2021 Blizzard Bonafide 97
1

Ski Stats

Sidecut 136.5/97/118.5
Radius 17m @ 177cm
Lengths 165,171,177,183,189
Weight 2320g @ 183cm
MSRP $900
FIND
Power Score:

Finesse Score:

3
1
0
Like all brands, Blizzard is under pressure to periodically renew every corner of its collection. The trick the brand has had to pull off several times is refreshing its successful designs without fundamentally changing them. To alter the Bonafide’s feel without sacrificing its identity is an intricate challenge that Blizzard attacked from the inside out. A great all-terrain ski begins with a well-balanced flex, which begins with the core. To obtain just the right pressure distribution, thin bands of dense beech are inlaid among poplar laminates, a design Blizzard calls TrueBlend. Each TrueBlend core is optimized not just by model, but by size, as well. In essence, the Bonafide 97 isn’t one new model, but six. Once Blizzard committed to the TrueBlend core, it reassessed all of its properties, including baseline (the length and severity of the tip and tail rockers) and sidecut. The cumulative effect is that the new Bonafide rolls to the edge compliantly, ready to grip according to the pilot’s dictates of edge angle and pressure. One of the complaints leveled against earlier editions of the Bonafide was that it favored expert skiers. While that’s still true of the longest length, the charge won’t hold water against the shorter sizes. The Bonafide 97 still favors experts, but only because any great ski is always best appreciated by those with the skills to extract its elite performance.

There is no better problem to have than a runaway hit. For nearly a decade, Blizzard’s Flipcore construction has propelled the previously struggling Austrian brand to the top of the ranking that matters most, market share of high-end model sales. On the distaff side, the upward charge has been led by the Black Pearl 88, America’s favorite ski for the past four years. On the unisex front, the sweet spot in the line lands on the Bonafide, rechristened for 2021 as the Bonafide 97 to draw attention to its makeover.

Like all brands, Blizzard is under pressure to periodically renew every corner of its collection whether they need it or not. The trick the brand has had to pull off several times, including this year, is refreshing its successful designs without fundamentally changing them. To alter the Bonafide’s feel without sacrificing its identity is an intricate challenge that Blizzard attacked from the inside out.

A great all-terrain ski begins with a well-balanced flex, which begins with the core. To obtain just the right pressure distribution, thin bands of dense beech are inlaid among poplar laminates, a design Blizzard calls TrueBlend. Each TrueBlend core is optimized not just by model, but by size, as well. In essence, the Bonafide 97 isn’t one new model, but six.

TrueBlend’s specificity by length magnifies the importance of size selection. The 189cm likes to run with the throttle open; if you’d prefer to tighten up the sidecut radius and have a little more camber underfoot, the 183cm is a wiser choice. The 177cm Bonafide 97 is easily managed by skiers who prefer to canter rather than gallop, and doesn’t require an extra kick of testosterone to make it responsive.

Once Blizzard committed to the TrueBlend core, it reassessed all of its properties, including baseline (the length and severity of the tip and tail rockers) and sidecut. The cumulative effect is that the new Bonafide rolls to the edge compliantly, ready to grip according to the pilot’s dictates of edge angle and pressure.

One of the complaints leveled against earlier editions of the Bonafide was that it favored expert skiers capable of channeling its lust for speed. While that’s still true of the longest length, the charge won’t hold water against the shorter sizes. The Bonafide 97 still favors experts, but only because any great ski is always best appreciated by those with the skills to extract its elite performance.

Any ski in the All-Mountain West genre has to be able to manage chopped-up crud, as that’s about as close to a pristine snowfield as an in-bounds skier is likely to find after 9:30. There’s no better proving ground for the Bonafide 97’s supreme talent: smashing through uneven, tracked up powder as if it were buttery smooth. Yes, it takes some speed to do this, but that’s how to ski heavy chop.

No one has yet made a more terrain-agnostic ski than the Bonafide 97, which retains its grip on the All-Mountain West crown for both Power and Finesse properties.