[The test results for the Gunsmoke are from 2016 & 2017; its only changes for 2017 are cosmetic.]

If you are an aficionado of twin-tip design, then the Blizzard Gunsmoke is your kind of ski. Characteristic of the genre, the Gunsmoke maintains a loose connection to the snow whether it’s soft or hard. Compared to the down-the-fall-line orientation of the Bodacious, the Gunsmoke is a swivel stick.

But compared to many other twin tips, the Gunsmoke is a paradigm of stability. It pushes piles of set-up crud aside like a super villain parting a crowd of civilians. Skis 114mm wide at the waist aren’t particularly easy to hoist up to a high edge, but if you have the skills to get the Gunsmoke there, it holds.

But high edge angles aren’t of much interest to the Powder genre in general or the Gunsmoke in particular. Skied in true twin-tip style, the Gunsmoke scrubs and butters its way over the irregular terrain found off-piste with a carefree attitude. If its 22m sidecut leans towards longer turns, so what? Any radius turn can be interrupted at any moment with a swift sideways smear, sloughing speed or changing line with greater facility than you’d expect from a 114mm-waisted ski.

“Playful and powerful,” writes Michael from Footloose. “It charges through crud and floats up top like a champ,” which are, after all, the primal qualities one wants in a Powder board.