Yes, Salomon and Atomic are both under the Amer Group umbrella, which means there are a lot of people who don’t care which of these skis you buy as long as you buy one of them.
Since I am moonlighting at a shop, I get to go to manufacturer clinics, and we just had our Atomic and Salomon rah-rah tech session. In most regions, the same rep works for both of these brands, so it was a combined clinic. It was interesting listening to the rep choose his words wisely when comparing and contrasting the two product lines, and in his defense, he was very fair. The clinic, along with @markojp suggesting this comparison, reminded me to get this up on the site.
The Vantage 100CTi is the flagship of the Vantage collection; when I ski with /name dropping/ @Daron Rahlves, it's the ski he is on. To paraphrase an old ad campaign, the Vantage 100CTi is strong enough for a Hahnenkamm-downhill-winning-world-class skier, but made for good recreational skiers. Quite frankly, that is true. Atomic did a really good job creating a mature-feeling ski that a stronger skier can ski hard and rip with yet it doesn’t require his attention all of the time.
$599, are you out of your mind? A Steals & Deals Winner in its rookie year, the Salomon QST 99 is indeed all new and all fresh. Personally, I really like the clean throwback look with the traditional blue and orange motif. I have said that graphics won’t sell a ski but they will stop a sale; well, these graphics might actually add some sales. Okay, to what’s important, what does the QST do on the snow? Well, remember how fall-off-the-bone easy the Quest 98 was? Good. Remember how big-boy serious the Q-Lab was? Good. The new QST isn’t nearly as strong as the Q-Lab; it skis closer to the Quest but with a much more modern shape and higher-end capability. Think of these as 65% Quest and 35% Q-Lab.
Since I am moonlighting at a shop, I get to go to manufacturer clinics, and we just had our Atomic and Salomon rah-rah tech session. In most regions, the same rep works for both of these brands, so it was a combined clinic. It was interesting listening to the rep choose his words wisely when comparing and contrasting the two product lines, and in his defense, he was very fair. The clinic, along with @markojp suggesting this comparison, reminded me to get this up on the site.
The Vantage 100CTi is the flagship of the Vantage collection; when I ski with /name dropping/ @Daron Rahlves, it's the ski he is on. To paraphrase an old ad campaign, the Vantage 100CTi is strong enough for a Hahnenkamm-downhill-winning-world-class skier, but made for good recreational skiers. Quite frankly, that is true. Atomic did a really good job creating a mature-feeling ski that a stronger skier can ski hard and rip with yet it doesn’t require his attention all of the time.
$599, are you out of your mind? A Steals & Deals Winner in its rookie year, the Salomon QST 99 is indeed all new and all fresh. Personally, I really like the clean throwback look with the traditional blue and orange motif. I have said that graphics won’t sell a ski but they will stop a sale; well, these graphics might actually add some sales. Okay, to what’s important, what does the QST do on the snow? Well, remember how fall-off-the-bone easy the Quest 98 was? Good. Remember how big-boy serious the Q-Lab was? Good. The new QST isn’t nearly as strong as the Q-Lab; it skis closer to the Quest but with a much more modern shape and higher-end capability. Think of these as 65% Quest and 35% Q-Lab.
- Why choose the Vantage 100CTi? Strong but not 11/10th skiers will get the most out of the Vantage. Skiers who like no surprises, just good solid performance.
- Why choose the QST 99? The Salomon is great for anyone but the strongest skiers. For those with shallow pockets, there is nothing wrong with saving money when there is no cost in performance.
- Other skis in the class: Armada Invictus 99 Ti, Dynastar Cham 2.0 97, Rossignol Sky7, Völkl 90Eight.