Tools, Not Toys
Blizzard Skis has galvanized devout fans who know how to ski, and it’s not a coincidence
Sitting in a semicircle high above Cortina in a cobblestone refuge in the Dolomites, surrounded by empty espresso cups and half-drunk bottles of vino, and talking about ski design, a handpicked crew of Blizzard athletes from all over the globe—Tahoe, Aspen, Alta, Montana, Sweden, Austria, and France—work with international designers to shape the future of the iconic brand’s ski line.
Conversations get heated as athletes weigh in on twin-tip top sheets, lightweight construction, tail rocker, camber underfoot, and sidecut profiles. This crew is passionate, to say the least. Throughout the conversation, a couple of Blizzard’s higher-up decision makers quietly sit in the corner, one based in Mittersill, Austria and the other from West Lebanon, New Hampshire. They’re listening and jotting down notes.
Six months later, a ski arrives at a few select ski shops and on the doorsteps of Blizzard’s team, hot off the Austrian ski press. Carbon in the tip, camber underfoot, rocker up front with a slightly kicked tail to aid in throwing the skis sideways and shutting them down at the blink of an eye. It’s a close rendition of a ski that was discussed, sketched, refined, and approved in that Italian refuge: the 2016 Cochise.
It was not a ski for everyone. But, truth be told, that wasn’t the goal. In boardroom parlance, the end user and target demographic is not the mass-market skier. Instead, the Cochise was crafted for the down-the-fall-line, hands-up, directional driver, bend-the-ski blaster who needed a tool, not a toy.
Since Arne conceived of Flipcore and pushed the brand to do things differently in the mid-2000s, Blizzard has been making their own type of skis in a market that—at the time—was saturated with soft tails and bouncing tips aimed at backseat-rocket-boosting, knuckles-in-the-pockets “slarving” skiers.
“We take pride in these skis,” says longtime Blizzard athlete, Freeride World Tour alum, and sought-after ski guide Kyle Taylor. “You hear the brand say, ‘we’re never going to be a ski for the masses because we’re trying to make the best skis there are.’ And, then the brand turns around and asks us—the athletes—to help make the best skis on the market. They are asking me—a kid from Montana—to tell the Austrians, who have been doing this for decades, what I think. That’s pretty cool!”
The results speak for themselves. From 2010 to 2016, you could count three Freeskiing World Tour Championships (stateside) and one Freeride World Tour Overall World Champion earned with Blizzard skis underfoot. On top of that there are two handfuls of coveted Sickbird Belt Buckles donned by Blizzard-toting skiers over that timeline. You cannot ignore the trend.
From the late Arne Backstrom’s 2010 title and Josh Daiek (for years Diaek’s been on Salomon but I remember when he skied with Blizzard), who won his 2011 World Championship on Blizzards, to Frenchman and 2014 Freeride World Tour Champion Loic Collomb-Patton and 2015 Freeskiing World Tour Champ Connery Lundin, there's a lot of big-mountain hardware on the mantels of Blizzard skiers.
“Competitive big-mountain skiing is the sport which balances out the art of making a turn,” says longtime Blizzard skier Chris Tatsuno. “It provides a platform for good skiers to get better, and allows for athletes to test their limits. Sure, it draws the wild ones and thrill seekers, but it also intrigues the cerebral skier, the one who really analyzes all the facets of what makes a turn powerful and beautiful. Those who understand what they do so well, and take to studying it, seek the tools necessary to really invest in the effort. This is why we have had so many strong skiers on the tours tearing it up on Blizzards. Coincidence? Hardly. We are all students of skiing in some way.”
Tats is right, it’s not a coincidence that Blizzard skis have climbed from niche obscurity to the tops of podiums in big-mountain skiing. The skis are tailored to “students of skiing” and the skiers who gravitate to Blizzard have celebrate cerebral skiing.
Just as Blizzard makes skis differently, they set about creating a team in a creative, cost-effective, and sustainable way.
“Pat Sewell and I have been with Blizzard since its reintroduction as a brand, and we have grown together as a family,” says Tatsuno. “I love that Blizzard has never focused on blowing the marketing budget to get one big-name skier on their skis who will inevitably drop out and move on to the next paycheck. Instead, Blizzard has attracted a strong contingent of hard-working, up-and-comers who hail from all different backgrounds and interests. I think it's paying off too, with top contenders in all levels of freeride comps. More importantly though, Blizzard is building skis for the lifelong skiers, people work with skis on their feet and live and breathe skiing.”
Blizzard has turned off some of the backseat, hands-in-the-pocket type skiers who like noodles underfoot, but they seem to be okay with that.
“Every ski test I've been to, the strongest skiers of the bunch tend to gravitate towards a few select brands whose skis can keep up with what those testers demand of them, and Blizzards have been perennial favorites,” says Tatsuno. “Blizzards reward the hard-charging skier who knows how to pick a line and holds nothing back upon dropping in.”
A buddy of mine lives and dies by Blizzard Skis! In a world of mass-produced everything it’s nice to see some brands create more niche gear. Makes me think of the Bruce Lee quote - “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”