Blizzard Spur, Gold Award Winner

These Gold Awards have delivered a blizzard of Blizzards. From the do-it-all Latigo we now move to precisely the other end of the scale. This time we inhabit the upper echelons of ski hooliganism in the large-footprinted shape of the Blizzard Spur, a de-metalled, carbon-ended pow monster. 

Everyone needs to try a pair of powder skis in the right conditions, but it’s worth working out what sort of skiing you want to do. The Spur isn’t a super-stiffy designed to draw a long, fast number 11 down a face while testing your goggles’ air-tightness. Nor is it
a Line Sir Francis Bacon-like fun-machine which turns every run into a backcountry freestyle festival. Happily, it does both. Super-light tips and plenty of rocker deliver gruesome maneuverability and makes the fun stuff happen without effort. 

Chrigl, Fall-Line’s chief big-mountain reviewer, Freeride World Tour wildcard and a chap who explores the inside and outside of the envelope, figured it hit every key parameter. “Fantastic edge hold for its weight. Good snappy feel. Can be skied slowly,
in a hyperactive jump-turn or a high-speed-straightline way,” he raved, and then went away again without handing them back.

We like a lack of weight but when faced with the Spur we questioned whether powder skis should be so light, and we were also concerned that a lack of metal would kill the dampness needed for high speed. It turns out that if you build a ski right, it just works.