BLIZZARD Black Pearl 94 26/27

The Blizzard Black Pearl 94 is a women's all-mountain ski, 94mm underfoot, a metal ski that stays damp and grips hard yet still rides light and forgiving. It is the widest ski in Blizzard's Black Pearl women's line, sitting above the 84 and 88, built to cover chop, spring slush, tree runs and the occasional soft-snow lap on one ski.

Blizzard builds it on a TrueBlend All Mountain woodcore of beech and poplar, reinforced with W.S.D. FluxForm - a women's-specific single Titanal frame worked into the ski rather than a full metal sheet, and not the fuller-metal build the men's Anomaly 94 uses. Below the woodcore sits a carbon-infused fiberglass laminate, with full ABS sidewalls over a sintered base. That single-frame layout is the point: most of the damping and edge hold of a metal ski, without the weight and stiffness that usually come with it.

Blizzard rates it intermediate to expert. It suits strong intermediate to expert women who spend real time off the groomers and want one ski for variable snow, crud, trees and soft-snow laps, and who value light, energetic handling over raw power.

It is not a first pair: forgiving for a Titanal ski, but it still wants parallel turns and edge control. It is not a powder ski either - 94mm visits soft snow but a wider, more rockered shape floats better on deep days - and it gives up top-end drive on hard, icy snow to a fuller-metal charger.

The Black Pearl 94 is sold flat, so a binding is a separate purchase; we mount it and help set the right length and size in-shop.