2025 Salomon Stance 84 - SkiEssentials.com Ski Test Review

Hey skiers, it's Bob with SkiEssentials.com. Welcome to our 2025 ski test. Got a Salomon Stance 84 for you today. Finally, this is one of the ones that just took a little extra time to get here, so we're adding it into the test past that published date, but great to have this ski here because it is just a very important option in this mid-80s category. It just does so many things really well, especially for a ski with a narrower footprint. You know, most of the wider the Stance series of skis, the 90, 96, and 102, get a little bit more of the billing because they are a slightly more sophisticated construction, but this shape really holds up well for most skiers who are using the mountain as kind of it's intended by the groomers and the bumps and the trees, mixing on and off trail capabilities, but certainly keeping it more in the in-resort and in-bounds format. This ski returns structurally unchanged for this year. We do get a new top sheet and that's going to hopefully bring some more people into the fold as it just kind of keeps, you know, year after year comes back as being just overlooked for how good it is and especially for more of a budget-friendly option, skiers that are kind of progressing from beginner to intermediate or intermediate to advanced, even, you know, advanced to expert skiers that are simply looking for something that's narrow enough and versatile enough, no problem taking a look at this Stance 84 here. Construction-wise, we are still built with the full poplar wood core. We do get their TIC frame, so metal underfoot here, and then in the windows in the tips and in the tails we get carbon stringers, so just a little bit different adding energy and pop to the tips and tails while keeping this underfoot zone pretty stable and torsionally stiff for groomer skiing activity. One of the interesting things is that they do mix that full sidewall, especially where you can see that metal underfoot, and then it tapers into half cap and then mostly cap in the very tips and tails, so that's doing a few things. One, it's lightening the swing weight in the tips and tails here, just making the ski a little bit more mobile, keeps the underfoot zone certainly more entrenched into that on-piste and carving format, but lightens the swing weight of this ski, also increases the durability as you're not getting a direct sidewall to cap interface there, so for skiers that are just, I would say, more in the intermediate range, and intermediate kind of gets a bad reputation, but that's where most of the skiers are around, so by having that more in this intermediate range ski, it does increase durability, helps prevent chipping and peeling in the tips and tails, just because there's just in general a little bit more crossing of the tips and tails at those ability levels, but really nice kind of way to blend, you know, that the performance aspect with the durability side as well, but yeah, really fun ski, 84 underfoot here, 13 meter turn radius, this is a shorter 161, so that number will climb as you get into the longer lengths, and then we see a pretty fun rocker profile. I think one of the most telling things about this ski is that it fares well in softer snow for its width, and it really excels in bumps and packed out trees, so like if the woods got snow a few days ago, and skiers kind of skied and packed it down, that's where this ski is just, is really, really excellent, and then in the bumps, it's one of my favorites in the moguls, as it blends kind of a lightweight and crisp energy with a solid feel underfoot, so you never feel like you're pushing through the troughs too hard, you know, softer skis can kind of feel like you're looping out, looping out of the back, but these have a nice supportive tail due to that carbon, and then it plays well off of the rocker there, so not like a lot of long rocker here, but enough to make it more agile in the snow, and then more taper, you know, this is kind of a little bit different than what we see with some other more front side oriented skis in the mid-80s, is that this has more of a free ride shovel to it, so actually pretty good flotation here, and then more of an all-mountain style in the tail in terms of rocker, not terribly long, not terribly dramatic, easy to release from the turn, and with excellent energy, thanks to that carbon, those carbon stringers in the tail, I mean we've skied these, you know, in Stowe here, through, you know, New Hampshire, we had them out in Alta a couple years ago, and skied them in some pretty messed up stuff, and we were really surprised at how well the Stance 84 held up for, again, kind of that mid-range ski, but for something that really does a whole lot, and is pretty easy on the wallet, got to make sure to check out the Salomon Stance 84 here at SkiEssentials.com, and we will see you out there on the hill.