by Jackson Hogen | Aug 31, 2018
The Blizzard Bonafide absolutely, positively doesn’t care about the prevailing snow conditions. It can transition from brittle corduroy to 18 inches of fresh without a hitch in its stride. It’s this chameleonesque character that makes the Bonafide a perennial contender for the title of best all-condition ski, end of story. The Bonafide is able to bully beat-up snow because in many respects it’s built like an Old School GS race ski, which was the powder tool of choice in the era just prior to the proliferation of fat skis. Last year the Bonafide was given a wee bit more shape, making its carving performance even crisper without detracting one iota from its drift-ability in gnarly old snow. Extraordinary performance is the product of insightful design and the quality of its execution; the Bonafide attests to Blizzard’s scrupulous attention to both.
by Jackson Hogen | Aug 31, 2018
The tale of the Black Pearl 98 is instructive on several levels. On the construction front, this Pearl has been through several phases, including periods when it was a direct copy of a men’s model. It still uses the same tool as the unisex Bonafide – perhaps the greatest all-terrain ski ever – but Blizzard switched to a Women’s Specific Design (WSD) a couple of seasons ago. What’s notable is that the model that most closely matched the Bonafide was a flop, but the WSD Pearl 98 is so well-balanced women want to take it everywhere. The current Black Pearl 98’s became a couple of steps quicker last year when it adopted a tighter sidecut with an earlier contact point. Along with the weight savings from WSD, its new, deeper sidecut makes the Black Pearl 98 feel narrower and consequently quicker edge-to-edge.
by Jackson Hogen | Aug 31, 2018
The Blizzard Brahma comes from a long line of off-piste skis that includes the wider Bonafide, Cochise and Bodacious. Its pedigree is pure off-piste. The addition of a dab more sidecut last season enhanced its hard snow chops, giving it an extra tug into the turn and more carve in its character. This small injection of carvability expanded its turn repertoire, but the Brahma remains essentially an off-trail ski wearing a corset. The most notable advantage of Blizzard’s Flip Core baseline is the rockered forebody never calls attention to itself as it goes about its job. A less touted blessing is the way Flip Core construction, like that used in the Brahma, opens up the envelope of skiers who can both enjoy it and benefit from it.
by Jackson Hogen | Aug 31, 2018
Like the Kore 93 and Enforcer 93, the new Rustler 9 from Blizzard is the narrowest incarnation from a family of fat, emphatically off-trail skis. Its signature feature, Dynamic Release Technology (D.R.T.), consists of a Titanal plate that’s edge-to-edge in the mid-section and quickly tapers to blunt tongues, freeing the extremities to twist as needed in choppy terrain. The relatively loose tip and tail conform readily to the abrupt contours of today’s moguls and generally facilitate direction change using less than textbook turns. Scott from Aspen Ski and Board sketched the Rustler 9 profile as “light, with perfect playfulness/stability ratio. Also, rocker is not over done, good loft with minimal tip vibrations.”
by Jackson Hogen | Aug 31, 2018
Blizzard’s Black Pearl 88 is the super-model of the women’s market, a mega-star that for the first time in the annals of ski sales sold more units in the U.S. than every other ski, men’s or women’s. The Black Pearl had been the anchor of Blizzard’s women’s line for several years when the brand rolled the dice and re-designed it 3 years ago. The switch to a Women’s Specific Design (WSD) was part of an umbrella initiative called Women to Women to create a community of women whose shared experiences could contribute to design directions. Anyone from a first-time ski buyer to a seasoned vet can hop on a Pearl 88 and have the time of her life. Noticeably light and silly-easy to turn, it’s easy to balance on for intermediates and a gas to cut loose on if for skiers that have the skills.
