Since they began crushing everything in their path in 2011, the Cochise and Bodacious, the big boys in Blizzard’s now legendary freeride collection, have undergone more minor elective surgery than the Kardashians without ever changing their crud-killing instincts. For 20/21, the Bodacious may keep making fresh tracks in powder heaven but its time on earth is over. The market for super-sized skis is already well served at Blizzard by the Rustler 11 and the re-imagined Spur, which rendered the Bodacious expendable.
While powerful powder hounds will miss it, the Bodacious never achieved the stardom of the Cochise, which leapt into public consciousness when it was named Skiing magazine’s Ski of the Year when the “rodeo bull” series came out of the chute. While the advisability of touting a 108mm ski as a panacea for every skier’s problems remains highly suspect, there’s no argument that the Cochise set a new standard for Power properties in the Big Mountain realm.
However it’s been assembled over the years, the Cochise will always own a special place in Blizzard’s history as Arne Backstrom’s ski. 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 20/21 Cochise represents a return to its traditional values by cutting back on some of its beefier elements 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 new Cochise whittles away at the tip and waist width and plumps 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 20/21 Cochise to feel more like the original, Blizzard tinkered with several possible core changes. Bear in mind this re-design comes after several years of Rustlers, Blizzard’s softer, gentler Big Mountain collection that uses Paulownia, balsa and ISO-core alongside the poplar and beech laminates that have been used in the Cochise’s clan forever. 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 augment. So the 2021 Cochise core added Paulownia to its matrix, lightening the load and improving its responsiveness.
The cumulative changes to the Cochise 106 contribute to a general improvement to its on-trail comportment so it’s truly an all-terrain ski, as it was conceived to be. Even though it has changed, it hasn’t contorted into something its not: it’s still the same Power ski it always was. Just as Backstrom would have wanted it.
