2027 Salomon Depart 01

The 2027 Salomon Depart 01 is a carryover ski featuring the same construction, shape, profile, and graphics as last year. We love that this ski is marketed and built with urban freestyle in mind, and while sure, that’s a thing you can do with a ski, it’s got a lot more potential than just that. We get a lighter core, a 106 mm waist, a short radius, and a progressive shape. All of these aspects should lead the skier to believe that there’s a lot more capabilities here. Basically, this ski allows you to do whatever you want, and that’s the very essence of a pure freestyle ski. Salomon definitely incorporates a lot of tech in a reasonably light package.

Salomon uses a lot of interesting layering for their constructions. Built with a blend of karuba and poplar in the wood core, the Depart is peppy, energetic, and smooth. The skis use a titanal binding reinforcement for damping and retention, allowing skiers to go big without fear. The Depart also uses fiberglass laminates and a wider steel edge to boost the overall sturdiness and longevity of these skis as they’re meant to be used in a fairly extreme manner. Since the skis are on the unique side, they’re only offered in either a 170 or a 180, with the 170 weighing in at 1680 grams and the 180 at 1800. We have some feedback from last year’s test where Brett Williamson notes that “It felt versatile for a freestyle ski, the powdery conditions were perfect for the shape and width. Hearing how it is marketed as Freestyle changed once i skied it from the peak in the powder conditions, crushed it through the broken up powder. It initially reminded me of the BBR.” We thought that too, initially.

And in terms of shaping and overall footprint, that BBR reference rings true, especially with the overall pin-tailed shape of the ski featuring a very sharp and pointy tip. The tip shape, in and of itself, does not look like a traditional twin tip or freestyle ski, but Salomon is not going for tradition here. The 180 has measurements of 140/106/128, which is basically a QST 106 with a shorter turn radius of 15-meters. The taper shape has a lot to do with the shorter arc, making this ski a very engaging carver. Interestingly, it has less rocker than many of the QST’s, so it’s not remotely a twin tip. Carl Grumbine states that he “Love these skis! The width provides the perfect amount of float, and the weight allows the ski to charge. The flex of the ski allows for playful slashes and quick turns. All around I think Solomon knocked it out of the park with the Depart 01.”

We think that this ski will transcend what the marketing points to. It can certainly help people get into the right product, but sometimes it can also feel exclusionary. By placing this ski in more of a freestyle format, they’re possibly keeping some skiers away who would really enjoy this ski. That’s the risk you run by coming out with either a pro model or a ski that’s on the unique side. We feel that this ski still falls more on the advanced and expert side of the spectrum, but the weight and short turning character open it up to a wider and broader range of skiers for sure. It’s drifty and floaty, and those are two great things to have at the start.