If you digest all the brochure copy expended on All-Mountain East models, you’ll find somewhere in every model description that it’s a “50/50” model, meaning it’s equally suited to skiing on-trail or off. What this seemingly innocuous shorthand term for a versatile ski masks is that no ski can ever truly be half-and-half, for every model is part of a design family that’s inherently biased to one side of the mountain or the other.
This prelude explains why Salomon felt compelled to create a second off-trail line, named Stance, when they already had a successful freeride series in the QST’s. The latter are unmistakably meant for the off-piste, so the QST 92 has the shape and construction of the series’ flagship, the QST 106. This means, among other things, that the AME QST 92 strives to be wide beam-to-beam along its entire length and aside from a mounting plate it has no metal in it.
The Stance 90 tilts the 50/50 equation in favor of Frontside features, beginning with two sheets of Titanal and a shallower sidecut with a more slender silhouette (126/90/108) that’s quicker edge to edge. Its square tail in particular is appreciably narrower than the norm in the AME genre, which keeps its orientation down the fall line.
One way to grok the role played by the Stance 96 in Salomon’s line is to look at its counterpart in Salomon’s QST collection, the new QST 98. Earlier versions of this QST included on-trail features like super-wide tips and multiple doses of shock-dampening fibers, but the new QST 98 has a clear bias for off-trail conditions. Salomon can afford to tilt the QST towards side-of-the-trail conditions because the Stance 96 is so rock-solid on groomers.
If you want to play with the big boys at the head of the AMW pack, you have to use the same materials, so the Stance 96 sandwiches its poplar core with laminates of Titanal and carbon-flax fiber (CF/X), a double dose of dampeners that keep the Stance 96 planted on the planet. The only acknowledgement that it’s up for heading off trail is a rockered tip that feels a little lost when it hasn’t any loose snow under it to give it something to do.
The Stance 96 handles speed well, which is a good thing as it likes to hew closely to the fall line. A rectangular cutout in the Titanal topsheet pares off a few ounces so the Stance 96 feels a little more agile than its girth would suggest, but it imparts a sensation of imperturbable solidity more than playfulness.
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 21/22 collection is to identify what it is not, namely a QST.
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. The Stance 102 feels quick off the edge in part because it doesn’t cling to a cross-hill arc, its unusually narrow tail dictating a more direct route downhill.
The previous occupant of this critical slot in Rossignol’s lineup, the Soul 7, was probably the biggest seller ever in the short history of the Big Mountain genre. A mostly glass ski that was light, springy and sinfully simple to ski in the soft conditions it was meant for, the Soul 7 HD left behind big tracks to fill.
The Blackops Sender Ti would make perfect figure-8’s with a Soul 7 as they share a similar sidecut and surface area, but in almost every other respect the two skis are unalike. But the Sender Ti isn’t just different from the Soul 7; it’s better. By any criteria except perhaps liveliness and drift, the Sender Ti is superior to its multi-laureled predecessor.
The biggest differences between the two generations of Rossi’s are in baseline and construction, with the Sender Ti possessing a more continuous snow connection and a damper ride able to suck up the vibrations that come with higher speeds. The Sender Ti doesn’t just toss Titanal at the problem; it adds supplementary damping systems on both the horizontal and vertical planes. An elastomer layer Rossi calls Damp Tech smoothes out the ride in the forebody while twin ABS struts running the length of the ski resist every effort to knock it off line. A weave of carbon alloy incases its poplar core, just for good measure.
The HolyShred brings two distinctive elements to the party that its 7 Series predecessor, the Sky 7, lacked: Titanal in its lay-up and a full-on twin-tip baseline. Almost every ski in the All-Mountain West genre has a measure of tail rocker, but no other major brand produces an unabashed, directional twin-tip intended for all-mountain skiing. The addition of Titanal gives the HolyShred the stability on edge that most Pipe & Park twintips lack.
Here’s another twist to the HolyShred story: its unusually high camber line gives it spring-loaded rebound that propels the skier off the bottom of bottomless snow. While its dual-shovel baseline suggests it might smear easier than mayonnaise, when in powder, its 45-degree braid of synthetic fiber loads up as it finds the belly of the turn; as it recoils, the rising HolyShred helps the skier unweight as he (or she) crosses the fall line, as Old School a move as camber itself.
When compelled to ski groomers, its Titanal Beam construction kicks into gear, with its neo-classic sidecut keeping it close to the fall line. Once in motion, the pilot has no inkling he’s riding a twin-tip; the tail feels solid and supportive, part of an overall balanced flex pattern. Its liveliness contributes to a sense of ease and playfulness, in contrast to the hard-charging beasts on the Power side of our ledger.
