Fall-Line Women's Ski of the Year: Blizzard Viva Magnum 7.4
We’ve been keeping a close eye on Blizzard for a couple of years. They’ve always made fine skis, and their piste products are outstanding.
This year the freeride range has been reinvented and genuinely impressed the hell out of us. But this award goes to a ski that, without a huge fanfare, started accruing points across categories and quickly had our key female testers asking; “Have you had a go on the Viva 7.4 yet?”.
Technically it’s classed as a piste ski – though our Piste Ski of the Year is 2mm wider than the 74mm Viva Magnum – but women are lighter, less clumpy and generally need far less width underfoot than men to go all over the hill, so we’re calling it an all-mountain ski. Looking at the scores it’s clear that the testers were hammering around all over the place.
What’s more, they weren’t finding it easy to trip up, wherever they went. Speed, stability, turns long and short and versatility were all outstanding. Any downers? Er, no. Sure, the better testers were those who took it into deeper snow so they didn’t worry about the float, or lack of it compared with a wider ski. A forgiving flex pattern meant that this isn’t an utter blaster like some of the top end Blizzard piste skis, yet it still skied hard on piste without exhausting anyone.
What else is on offer
Heading onto Ellis Brigham’s racks for 2011, as well as some key independent retailers, Blizzard will be more widely available, and the Viva Magnum 7.4 drops very neatly into the classy all-rounder category that many women look for.
Hot on the heels of the Blizzard were the Atomic Elysian (essentially the Atomic Theory – our new Ski of the Year – in women’s guise and with much better graphics than the men’s version), the Scott Rosa and the Volkl Kenja (last years Women’s Ski of the Year).
These are all wider and more freeride-oriented, and probably a bit more Fall-Line, but Blizzard have done such a good job with this increasingly valuable sector of the market that their Viva Magnum 7.4 just pips it.
Related articles
Read the review and leave a comment on the Blizzard Magnum 7.4 Viva
2011-2012 Fall-Line Ski of the year: Atomic Theory
2011-2012 Ski of the year - Silver award: Scott Venture
2011-2012 Women's Ski of the Year: Blizzard Viva Magnum 7.4
2010-2011 Ski of the Year Awards
Posted by Dickie Fincher - Mon, 23/05/2011 - 1:33pm
We’ve been keeping a close eye on Blizzard for a couple of years. They’ve always made fine skis, and their piste products are outstanding.
This year the freeride range has been reinvented and genuinely impressed the hell out of us. But this award goes to a ski that, without a huge fanfare, started accruing points across categories and quickly had our key female testers asking; “Have you had a go on the Viva 7.4 yet?”.
Technically it’s classed as a piste ski – though our Piste Ski of the Year is 2mm wider than the 74mm Viva Magnum – but women are lighter, less clumpy and generally need far less width underfoot than men to go all over the hill, so we’re calling it an all-mountain ski. Looking at the scores it’s clear that the testers were hammering around all over the place.
What’s more, they weren’t finding it easy to trip up, wherever they went. Speed, stability, turns long and short and versatility were all outstanding. Any downers? Er, no. Sure, the better testers were those who took it into deeper snow so they didn’t worry about the float, or lack of it compared with a wider ski. A forgiving flex pattern meant that this isn’t an utter blaster like some of the top end Blizzard piste skis, yet it still skied hard on piste without exhausting anyone.
What else is on offer
Heading onto Ellis Brigham’s racks for 2011, as well as some key independent retailers, Blizzard will be more widely available, and the Viva Magnum 7.4 drops very neatly into the classy all-rounder category that many women look for.
Hot on the heels of the Blizzard were the Atomic Elysian (essentially the Atomic Theory – our new Ski of the Year – in women’s guise and with much better graphics than the men’s version), the Scott Rosa and the Volkl Kenja (last years Women’s Ski of the Year).
These are all wider and more freeride-oriented, and probably a bit more Fall-Line, but Blizzard have done such a good job with this increasingly valuable sector of the market that their Viva Magnum 7.4 just pips it.
Related articles
Read the review and leave a comment on the Blizzard Magnum 7.4 Viva
2011-2012 Fall-Line Ski of the year: Atomic Theory
2011-2012 Ski of the year - Silver award: Scott Venture
2011-2012 Women's Ski of the Year: Blizzard Viva Magnum 7.4
2010-2011 Ski of the Year Awards