BLIZZARD'S TRUEBLEND & TECNICA'S T.DRIVE TECHNOLOGY

Blizzard Skis is a brand that evokes many questions. First, why does everybody pronounce it with a French accent? It’s Austrian. Also, we have the word “blizzard” in the English language. The next question: Where does a company find the imagination to continue tweaking the very essence of a ski when it’s already so refined? The answer might have more to do with obsession than imagination, but it’s one we’re happy to reap the benefits from.

With a heritage inextricably grounded in the foundation of our sport—arcing sweet, sweet turns in perfect parabola—Blizzard released its new core technology called TrueBlend that innovates on their Flipcore process (whereby they use the core upside down so the natural shape of the ski doesn’t resist rocker). TrueBlend fine-tunes Flipcore, plus the hallmark of every great ski, by mixing up the wood types by zone through the laminated stringers in the ski’s core. In other words, you’ll have more than one kind of wood, and more than one kind of property running the length of some stringers.

Blizzard Tecnica invited us down to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to test a few of their all-mountain skis, laced with this fancy engineering. The fresh tech now goes into the Bonafide 97, Brahma 88, Brahma 82, Black Pearl 97, Black Pearl 88 (North America’s top-selling ski) and Black Pearl 82.

Put to the gauntlet of early season chalk, bumps, crud and steeps, the skis all had noticeably more precise flex patterns than past iterations. The thing Blizzard does really well is macro design each ski with a specific skier in mind, and a specific range of conditions. With new shapes and dimensions to go with the new cores, none of their skis take for granted that good conditions will last all day—they’re designed to be full-time fun on anything you can edge into—and that they are! The result, in lay person’s terms, is better power and a smoother ride. Something everyone’s trying to achieve, but few are. Or as Blizzard athlete Marcus Caston says, “You can ski them hard, but they’re not hard to ski.” We at Forecast agreed.

Tecnica’s T.Drive
Tecnica continues to push the boundaries of their imagination in the boot world with its true game-changer technology called T.Drive. Ultimately, T.Drive improves performance and comfort thanks to a new shell-to-cuff connection which in turn creates a longer lever arm compared to traditional ski boots. The gnarly tech provides a constant flex regardless of temperature, which reduces shell deformation and delivers a more consistent fit.

What does this all mean? Pretty much that T.Drive allows you to be more efficient with your skiing and makes room for those quicker edge-to-edge transitions. This badass technology increases lateral power/stability and edge drive precision all while being comfortable. T.Drive is a key Tecnica-specific technology found in the MV and LV models of the MACH1 collection.

At Forecast, we’re excited to see the future put into action by some of our longest-standing friends in the industry—whom we know from experience, ski just as hard as they work.