Shanti's Full Review: Salomon Skis Z10 Ti Bindings Women's
I'm a pretty hard-core skier who was taught that it's not the equipment, but the technique that matters, so when shaped skis first came out, it took me 4-5 years to even dip my boot into them.
And then my skiing life changed. Whoever said equipment doesn't matter so much was wrong. Fatter shaped skis really do make skiing easier, and the Salomon women's ski are the best I've found so far.
I'm not one to go for a woman's over a man's ski; it just so happened that I got a great deal on the Salomon women's ski and couldn't pass it up. The idea behind a women's ski is that the bindings are mounted about 8 mm farther forward to compensate for a women's differing center of gravity. I'm not sure how much that makes a difference, but I gotta admit: What I like about women's skis are the pretty graphics. I mean, come on — just because I ski mostly with guys doesn't mean that I have to pretend I'm not feminine. I like the flowery graphics — it adds some color to an otherwise REALLY long winter. And, I'm pretty lightweight, so I think, in general, a women's ski is easier for me to handle.
But enough girly cosmetic talk. Let's review how the ski performs, because, obviously that's the most important thing.
While I haven't tried this new model in crud or powder (since our ski areas just opened), I have skied the Salomon Jade (another women's ski with cool black and purple graphics) in nasty, nasty crud. We're talking leg-ripping crud that went through freeze and melt cycles last spring at Arapahoe Basin.
I was astonished — and I don't use that word lightly. This was the kind of snow that would have caused me to slow way down and make extremely cautious turns that border on short traverses. But with the Jades, I linked nice, even turns and felt pretty safe. To me, that's worth hundreds of dollars.
Likewise, in the powder, the Jades floated enough, but not too much that it took the fun out of feeling the depth of the snow. I have no reason not to believe that these new Salomons will perform the same.
On groomers, the Salomon Skis Z10 Ti's are awesome — smooth and responsive. I work a little harder than I did with my old skis that weren't as fat, but that's only because when I press and edge into my turns, the skis respond so great that I just want to make better and better turns and not be lazy.
The bases are made of graphite UHMW, which is supposed to reduce friction, and it seems to do the trick. The skis ride smoothly, without chattering at higher speeds — a big plus. Of course, no fat ski is as fast edge-to-edge in bumps, but now that snowboarders contribute to creating looser (as opposed to tighter) bumps, that's really not a problem — there's plenty of room to turn these days.
The attached binding enables the ski to be more responsive to muscle action, since there's no play. The system is designed to enhance the flex of the ski, allowing the skier to control all aspects of the turn: initiation, continuation and end. Basically, moving from edge to edge is easy.
And, the skis are light enough to hike with — another big plus.
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