Of Head’s four Supershape models, the one that underwent the most telling transformation for 20/21 was the e-Titan.
It’s not just that the e-Titan has plumped up to a 84mm waist; it’s also been trimmed down at tip and tail. By taking some of the shape out of the sidecut, the e-Titan has become more adapted to uneven terrain and even powder, while the e-Rally remains an unadulterated carver. To put it more plainly, the e-Titan is more at home in a big-bellied GS arc while the e-Rally is genetically inclined to SL turns.
Comparing the new e-Titan to the Titans of yore, the latest issue feels smoother flexing and easier to compress at less than rocket speeds. Reducing the core profile underfoot and making the middle of the ski softer allows it bend more fully, unleashing the e-Titan’s flawless grip. The flex pattern is matched to the sidecut and baseline of each length to achieve a more fluid, balanced flex pattern that makes skiing feel as natural as walking.
Some carvers can be finicky – they’re wonderful to ski as long as you do it according to their definition of what’s right. But the shallower sidecut of the e-Titan makes it more open-minded. Pick a turn shape, any shape, and the e-Titan can dance to it. Pretty much anyone can hop on a pair and have fun as its slick blend of carving power and drift-ability opens up the bottom end of its ability envelope as well as ungroomed side of the mountain.
Tester: Kaylin Richardson
The Secret 92 is the single ski quiver for the powerful female skier. Its versatility continues to blow me away. It is the first ski I’ve had the pleasure of owning that I can pull out on any given day, with any given conditions, and never have any regrets.
As a former ski racer, and 5’10” woman, I can overpower many women’s skis when I really go for it. The Secrets are slightly stiffer than some of their contemporaries and I love that. Their multilayer woodcore and full sidewall design make for a ski that holds an incredible amount of energy without requiring a herculean effort. This is what initially impressed me most and keeps me coming back to the Secret day in and day out: the magical combination of power, versatility, and ease.
Since riding these boards I haven’t had to hang my head because I accidentally grabbed my powder pontoons on a bluebird groomer day or held back my cursing when I’m stuck with carving skis as a surprise blizzard arrives.. The Titanal Frame creates a stability I can trust at speed on any surface, yet I still get the dynamic feedback of acceleration, arguably the most fun part of skiing. They are playful without being squirrely, cutting through virtually any snow condition like butter.
Tester: Edie Thys Morgan
When you go to Jackson Hole, you want one thing and one thing only. You want powder, and lots of it. You don’t really care if your ski can carve GS turns without a whimper on firm groomers, or turn on a dime in the crux of a chewed up chute. You certainly don’t care if it will hold on a marble hard wind-scoured ridge or if it can downshift without flinching when you get into a dicey tight spot that was a whole lot friendlier the last time you were in it. Why bother wondering if it can navigate sun-baked moguls without your knees and your back squawking and your teeth rattling out of your head?
No, you don’t care about any of those things because you’re going to be ripping down Rendezvous Bowl and hitting the Hobacks for 4,000 vert of uninterrupted champagne fluff. And then you wake up, and guess what? Your vacation just might come between epic dumps. When it does, you’re going to wish you brought that one ski that can do all of the above.
The Secret102 may look like a fatty—and it’s definitely got the girth to plow through the powder of your dreams and its skied-out aftermath—but it’s no one trick pony. The ski gets happier as you dial up the intensity, which is also to say, it performs best when you’re the boss.
The new 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.
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 20/21 collection is identify what it is not, namely a QST.
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. While the rockered tip isn’t over-eager to get into the next turn, it hooks up as early as any in this all-rockered-all-the-time genre. Because Salomon has tampered with its torsional stiffness, the Stance 102 doesn’t feel as wide as it measures, so it never feels ponderous. The Stance 102 feels quick off the edge in part because it doesn’t cling to a cross-hill arc, its tail’s unusually narrow width dictating a more direct route downhill.
There are two opposing archetypes for a wide, all-terrain ski: light and smeary or beefy and more connected. Salomon had the surfy side covered with the OST 99; its new Stance 96 is meant to wrestle with wood-and-metal powerhouses like the Blizzard Bonafide and Nordica Enforcer 100.
Salomon wasn’t going to win this battle with a cap construction, so the Stance 96 uses square sidewalls. To match up with metal you have to use Titanal, so the Stances are equipped with “Twin Frame” Ti laminates. You can’t get a wood core feel without a wood core, so all the unisex Stance models have an all-poplar center.
All that said, the Stance 96 doesn’t strictly imitate the benchmark skis that it presumes to supersede. Its rockered tip works better when buffering blows against loose snow; it feels a little loose on groomers and consequently a bit late into the top of the turn. But when it’s fully laid over it grips confidently regardless of the snow surface.
The Stance 96 handles speed well, which is a good thing, as it likes to hew closely to the fall line. Its long turn shape is the product of an narrow tail that helps keep the skier oriented downhill. A rectangular cutout in the Titanal topsheet pares off a few ounces so the Stance 96 feels more agile than its girth measures.
