Overview
Blizzard’s fortunes began to turn around several years ago when the Tecnica Group acquired the brand and factory in Mittersill, Austria, and pumped a few million euros into an overhaul. It’s often the case in the world of industry that he who builds the last factory wins, as it will have the most modern machinery and latest technical capacities. Tecnica management backed up their bet with the movement of some top design talent from Völkl to Blizzard, and the stage was set for a rejuvenated Blizzard to show what it could do.
Blizzard probably would have done just fine if they never signed Arne Backstrom to ski on their brand, but the world-class big mountain skier did more than just represent the company, he helped transform it. It was Backstrom who first conceived the idea of rockering a ski by simply flipping the core over, so the tip and tail naturally curved up instead of down. The recently anointed Blizzard engineers figured out how to execute the idea and presto, Flipcore was born.
The short history lesson matters because this flipping-the-core business makes a ski with a remarkably large behavioral envelope. In category after category, the Flipcore skis deliver elite performance with all the rough edges removed. Most skis with a limitless top end don’t suffer fools gladly – in our jargon, most great Power skis don’t exhibit many Finesse properties – but the Flipcore skis aren’t finicky. Many models with pronounced front rocker don’t ever feel connected in the forebody, but the rocker on a Flipcore ski blends with the midsection when flexed, so the edge feels engaged tip-to-tail. This intoxicating blend of behaviors has seduced countless ski testers, thrusting models like the Bonafide, Cochise, Black Pearl and Brahma into the first rank in their respective genres.
Flipcore’s most impressive validation came from an unexpected source. A few seasons ago, Blizzard decided to treat its women’s line more seriously, moving away from mimicking men’s construction and developing women-specific lay-ups. Blizzard fostered women’s focus groups to gather feedback and clarify its design objectives. While it continued to use unisex tooling, it switched to Woman Specific Design and the once unthinkable happened: a women’s ski sold more units than any other model in the American market.
The emergence of the Black Pearl as a sales star, when put in historical context, is a case study in brand resurrection that defies probability. Before the Tecnica Group acquisition, Blizzard was flat on its back in the U.S. market and invisible on the women’s front. Women’s skis did not matter, period. The brand was deaf to market input, among other liabilities. Racing was very important, carving the key to the consumer market and freeride was for loonies like the French and Americans.
The ascension of a woman’s freeride ski that leads an insular Austrian brand to prominence and profitability is a less likely scenario than the story of Joan of Arc. Right behind the Black Pearl 88 in popularity was a pair of perpetual star products, the men’s Bonafide and Brahma. The more recently introduced Rustler/Sheeva series of freeride models earned its own small army of adherents, securing Blizzard’s reputation as the current king of All-Mountain models.
It’s tough to bat 1.000 across all genres, and Blizzard is working to strengthen its presence in the carving categories that are important in the central European market Blizzard calls home. Its Firebird series of race skis enhance a traditional, woodcore/dual Ti laminate sandwich with vertical carbon laminates that boost acceleration through the bottom of the turn. Both the Non-FIS Race Firebird WRC and SRC are fantastic, no-nonsense race skis that are a gas to ski even if they never clip a start wand. The Firebird HRC (121/69/102) applies the same race-caliber construction to a Technical version for those who want a little more versatility in a high-velocity package.
For the past few seasons, Blizzard has faced the enviable task of improving on excellence, specifically how to keep its franchise Flipcore collection firing on all cylinders. Four years ago, it extended the brand-within-a-brand franchise down to the 82mm-waisted Brahma 82, pushing its off-trail design down into the Frontside genre. It also created yet another Black Pearl, also an 82, squeezed in between the dowager Black Pearl 88 and the recently retired Black Pearl 78. For 20/21, the brand had to find some way other than model proliferation to keep growing its core business.
In order to change as little as possible, Blizzard changed nearly everything. In other words, Blizzard didn’t want to lose the high-end performance that had fueled its phenomenal growth, but he who fails to innovate perishes. So Blizzard tweaked a lot of its basic elements, changing length, baseline and sidecut in every size. The trigger for all these tweaks was the debut of TrueBlend, a precise reconfiguration of dense beech stringers among a stack of softer poplar laminates. The result was a rounder, more even flex that maintains snow contact in unruly terrain.
Four years ago, TrueBlend was applied to the Bonafide 87, Brahma 88, Black Pearl 97 and Black Pearl 88, creating a size-specific lay-up for each model, so flex remained predictably round and smooth in every length. In the Bonafide 97, for example, the 189cm wasn’t just a bigger 183cm: each was its own ski. The net effect of scaling performance along with length is it opens up the ability range for a given model. A less skilled man could now handle a size-appropriate Bonafide, just as a more high-powered lass can push the Black Pearl 97 in a 177cm.
Three seasons ago, Blizzard upped its carving category game considerably with the arrival of a full line of Thunderbirds, all unabashedly made to make ruts in corduroy. Headlined by the R15 WB in the Frontside genre and the R13 in the Technical category, the latest Thunderbirds were to carving skis what the Bonafide and its kin had been to the off-trail world: among the best, ever. The Thunderbird R15 WB and Phoenix R14 Pro for women seem to have an almost molecular bond with hard snow, driving eagerly into the top of the turn and exploding off the edge at the finish. They are not made to pamper the occasional skier but to exhilarate an expert. In a single stroke, Blizzard re-set the bar in this category.
