2020 Blizzard Rustler 9

The fraternal relationship between Blizzard’s two All-Mountain East entries, the elder brother Brahma 88 and its upstart sibling, the Rustler 9, encapsulates the contrasting cast of characters that populate this crossroads category. While both skis belong to off-trail families, their personalities couldn’t be more different than, well, two brothers. Put in Realskiers’ terms, the Brahma 88 is a Power ski while the Rustler 9 is a Finesse ski. The Brahma 88’s best scores are for performance criteria like carving accuracy and stability at speed; its GPA drops off for comfort qualities like forgiveness and low-speed turning. The Rustler 9’s marks reveal a model with a high aptitude for off-trail conditions with a peppy personality that’s easy to get along with. It’s not that it’s bad at edging, it’s just doesn’t care for the regimented lifestyle of a carving ski. It prefers life off-trail where it has the freedom to smear every turn.