closer to tapioca.
During the “powder hour,” any ski with approximately the FX106 Ti’s dimensions will spool out mid-radius turns with unconscious ease; once perfect conditions are in the past, the real work begins. It’s in the slop that the FX106 Ti’s stout, wood-and-Titanal construction proves its mettle, planing over afternoon porridge that would kick a lesser ski off course. With two full sheets of Titanal in its guts, the FX106 Ti isn’t one of those fat skis where the width isn’t noticeable; rather, its heft imparts confidence that in the battle against crud, its pilot is well armed.
Left to its own devices on firmer snow, the FX106 Ti likes its turns long and laid over. Not that its probable owner is likely to be a big fan of groomers, but they’re an unavoidable aspect of resort skiing, so you might as well make them fast and fun. Of course, the FX106 Ti won’t hook up at the top of the turn like a carving ski, but it’s more than solid enough so you can open up the throttle on the dash back to the lift.
The Salomon Stance 102 is a Frontside ski in a fat suit. Were it not for its width, which by Realskiers’ rules lands it in the Big Mountain genre, and a dash of tip rocker, it would be a Frontside ski, and a strong one, at that.
To understand a ski’s purpose, one needs to know what void it’s filling in its brand’s big picture, as well as where it fits in the category in which it’s competing. Perhaps the best way to define the role of the Stance 102 in Salomon’s 22/23 collection is to identify what it is not, namely a QST.
Salomon’s well established QST series goes all-in on the Lighter is Better approach; while the top models use a Titanal platform underfoot, the rest of their construction depends on a mix of fibers to deliver the right ratios of longitudinal flex, torsional rigidity, light weight and shock damping. Within the global Salomon product universe, the QST label is shorthand for Quest, which connotes off-trail skiing in resort.
So, the Stance series wasn’t intended to go head-to-head with QST in the race for the lightest in-resort ski. The competition it was made to stare down are the wood-and-Titanal powerhouses issuing from the likes of Blizzard, Nordica and Völkl. The niche the Stance 102 aims to occupy is that of a wood (poplar) and metal (Titanal) laminate that’s just a bit less than the market leaders in the genre: a bit less heavy, a bit less torsionally rigid in the forebody and a bit less work to bow.
Mission accomplished. Because Salomon has tampered with its torsional stiffness, the Stance 102 doesn’t feel as wide as it measures, so it never feels ponderous. Although its rockered forebody inhibits early turn entry, it’s secure through the belly of the long turns it prefers.
Blizzard already had the best-selling ski in the U.S., men’s or women’s, when it made two changes to the Black Pearl 88 that made the best even better. The first major sweetener was TrueBlend, a meticulously arranged parquet of lightweight poplar and denser beech that is adapted for every length, and coordinated with modifications to the baseline and sidecut. The goal of TrueBlend is a perfectly balanced flex that feels smooth yet energetic.
The second major booster was a women’s-specific Titanal plate underfoot that spreads its calming effect over nearly the full length of the ski. “Every length is calibrated to create an optimal, round flex that travels well in all conditions,” notes Blizzard tester Cara Williams. “The latest Pearls are actually slightly heavier (+150g) than the previous model,” she notes, “but I discovered after only 3 or 4 high-speed turns, that once you click in, the function and performance outweigh the literal weight of a ski – it’s more important to be the right weight than light weight.”
“It’s a good single-ski-quiver that’s easy to ski,” sums up Lara Hughes Allen, arriving at the same conclusion as thousands of other satisfied women before her.
