Author Topic: Review: Blizzard Magnum 8.1  (Read 1175 times)

jbotti

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Re: Review: Blizzard Magnum 8.1
« Reply #15 on: February 03, 2011, 01:44:17 pm »
Squaw has always been a very poorly run mountain. They have spent the bare minimum for years. The Intrawest devlopment at the base was also very poorly done. Squaw does have new ownership and I think they will start to do some of the basics much better. I have never really noticed the employees other than the lines for lift tickets can be long and the people selling them being slow and unresponsive, but that seems to be the case everywhere.

As for the ski, sure it's a great GS feeling ski. I just don't know why anyone wants a GS ski with 81mm under foot. As I said, I really couldn't tighten the turn very much by bending the ski and I am also willing to admit that the conditions were not ideal for being agressive on groomers (too much bolierplate). If one just rides the sidcut of a ski like this you wil never notice what I am talking about. If you truly try to bend the ski to carve tighter arcs than the stated radius (edge locked carves) then unless you are heavy and a very strong skier, I think this ski will be very hard to bend.

I did say that for a stiff ski, it had reasonably nice manners off piste and it skied bumps way better than I expected. On great snow, I think thhis ski would be even more fun. A lot of one's perception of a ski has much to do with how one skis and how one uses a ski. For me and the way that I ski, the IM 78 is much more versatile, and much more fun to ski because I can carve much tighter arcs with it and get more pop and rebound out of it. I do think thatt the Blizz 8.1 is a nicely made ski and it has a great GS feel to it. It is not a ski that I would buy for myself because if I wavt to have that feeling on groomers , I will take out my ISpeed 180's whch rail on hard snow and bend into tighter arcs than does the Blixx 8.1. Hey, to each his own. That's why there are so many different skis, so everyone can find one that they love.