The new Rustler 9 from Blizzard isn’t a little bit better than its predecessor; it’s much, much better than its namesake.  Among its myriad changes is a slight boost in its overall width, which tipped the new Rustler 9 into the hotly competitive All-Mountain West genre.  Instead of slipping in the standings, it rose from a middle-of-the-pack position among All-Mountain East models to near the top of the All-Mountain West category. No other new ski in the 2023/24 season made as great a leap up the performance ladder as the Rustler 9.

When all criteria are considered, the Rustler 9 remains a Finesse ski, but only by the slimmest of margins. It’s still a forgiving, easily steered ski, but it now has a reserve power supply accessible to any skier who can lay it on edge. A great all-terrain ski has to be able to smear or carve on command, a trick the Rustler 9 has down cold.  The tip is strong and connected enough to engage at the top of the turn, but the ski can also find the edge by smearing sideways, then tipping the ski so the edge latches onto a carve midway through the turn. This facility at finding an edge anywhere along a mid-radius arc is one of the qualities that distinguish the best all-terrain skis from the also-rans.

So how did Blizzard’s design team tweak the original Rustler 9 design to increase power without compromising its sunny disposition?  Basically, they reconfigured both of its principal structural elements, a vertically laminated wood core reinforced with Titanal laminates. The change in the wood core was virtually foreordained, ever since Blizzard introduced its Trueblend core a couple of years ago. In the Trueblend iteration deployed in the Rustler 9, stringers of lightweight poplar are interspersed with denser beech underfoot, with ultralight Paulownia blended into the forebody and tail for less heft and lower swingweight.

If Blizzard had limited its ambitions and kept the revisions to the Rustler 9 design down to the core change, it would still have been touted as a new ski and the engineers could have taken longer vacations. But what the R&D department did instead was re-imagine how to best arrange Titanal along the length of the ski in something other than a full-length-and-width laminate like they use in the Cochise 106.  The solution, Fluxform, pares the presence of Titanal down to two strips over the edges that run past the widest contact points at tip and tail, and a large patch in the middle to stabilize the center of this tip-and-tail rockered ski. The net effect is a ski that holds a classic, carved turn when asked, but is nonetheless both easy to swivel and energetic off a pressured edge. It’s a sublime combination, particularly for skiers who don’t normally generate a lot of power, hence the Rustler 9’s designation as a Silver Skier Selection.

Theron Lee, a longtime Realskiers tester who worked with me on a thumbprint base pattern that has proven to be stellar in all its iterations, had this to say: “Very smooth.  Much more responsive when loading the tip [than the previous Rustler 9]. Enough early rise to keep you out of trouble in the off-piste. Really quick and responsive. Very playful yet strong in the turn. Great all-mountain ski in all conditions. Needs a firm hand on hard snow but willing and able to do it.”

If a single sobriquet could capture the essence of the Rustler 9, it would be “balanced.”  Balanced between its facility at short turns or long. Balanced in its flex pattern. Balanced in its aptitude for handling adverse snow conditions. Balanced in its appetite for speed:  it’s not trying to break the sound barrier, but it won’t wobble at any speed that’s safe in the resort environment. While it remains essentially a Finesse ski, the new Rustler 9 excels at all aspects of high performance, all-terrain skiing. According to veteran ski tester and legendary bootfitter Jim Schaffner, the Rustler 9 is “very solid and stable, and the best choice of the new Rustlers as a one-ski quiver.”

While this snapshot of how the Rustler 9 performs zeroes in its surprisingly high ceiling, it’s no less notable for its gentle treatment of the off-trail neophyte. For someone whose skill set – and equipment – has kept him shackled to the tedium of endless groomers, the Rustler 9 provides a passport to everywhere. If the next step in your skills progression is to sample the whole mountain, the Rustler 9 can serve as both your guide and mentor.