2027 Salomon Equipe GS 12

The 2027 Salomon Equipe GS 12 is a strong-turning and fast ski that operates very well in an on-piste and carving scenario. If you’re looking to make clean and round turns with a lot of stability and power, the Equipe GS 12 is an ideal choice. This ski works great for front side skiers who spend most or all of their time in a purely carved turn and does have a specific purpose when it comes to carving. Our testers generally found that these skis had an awesome blend of energy and stability, making quick work of groomers and firmer snow.

These skis are built with a blend of ash and poplar. The poplar keeps the ski lighter and more energetic while the ash is stronger and more race-like in nature. We get two full sheets of metal here, the top one is .6 mm thick and the bottom one is .4, so there’s some heft here in terms of the titanal. There are windows cut out of the upper laminate and they replace that material with cork in their Power Control System to keep things quiet and composed. Salomon employs 7 mm thick sidewalls at a 7-degree angle to create outlandish leverage and fantastic edge grip. They also employ their wide steel edges to gain even more traction on the snow. In the 175, we get a weight of 2420 g/ski with plate so these are nice and composed on the snow. Tester Greg Petrics states that “This ski want's to make GS radius turns on piste. It felt like a lightened race ski. This ski is suited for groomers; it really isn't made for powder or bumps. This ski is aimed for folks looking for on piste performance, but who might not have a full racing background. It's a good piste-entry ski. I found this ski to have a pretty long radius preference, and had trouble getting it to come around at the speeds I was comfortable skiing at with other people on the pistes. At the same time it's pretty light, so I didn't really feel like it was all that stable despite its obvious desire to make longer radius turns.”

At 68 mm underfoot, these skis have a narrow shape that allows them to be incredibly torsionally stiff. There’s not a whole lot of versatility here, but with a 17-meter turn radius in the 175 cm length, you can make them do a few different turn shapes and styles. There’s no taper or rocker here as these skis are purely and squarely in the front side zone. The tail is square and direct to the snow and it holds on tight to the end of the carve. You need to push through in order to get the skis to release with any sense of ease. Tester Matt Stromecki calls them “Incredibly stiff and powerful. Surgical precision that requires delicate but assertive technique. This is a very specialized tool that is not for everybody. Tons of precision from the tips and then loads of power throughout the turn. They are very narrow with little to no float so they need an extremely firm surface.”

As a result, this is more of a specialty ski. If you are a technical skier by nature or if this is a front side dedicated ski, you will do just fine. If you’re looking for any type of all-mountain capabilities, you will likely be disappointed as these dive in on anything soft. Salomon’s use of metal, cork, and width in terms of the sidewalls and edges puts a lot of emphasis on the carving mentality, so the skier should be in the same headspace when hopping on the Equipe GS 12.