Also three years ago, Blizzard took another modest step towards making the magic inherent in its Flipcore All-Mountain models accessible to lighter, less aggro or less talented skiers by the simple expedient of making their TrueBlend cores ever-so-slightly thinner, so they respond to a lighter touch. The model most affected by this slenderizing was the Bonafide 97; the cores on the Brahma 88 and Brahma 82 also got a haircut, but the change in flex resistance was less noticeable on the narrower skis.
While the most recent change to the Bonafide 97 and its brethren was detectable but not transformational, The 2024 season overhaul of the Rustler and Sheeva series was most eminently evident and undeniably new. Because of their built-in off-trail bias, the 2024 Rustler and Sheeva still lean towards the Finesse side of the Power/Finesse divide, but their Power quotient was substantially boosted.
A close examination of their latest construction reveals how Blizzard was able to simultaneously enhance both Power and Finesse properties in the new series. The smooth, responsive flex stems primarily from the application of Blizzard’s TrueBlend wood core, that precisely integrates segments of sturdy beech within a matrix made of poplar (underfoot) and Paulownia (at the extremities). TrueBlend is adjusted with every length to create just the right pressure distribution for each size, an attention to detail that pays off particularly for the lighter skiers that use shorter sizes.
The Power-boosting properties in the 2024 Rustlers and Sheevas stemmed from a fresh take on where to selectively apply Titanal to what is otherwise a wood, fiberglass and carbon core. In the previous generation, the top layer of Titanal was trimmed down at tip and tail, leaving only an extended platform underfoot. The new FluxForm design still concentrates a large patch of metal underfoot, but adds Ti strips over the edge that nearly run end to end. Titanal’s talent for shock damping tangibly improves snow connection over the full length of the ski, substantially expanding each model’s performance envelope. There’s no question that the re-launch of the Rustler and Sheeva collections was the major product re-design of the 2024 season.
After a decade spent climbing from relative obscurity to preeminence, Blizzard finally altered the design of its iconic All-Mountain models. The Bonafide, Brahma and Cochise have been laid to rest, while the category-crushing Black Pearl series has been substantially revised. The new Anomaly series and reconceived Black Pearl collection are both based on the FluxForm construction that debuted two years ago in the Freeride Rustler and Sheeva families. On the Anomalies, the topsheet of .6mm-thick Titanal is split into three elements: a central platform flanked by two, nearly end-to-end strips. The base Ti laminate is a more supple, .4mm sheet that runs nearly edge-to-edge. On the Black Pearls, the base layer is carbon pre-preg and the top metal parts are .4mm-thick, while the center plate is made from a women-specific, shock absorbing material.
It’s too soon to say which of the four Anomaly models will emerge as the star product, but my money is on the Anomaly 94. The Anomaly 102 isn’t as burly as the retiring Cochise, but the thinnest member of the new clan, the Anomaly 84, is probably a better carving tool than the Brahma 82 it has nudged into retirement. The Anomaly that skis most similarly to its progenitor is the versatile 88, which retains its all-things-to-all-skiers mentality. The Fluxform design adopted by the 3-model Black Pearl family has opened up the top end for all the Pearls, without compromising the ease and forgiveness that made the Pearl 88 the best-selling model, men’s or women’s, of the last decade.
The 2026 Season
One of the traits that make the Anomaly series anomalous is that their sidecut and construction favor a long-radius turn, which is entirely appropriate for all-terrain skis. To bring balance to the line, Blizzard tilted the bias of its new Stormbird series towards shorter turns on prepared slopes. There were a few other compelling reasons to introduce the Stormbird series: 1) the European market prefers on-piste designs, 2) there is also a growing demand – in the U.S. and Europe – for ski/binding systems, so all Stormbirds come with their own Marker bindings, and 3) the new series allowed Blizzard to create a new family large enough to extend down to the lowest price points. Note that the returning Phoenix series for women also reaches down to entry-level price points.
To hit multiple prices, Blizzard had to dilute the performance capabilities of each step-down model, so every Stormbird has its own construction. At the top of the series sits the Stormbird 82 DTI, featuring its own TrueBlend core, two sheets of Titanal and full, square sidewalls. This design is strong enough and versatile enough to satisfy the most talented skiers; with each step down in the series, the modified designs are meant to match a corresponding slide in its preferred pilot’s abilities. So, the Stormrider 80 Ti, in addition to its snugger turn radius, uses only one sheet of Ti, the semi-cap construction trims down sidewall height and the matching binding drops to a lower DIN scale. Still the Stormrider 80 retains its own Trueblend wood core, a key feature that is absent from the three lower-priced Stormbirds.
Positioned above the Stormriders in Blizzard’s 2026 carving collection is the returning R15 Thunderbird, now ion three different iterations, all of which have power to spare. The top models offer a choice between an 82mm waist or a 76mm; both are masters of precise short-radius turns. Even with a small dose (2mm) of tip rocker, the sensation imparted by the all the latest Thunderbirds is one of end-to-end connection. Blizzard’s enviable position in the U.S. market was built on the success of both its men’s and women’s all-mountain models; now its on-piste collection is deserving of the same lofty reputation.