2022 Line Vision 98

Versatile, light, and incredibly fun, the 2022 Line Vision 98 is built and shaped for freeride and all-mountain skiing for a wide range of skiers. Thanks to the shape, construction, and profile, skiers from the intermediate all the way through the expert ranks will find something to love about the Vision 98. When you pick them up in your hands, the first thing you notice is how light they are, and that feeling continues on to when they’re on your feet. It’s difficult to imagine that they’re substantial enough to deliver any type of performance on the back end, but the good ski engineers at Line have taken care of that for sure. Built with their Partly Cloudy core, the skis consist of a blend of paulownia and maple, so they skis have a great strength to weight ratio to start. Add to that their blend of carbon, aramid, and fiberglass material, and you’re getting a snappy and energetic ski that can truly handle a wide variety of conditions and terrain. After the build, you get the shape. At 98 mm underfoot, these skis have the proper blend of off-trail flotation and on-trail capabilities that make them a true all-mountain ski with a freeride flair. The flex is on the more generous side of the spectrum, allowing for the freestyle skier to access a lot of the park and pipe personality while keeping the all-mountain stuff intact. Averaging an 18-meter turn radius, these skis are pretty darn agile, and the rocker profile and twin tip shape make them about as playful as it comes in the ski world.

Matt McAlary skied the 179 and noted that “it felt pretty true to length, maybe a bit shorter, but I might attribute that to its low swing weight opposed to the rocker profile.” Lighter skis can surely feel shorter, and Matt might be a bit more comfortable on the longer size. Regardless, he gave top marks of 5’s out of 5 for overall impression, versatility, forgiveness, quickness, and maneuverability. Flotation, stability, playfulness, torsional stiffness, and edge hold all got 4’s, so this is a nice high-scoring ski for Matt for sure. It’s impressive when something this light gets all those high scores, and we’re all about it. “I was fairly surprised by this ski. What I had anticipated to be a fairly squirely and noodle-like ski was actually a very stable, maneuverable and VERY fun ski that I would actually consider buying. I can see where it would lack on hardpack, but in slightly softer conditions or for someone with a more playful style, this ski would a great option. It was nimble enough to go ski a zipper line, and stable enough to charge through choppy conditions and not feel like it was getting tossed around. I think the generous amount of early taper in the ski really helped with that. One thing that stood out to me almost right off the lift was how much life the ski had. I could really feel the ski want to rebound after even just flexing it ever so slightly. The ski had a light-footedness to it that added to its playful feel. It was fun ollieing of bumps and just popping around. To me it just felt really well balanced in terms of stability and playfulness, which is oftentimes fairly difficult to achieve in a ski. In most cases a ski tends to err on one side more than the other, and in the case of the vision, while it probably errs on the side of playful, I found it to hold up to some of the stiffer skis I was on during the test. Overall, a very pleasant surprise, and a ski that I think a lot of people would have a ton of fun on.”

Jeffrey Siegel skied the 179 as well and states it’s true to size. Like Matt, Jeffrey scored the ski top marks of 5 for overall impression and versatility. It got 4’s for torsional stiffness, edge hold, playfulness, stiffness, maneuverability, stability, and flotation, so we again see a very high score average for these Vision 98’s. “Any ski that’s poppy enough to put me in the air puts a smile on my face. This ski is all about the surf and about the pop. I’m sure it tears up soft snow. It certainly ripped through the spring bumps. I was either plowing through them or flying over them. The ski definitely likes to be airborne. It has a confidence inspiring level of stability and a surprisingly smooth and solid feel. I like the way the ski carves too; it actually has a nice balance of surfiness to carvability which works well for a 98 mm do everything ski.” Overall, we see some surprising scores and feedback from our testers on this ski, and that’s a great sign for Line and their ability to make fun-loving skis that also have a high-performance ceiling.

If you’re looking to do a bit of everything out there and are in the market for something on the lighter side of the spectrum, the Line Vision 98 should be on your short list. With a wide-berth of skier ability and application, these skis are as versatile as they are fun, and that’s a really good thing for a sport that’s based on having fun out there on the hill.