Freeride backcountry skis
Product 2022
Woman, Man
This Salomon QST 98 has freeriding roots. It has an Alpine feel with its noticeable fore/aft rockers and a fairly short ski edge. This ski enters the turn pretty quickly but with physical force as the waist is 100mm. However, you do catch the edge quite easily with a bit of speed.
Once on the edge, the ski is solid and safe. You immediately notice that the entire front part of the skisubjected to the rocker, vibrates. On groomed slopes and hard snow you can feel it, and when you pass through bumpy snow, the ski makes noise and vibrates. On the other hand, in powder, or on snow that’s crusted over, the Salomon QST 98 goes over, it crushes it and you keep good skiability.
You can shorten turns easily even if it does ski better on its own radius. You don’t need to be heavy or have a fancy technique to vary the radius and the tail doesn’t get caught.
If you want to play with carving effects, shift the skis left and right with good angulation, the Salomon QST 98 does hold its own. You can ski fast with these. Where’s its limit? Its weight makes it difficult to exploit for more than 1000m of vertical climb: 1970g in 183 cm. The other point up for discussion is its short edge, which could be a problem crossing icy slopes, it’s pretty unpleasant and you have to be vigilant. The ski tourer may be a little unnerved by its relative inertia compared to a standard freeriding touring ski whose pivot is even faster to obtain.
The Salomon QST 98 is recommended for freeriding but not freeride ski touring because it’s way too heavy. It does have superb skiability, but it does go beyond the acceptable weight limit.
We used this equipment over a long period of time
These are our thoughts after intensive use:
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