by Jackson Hogen | Sep 1, 2023
Blizzard already had the best-selling ski in the U.S., men’s or women’s, when it made two changes to the Black Pearl 88 that made the best even better. The first major sweetener was TrueBlend, a meticulously arranged parquet of lightweight poplar and denser beech that is adapted for every length, and coordinated with modifications to the baseline and sidecut. The goal of TrueBlend is a perfectly balanced flex that feels smooth yet energetic.
The second major booster was a women’s-specific Titanal plate underfoot that spreads its calming effect over nearly the full length of the ski. “Every length is calibrated to create an optimal, round flex that travels well in all conditions,” notes Blizzard tester Cara Williams. “The latest Pearls are actually slightly heavier (+150g) than the previous model,” she notes, “but I discovered after only 3 or 4 high-speed turns, that once you click in, the function and performance outweigh the literal weight of a ski – it’s more important to be the right weight than light weight.”
“It’s a good single-ski-quiver that’s easy to ski,” sums up Lara Hughes Allen, arriving at the same conclusion as thousands of other satisfied women before her.
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 1, 2023
The Brahma 88 has been a mainstay of Blizzard’s freeride Flipcore collection since its lauded launch many moons ago. It has retained its relevance over time with a series of subtle refinements, without ever straying from its roots. It many ways, it is a perfectly balanced ski, built on the time-tested foundation of wood, metal and carbon. Part of its enduring popularity is that it will dance to whatever tune you want to play. It doesn’t impose its personality on the pilot, but the other way around: whatever one wishes comes true.
Theron Lee, a former coach and current world-class ski tuner and bootfitter, called the Brahma 88, “the ultimate all mountain ski. It can go anywhere and do just about anything. Excellent carving capabilities yet easy to drift and scrub. Very smooth and tractable, with a tip that seemed smoother than last years. The thinner core does not affect its strength nor its smoothness, especially in the tip and tail. Lots of power in the tail,” concluded T Lee. The thinner core to which Mr. Lee alludes was a slight medication to the core profile in the 2023 version that continues in unchanged for 2024.
Dallas Goldsmith, one of the rare shop owners who tests nearly everything he sells, called the latest Brahma 88, “One of the best skis in the industry. Has always set the bar in the 88mm category. Flipcore is a beautiful balance of camber and rocker. Made in Austria with metal so it’s a real ski for real skiers.”
If some skiers shy away from the Brahma 88 because they’ve tried an earlier iteration and came away unimpressed, they should reacquaint themselves with its bottomless power reserve. The Brahma 88’s refusal to jump on the Lighter is Better bandwagon pays off in spades when it’s late afternoon and even the groomed runs look like hell warmed over. Don’t forget, the Brahma 88 is the Bonafide 97’s little brother, so it has the same crud-busting genes.
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 1, 2023
The Cochise 106 knows how it should be skied, even if you don’t. It’s well aware that it won’t be able to carve a short turn at minimal speed, so it keeps close to the fall line until it can shift into third. Once it reaches cruising speed, it dons its dancing shoes and shows just how indifferent to heinous crud a ski can be.
The Cochise 106 is one of the few Big Mountain models that doesn’t get the heebie-jeebies on hard pack. Its imperturbability where other skis literally tremble is due in part to its classic, wood and Titanal construction and in part to its Flipcore baseline.
The Cochise will always own a special place in Blizzard’s history as Arne Backstrom’s ski, for it was Backstrom who first conceived of Flipcore, the technology that would completely transform the Austrian brand, elevating it from obscurity to prominence in the American market. The Cochise was the first embodiment of his vision, and as such enjoys holy relic status in the halls of Blizzard’s R&D department.
The Cochise 106 represents a return to its traditional values by cutting back on some of the beefier elements in its previous incarnation without scrimping on the 2 ½ layers of Titanal that give the Cochise its indomitable determination to teach crud a lesson it won’t soon forget. The Cochise 106 whittled away at the tip and waist width and plumped up the tail, reducing the sidecut radius by 3m in a 185cm. While this encourages the rejuvenated Cochise to finish its big, banked turns, quick, little arcs are still not part of its repertoire.
