2022 Blizzard Sheeva 9

Both the Sheeva 9 and the Black Pearl 88 are descendants of a line of off-trail parents; the template for the Pearl was the Brahma, the little brother of the mighty Cochise and Bodacious; the model for the Sheeva 9 was the Rustler 9, a spin-off of the Rustler 10 and 11. To better understand the nuances that distinguish the Pearl 88 from the Sheeva 9, it helps to understand the families they come from. Distilled to its essence, the Pearl 88 has a smidgeon more aptitude for hard-snow skiing.  Its Flipcore construction allows the forebody to join the rest of the ski on edge once it’s tipped and pressured, so the skier has the sense of riding the entire ski and not just a section of it.  The front of the Sheeva 9 is made to be looser, to intentionally forego early connection to a fully carved turn. That it still feels solid throughout is a testament to the security imparted by a trimmed down top laminate of Titanal. Blizzard calls this Ti treatment Dynamic Release Technology (D.R.T.). Its raison d’être is to liberate the tip and tail to twist and deform as it moves through the heavy snow and irregular surfaces that prevail off-piste. The wall-to-wall metal in the midsection restores order to the operation so the skier feels secure underfoot. “Great balanced ski,” says Jolee from Footloose, who put the Sheeva 9 through its paces at Mammoth Mountain. “It does great turning on groomers but also charging through the choppy snow.”