Salomon Quest 98 Ski Review

When We first got on the Salomon Quest 98, we couldn't believe Salomon was selling it for $200 less than comparable skis. That sounds like a line, but it's true.

Now it's not going to be all things to all people, but if you're looking for a light, lively all mountain ski that's easy to drive and lots of fun, this ski is certainly worth a close look.

If you're looking for a hard-charging, straight-lining burly metal ski, look elsewhere. You can see how the Salomon stack sup against other skis in the category in our all mountain ski comparison here.

What we found was a ski that was willing to make quick turns or wide ones, dart through bumps and cut up snow or make wide arcs on corduroy, all without fuss and with good feedback.

If you really open it up you'll find a speed limit, or if you try to charge straight through cut-up crud you'll get kicked around, but we found this ski was happy hunting out powder stashes in the trees, snake through day-old cut up snow or even arc on snow short of bullet proof.

Salomon uses a woodcore construction with what they call pulse-pads - a layer of rubber under the foot to smooth things out. That didn't necessarily jump out at us in our testing, but they were smooth skis for a light, lively metal-less construction.

Dialing back rocker from the "Rocker" series of skis, Salomon is zeroing in on the sweet spot for a ski like this, as is much of the rest of the industry, stepping back from the aggressive rocker first implemented years back.

Taper in the tip really helped out when we were trying to snake through bumps and crud, keeping the tip from snagging and pulling the ski off track.

So, while hard-chargers need not apply, this is a great all mountain ski for a great price that should cover a wide range of skiers and terrain.