To get the Cochise 106 to feel more like the original, Blizzard tinkered with several possible core changes. Blizzard attempted to modify its new TrueBlend core for the Cochise, but its added width meant more mass, inhibiting the maneuverability the R&D team was trying to augment. So, the current Cochise core added Paulownia to its matrix, lightening the load and improving its responsiveness.
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 1, 2023
I’m leery of recommending a Powder ski for all-terrain skiing, for if it’s equally adept at all conditions, why not ski it every day? A ski so polyvalent would not only render any notion of ski categories an absurd pretension, it would erode the very foundations of logic itself. Well, the new Blizzard Rustler 11 comes pretty damn close to pulling down the twin pillars of logic and methodology, for it seems to transition from soft snow to firm without batting an eye.
If there’s a trick to this sleight of hand, it lies in the Rustler 11’s construction, beginning with its dimensions, which straddle the border between the Big Mountain and Powder genres, depending on which length one chooses from the five available sizes. The new Freeride Trueblend core ups the amount of Paulownia in its 3-wood matrix to keep the overall weight, and in particular mass beyond the binding area, from ballooning as the ski’s dimensions expand. To keep the Rustler 11 from feeling ponderous, Blizzard trims the percentage of Titanal used in its make-up compared to its skinnier siblings, the Rustler 10 and 9.
Aside from the Trueblend core, the biggest difference between this generation of Rustlers and the one that preceded it is how the new FluxForm design distributes its allocation of Titanal. A nearly full-length strip of metal rides over each edge, but stops short of rapping around the tip or tail. In the middle of the ski, a separate, disconnected swath of Ti fills the space between the outer bands, to lend additional strength and rigidity to the midsection. Fluxform creates a ski that feels secure on edge anywhere it travels, with just enough tolerance for twist at the tip and tail to allow the ski to flow over choppy terrain rather than fight it.
So, who needs a Rustler 11 more, a powder novice or an expert? Trick question: of course, the lower skill skier would be more grateful, but the expert will get more out of it. For the lower skill skier looking for a crutch that will disguise his lack of ability, its relatively soft, balanced flex and overall stability will make deep snow feel more consistent. For the expert, it’s game-on: no further coaching is required, just stand on it and go.
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 1, 2023
There are three balancing acts that a Big Mountain ski needs to pull off in order to rise to the top of the ranks. One, it has to make the transition from firm snow to soft and back again feel so smooth it’s barely perceptible. Two, it has to execute short turns and long turns without an obvious bias for one or the other. And three, the ski itself needs to feel balanced, with a round, even flex that allows the skier to always feel on center. I’m sharing this nugget of wisdom here because if the essence of the new Rustler 10 could be distilled to a single word, it would be “balanced.”
The testimony of a couple of our elite testers allude to this attribute in their rave reviews. Level 3 instructor Lara Hughes-Allen found the 180cm Rustler 10 to be “light and playful, especially off-piste. A well-balanced ski that makes for fun short turns and bump skiing. For a 102cm underfoot ski, it’s fairly quick edge to edge. Overall, this is a very comfortable ski that performs well in a variety of conditions.”
The erstwhile owner of Start Haus in Truckee, California, a longtime Realskiers Test Center, Jim Schaffner is also a world-class bootfitter and race coach. His thumbnail portrait of the Rustler 10 dovetails nicely with Lara’s assessment: “Balanced and very comfortable to ski in all conditions. It felt seamless to move from firmer to softer to broken pow. Predictable and smooth, with surprising power and rebound when you stomp on it. If I owned this ski, I would ski it on most days in Tahoe.” Mark Zila of Footloose Sports agreed, calling the Rustler 10, “A great all-around ski that would make a great single-ski quiver for the Sierras.”
Bear in mind, Schaffner is both big and strong, so the idea of a Big Mountain ski as an everyday driver makes perfect sense in his case. Also note that the considerably lighter Hughes-Allen could easily bow the Rustler 10 into a short-radius arc, despite its girth, thanks to the high edge angles she can create with her long legs at full extension. Point being, the more skilled the skier, the more he or she can appreciate the full performance range of this ski. Skiers with a less polished skill set can adopt the Rustler 10 as their designated powder/crud ski, but for everyday skiing, the Rustler 9 is a better tool for the skier who is less talented or less aggressive.
