Which ski in the QST line is meant for you?
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START QUIZ
It’s bluebird after a week of storm skiing. What’s your plan?
Ripping the fresh corduroy, thank you very much.
I’ll be boot-packing for the stashes nobody’s found yet.
If there’s blower powder and low hazard, you’ll find me in the backcountry.
Hunting for leftover pow in the trees.
What part of the United States do you usually ski?
Little bit of everywhere.
Mountain
West
East
You would describe your skiing style as:
Depends on the conditions!
Surfy and loose.
Fast and furious
Quick, tight turns down the fall line.
When you’re headed into the backcountry, your ideal conditions are:
A few inches of fresh never hurts.
Deep.
Blower powder in the trees.
Packed powder or spring corn.
Your biggest priority is that your ski will:
Hammer resort laps but is versatile enough for backcountry missions
Stay stable on tough big-mountain terrain and float through Mother Nature’s biggest storms.
Be strong and reliable even in crust, crud, and wind-hammered snow.
Carve groomers like a pro but handle a half-foot if need be.
It’s the last day of the resort season. Your friends can find you:
All of the above.
Surfing and smearing turns on big terrain.
Going off-trail until the very end.
Hitting the south side of the mountain for that corn-harvest goodness.
Are you looking for a specific addition to your ski quiver or for one to rule them all?
Hammer resort laps but is versatile enough for backcountry missions.
Specific addition—I can’t get enough.
I’m a one-ski quiver kind of person.
Your Perfect Ski:
QST 92
Where does the 92 fit in? If you love skiing off-trail in bumps, on wind-scoured faces, through well-traveled glades, and in the backcountry on spring corn, there’s not much need to carry around extra width around with you. The 92 is skinny and powerful enough for East Coast man-made snow. In those conditions, it makes metronome groomer turns in the fall line an exciting diversion between storms. But like all QSTs it offers a ton of off trail versatility. It’s amply plump for many a Colorado powder day when six inches of blower powder falls. The 15-meter sidecut means you can arc carved turns or slink your way through tight spaces as you work the hill.
Salomon QST 92 Dimensions: 128/92/111
Salomon QST LUX 92 Dimensions: 128/92/111
All of Salomon’s QST skis are quick and deft for their widths. The Lux 92 (and its unisex sibling the QST 92) is just the most quick and deft of the bunch. Here a 15-meter turn radius lets you transition from linked groomer turns to bumps to packed powder in the bowls without running back to the car to swap skis—which some people do. Because it’s easier to tip a ski of this width on edge, it makes all manner of fall-line skiing on soft to hard easier. But it’s also chubby enough for those surprise six-inch dumps. Look here if you ski a lot of packed snow and do most of your ski touring in the spring.
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QST 106
Here’s the model that served as proof of concept that the QST skis could be damp, stable, loose, lightweight, and playful at the same time. At this width, it’s perfectly suited to on- or off-trail skiing at the West’s big destination resorts. It carves a beautiful round turn on corduroy or lets you slough turns in steep trees. And it’s lightweight enough to shoulder for inbounds hike-to terrain. Naturally those attributes, plus the ski’s predictable ride quality, have made it a favorite for Rocky Mountain ski tourers too. If you ski off-trail 70 percent of the time or more, this is your ride.
Salomon QST 106 Dimensions: 139/106/125
All of Salomon’s QST skis are quick and deft for their widths. The Lux 92 (and its unisex sibling the QST 92) is just the most quick and deft of the bunch. Here a 15-meter turn radius lets you transition from linked groomer turns to bumps to packed powder in the bowls without running back to the car to swap out skis—which some people do. Because it’s easier to tip a ski of this width on edge, it makes all manner of fall-line skiing on soft to hard easier. But it’s also chubby enough for those surprise six-inch dumps. Look here if you ski a lot of packed snow and do most of your ski touring in the spring.
Salomon QST Stella 106 Dimensions: 137/106/123
The Stella is Salomon athlete Mali Noyes’s daily driver inbounds and in the lift-served backcountry of her adopted home hill of Alta, Utah. The only difference between the women’s QST Stella and the unisex QST 106 is the graphics—and the length you decide to ski on. That’s true of the entire QST line. “I’m five foot seven and 130 pounds,” says Noyes, “and my Salomon teammate Cody Townsend is six foot two and 195. He skis the 188 and I ski a 174.” Getting the length right means getting the flex right, and it’s the Stella’s flex that makes it so versatile inbounds and out. Start here if you like to explore off-trail out West.
QST BLANK
The brand-new Blank 112 is the latest in Salomon’s long line of athlete-driven ski designs. The winner of Outside’s Gear of the Year award, it fills a sweet spot between the all-mountain QST 106 and the big-mountain QST 118. It’s a loose and surfy powder ski that won’t be overwhelmed by this February’s monster storm. But there’s also enough sidecut to carve and slash around the hill. “The ski industry has spent decades trying to make the mountain smaller by building stiffer and burlier skis,” says Salomon athlete Cody Townsend. “The Blank makes the mountain bigger. Inbounds or out, it lets you explore new zones and get playful with the terrain.”
Salomon QST BLANK Dimensions: 138/112/127
QST 98 / 99
Remember that bit of pre-buying advice about mentally balancing where you dream about skiing and where you actually ski? That’s where the QST 98 comes in. A ski of this width offers the maximum in on-trail/off-trail versatility. On area, you can carve turns on groomers, get in line for that chalky chute beneath the tram, or snake your way through bumps and trees, but the 98 is also fat enough to float most resort skiers in routine storm snow—around a foot of fresh. As a backcountry ski with an 18-meter turn radius, it’s long enough to make for easy navigation in tricky snow like windboard, sastrugi, and breakable crust. In other words, it smears turns with ease, but because it’s not overly hourglassed, it tracks in weird snow.
Salomon QST 98 Dimensions: 133/98/121
Salomon QST LUMEN 99 Dimensions: 136/99/118
Skiers used to have to pick the lesser of evils with skis of this width—weak carving or poor flotation. That’s old thinking. The Lumen 99 is plump enough to float most women in all but the biggest storm deposits (18 inches plus), but the modern sidecut makes it a shapeshifter when it’s time to carve turns. It features a 19-meter radius, but much of that turning happens under the bindings, where the turn radius is most pronounced. That footprint lets you move seamlessly from groomers to deep snow. “The Lumen is my go-to backcountry ski,” says Salomon athlete Mali Noyes. “It’s light enough for touring or hike-to terrain, and the sidecut is comfortable and predictable in off-piste snow.”
