2024 Salomon Stance 96

[SkiTalk Test Team]

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Philpug: The Salomon Stance collection had been out for a few seasons now and unfortunately it hasn’t set the world on fire with sales. Could it have been the conservative topsheet or that it was one of the more demanding mid 90mm offerings? Either way, Salomon decided to go back to the drawing board and change these two aspects, but keep the shape that worked well.

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Enter the new improved Stance 96 that is not only more accessible but not like it is hiding in a dark corner of the room. With the old Stance, I felt I fell in between sizes. The 176 was not enough and the 182 was a bit of a truck for me. With the new more accessible 96, the 182 feels just right and actually picks up where some of the other 178-180cm mid 90 mm offerings fall short.

I not only got to ski the new Stance 96 at our usual demo, but we have a pair in our test fleet so I was able to ski them at multiple areas and in varied conditions. I and other skiers who tested this ski at different times and locations throughout the season found that the new Stance is more accessible, but not at the cost of top end performance. The result? The new Stance can be enjoyed by more skiers.

Insider tip: The Stance is calling for the new Salomon Strive 16 binding.​

 

[tromano]

The stance 90 and 102 get the same core changes as the 96.

 

[spudbumkin]

I absolutely love the OG Stance 96 and thanks to the new Stance I have been able to pick up NOS 188cm Stance 96s for a song and keep them in reserve to replace my current pair. Thanks Salomon! The race to the middle helps my pocket book in the short term.

 

[Philpug]

Long term update: There is something to a ski that you don't have to think about and it is just intuative and does exactly what you expect it to do with out fanfare and a ski that does all that is the newly redesigned Salomon Stance 96. When the conditions are bad, be it the weather, snow, cold or whatever that is happening that can take you off your game you want a ski that, again, you don't have to think about and just skis and it just what you need to get you by,

 

[BMC]

Just to belatedly add my voice to the praise for this ski…

I have the OG version in a 176. When I first got on them I worried I may have opted too short, but after a few runs I feel comfortable with the length I’ve selected.

I noticed, after the fact, that Blister calls out the skis “precision” and that is exactly the adjective that came to mind when thinking about this ski - “precise”. It’s a very precise ski and carves including initiating a turn like a much narrower ski. It literally have nothing bad to say about this ski as notwithstanding its precision on piste, it also seems to work a treat in powder and bumps. It can shift from planted turns to rapid fire short ones on the fly. It also has no chatter - it hasn’t got quite the same damping as say an Enforcer but you aren’t having irregularities sent up your leg, and there is certainly no chatter on firm snow, particularly that steep firm variety I’ve seen induce chatter in some other non metal laminate based skis.

I can’t see how the slight changes to the core will make this any less pleasing ski but the graphics have gone from dull (mine) but inoffensive to just plain off putting.