2022 Line Sick Day 104

Like a lot of Line skis these days, the Sick Day focuses on fun, and knocks it out of the park. With the shape, construction, and profile to make an excellent freeride ski with an all-mountain flair, the Sick Day 104 is very agile and energetic for its size, allowing skiers with a variety of backgrounds and ability levels to really eke out a ton of performance for a somewhat deceptive ski. At 104 mm underfoot, we’re putting this ski in the freeride category, but it also serves quite well as a wider all-mountain ski—mostly because there are narrower skis that bear the same name in the 88 and 94-mm widths. As the floatiest of the Sick Days, the 104 is best-suited for fresh and soft snow days, but still has a wonderful edge grip and rebound out of the turn, giving it more of an all-mountain response to groomer skiing. A wonderful resort ski, the Sick Day 104 isn’t exactly a powerhouse out there, but it can certainly hold its own and makes some amazingly clean and round turns for how light and maneuverable it is. Built with an Aspen wood core and carbon magic fingers (stringers, in the non-marketing world), the skis have some energy built in for sure. The capwall build gives even more snap and pop to the turn, as the vertical sidewall on the lower-half of the ski combine well with the cap on the upper to make the 104 a lot more energetic than its shape lets on.

John McIntosh skied the 179 and noted that “the length was great for me.” He scored the ski 4’s out of 5 for flotation, stability, quickness, maneuverability, playfulness, torsional stiffness, edge hold, versatility, and overall impression. That’s a lot of 4’s, and we love seeing it out of these great skis. His lone 3 was given for forgiveness, showing that the Sick Day 104 was a bit stiffer than the weight and build let on. John calls the 104 “a very versatile ski, from a deep day to cruising groomers where it is quite stable.” That ability for the ski to transition between deep snow flotation and firmer groomers is pretty impressive, and one of the best qualities of this ski. Phil McGrory thought his 179 was true, but he’d likely size up to the 186 if it were his personal pair. Like John, Phil scored the 104 all 4’s and 3’s with the 4’s given for overall impression, versatility, forgiveness, quickness, maneuverability, and flotation. 3’s went to stability, torsional stiffness, and edge hold. “The Line Sick Day 104 is a great all-around ski. At 104 underfoot the ski can stay above the softer snow, does have a good amount of shape and a stiffer tail to allow the ski to carve a turn once on edge. The tip of the ski is still very playful allowing it to feel nimble in the bumps and trees.” I think that’s a huge part of the ski, is that it’s able to carve the turn purely on the groomer, and then be agile in the tighter spots—and for a 104, that’s a pretty impressive blend of characteristics.

Marcus Shakun states that the 179 he skied was fine, “but the 186 would be perfect.” He gave top marks of 5 out of 5 for flotation and playfulness, with 4’s for overall impression, versatility, torsional stiffness, edge hold, forgiveness, stability, quickness, and maneuverability. Like the other testers, we see a very high combination of scores, leading us to put this 104 in the category of a tester favorite for sure. Like Line, Marcus notes that the 104 is “A ski that makes you want to call in sick!!! Fun, can do it all type of ski that makes you not want to leave the hill you're enjoying so much. Line had no problem figuring out light, lively and maneuverable. It just does it all with ease and puts a smile on your face. No problem skiing this all day and having plenty left to enjoy apres! Not too light either. This ski had no problem pushing around heavy piles of spring corn. High speed it’s very stable and smooth. Slower speeds shorter livelier turns and with lots of pop. intermediates that want a wider ski to all mountain adventures this ski has a ton to offer. Throw a touring binding on as well if you want that one that does all.”

Everyone who got on this ski was impressed with both the low and high-end range of the 104, and it shows in the scores and the feedback that we received. For skiers in the intermediate to expert ability levels who are looking for either a wider all-mountain or a narrower freeride ski with a ton of energy, the Line Sick Day 104 is a strong contender and should be on a lot of skiers’ short list.