Salomon 2026-27
Salomon introduced their current construction at the 2017 World Championships in Lahti, and they immediately established themselves at the front of the field with the lightest and arguable fastest ski on the market. And it stayed that way, with very little change, for about 5 years. During that time, we often felt that the new skis were good, but maybe not as amazing as the first production series that came out in 2017-18. We found lots of good skis, but nothing to move the mark forward, and in time it started to feel like Salomon was falling behind the development curve, as other brands continued to push forward.
In the last few years we’ve finally seen an accumulation of small changes to material and camber that have added up to substantive change, and the newest Salomon skis are clearly setting a new standard for the brand. There was no single innovation that made the difference, but a series of controlled in-line changes – new topsheet material, the addition of binding plates, new core material, and eventually some new camber variants. This year, with the introduction of some new base materials, Salomon delivers the most compelling line-up to date and might have the most “complete” selection of race-viable options available to the public.
S/Lab skis - $900
Prolink Shift Bindings - $130
Base Materials
Salomon has led the industry with their base material selection for quite a few years, and this year they’re introducing to the public two new warm bases that add tremendous dimension to the warm ski category. Dealing with warm conditions has been challenging in fluoro free racing, and this new generation of bases is among the biggest steps we’ve seen in addressing this challenge.
The new “uni warm” model skate skis and the uni classic skis both feature the 10 base. This base has been on the World Cup for a number of years, and has been very successful. Its introduction to the broader market creates a small but meaningful advantage in a wide range of higher humidity conditions on either side of the freezing mark. The base can tolerate quite cold conditions as well, but the advantage comes when moisture content comes up.
Salomon has taken their 126 clear base out of the production line-up. This is consistent with the trend we’ve seen in fluoro free racing toward less use of clear bases. To replace the clear base, they’ve introduced a “Fuse” base, which is a swirled blend of clear and black base materials. They aren’t telling which materials are involved, or how the material is produced. But it is clearly a more tolerant solution, and in spite of the fact that the blend between black and clear material seems pretty random, the base appears to perform consistently within a usefully wide range of wet conditions.
In addition to deprecating the 126 base, Salomon has also chosen to stop putting their very good F base on their cold model skis for next year. This is sad for me. We’ve had great luck with the F base in North American conditions, and will miss this material. The cold model skis will instead depend on cold reference cambers, and utilize the standard Uni base.
Classic
Salomon’s classic skis have taken a big step forward since the introduction of their binding plates, which seem to have added some missing material stiffness under the foot. We have found skis with higher H4 (half weight camber height) values than previously, but also with really accessible kick characteristics.
The blue model cold ski has been a favorite for years. We can select it quite soft with a light kick trigger for soft/fresh snow and thin wax jobs, and we can also take higher values with a bit more finishing hardness for super-fast skis in hardpack cold race conditions.
The Uni model has been where we have struggled in the past, to find skis with easy enough finishing hardness to provide true universal performance. But the introduction of the 10 base to a special production of Uni Warm skis for the race department seemed to come through with a friendly camber profile. I’m told that this is representative of this season’s uni classic production, and this is great news. The new Uni classic ski should be a great mid-range solution with the capacity to support both hardwax and klister for skiers looking for a single pair. Or we can take high cambers for a klister-covered or colder klister ski. It’s all accessible and easy!
Salomon has had consistently excellent and easy to use klister skis for many years now, and the introduction of the Fuse base to the klister camber will only make them wider range. This remains an asset to the brand.
Skate
The big news is the Uni Warm model as an addition to what is now a four-model line up. The Uni warm brings the 10 base, but also a camber that flips the traditional Salomon approach on its head. For many years Salomon has build skis that carry most of the load on a long contact zone in the rear of the ski, with a relatively light front end with short contact. It’s been a successful formula. But the new Uni warm has a rolling “rocker” shaped rear camber profile (Madshus has used this for decades, and Fischer brought it into production eight or ten years ago), which ensures a shorter contact zone in the rear of the ski. This has been coupled with a smooth and longer contact area up front, with low release angles. The combination allows for more load on the front of the ski, which is supported by the longer P2 values (full weight bridge contact under the foot). Overall this creates an energetic and dynamic ski that delivers you forward into the bridge, and supports an aggressive loading position really well, with great running speed. You need these skis.
The cold model features the proven cold camber profile with the normal uni base material. As mentioned, I’m sad about the loss of the F base, but this remains a compelling ski with easy acceleration at low speeds and in colder/drier snow.
The normal Uni ski is left a little bit in no-man’s land by the introduction of the Uni Warm model, and the inclusion of the Uni base on the cold ski. I guess we’ll have to see what they produce to know more about how to prioritize the use of this model.
And finally, the Red model now features the Fuse base instead of the 126 clear base. This model has already been proven in competition at all levels, and we have great confidence in this as a tolerant and wide-enough range wet model ski to be a real asset to racers with full fleet development objectives.