[adrenalated]

The Ski: 184cm Blizzard The Answer, 130-110-125, 28m radius. Mounted tele with Bomber Bishops with bootcenter 3cm back from alpine bootcenter. Candycane T-Race boots. Also have 2nd set of IQ Max plates with Solly 997 and Nordica Blower boots.

The Skier: 5'9” 145lbs, average maggot abilities. Ski fast, prefer long turns to short, occasionally straightline, frequently take small air. However, I'd call my style more “smooth” than “powerful.”

Quiver Includes: 186cm Fischer Atua, 189cm Praxis Pow RX, 180cm Praxis Backcountry
Similar sized skis I've tried: 186cm Rossi S6, 185cm Nordica Blower, 183cm Volkl Katana, 175cm BD Justice, 182cm BD Zealot, 186cm Ski Logik Howitzer

Summary: KILL! KILL! KILL!

Initial Impressions: Heavy. Stiff. Burly. This ski looks and feels like the real deal.

Mounting on the IQ plate is stoopid easy. Just drill all the way through it, throw some epoxy in there, and call it good. Well, almost. I also recommend mounting with the plate off the ski, as I needed to file the ends of the screws after I installed them to make sure they didn't drag on the topsheet of the ski.

The Answers are marketed as having tip and tail rocker. In reality, the ski is pretty much just flat camber throughout. There are a couple mm of positive camber underfoot and a couple mm of rise in the tip and tail, but when skiing them, they pretty much feel flat. They do not ski short like many other rockered skis do.

Blizzard skis apparently come from the factory with the edge tune at 1deg base, 3deg edge, and the entire length of the ski sharp. With this tuning, I felt like the ski would only want to lock into long radius turns and was very difficult to smear at all. Tuning at 1base/2edge and heavily detuning the tips and tails fixed this, and allowed me to rail long carves when I wanted, but skid/smear the ski if need be.

The skis perform pretty much just like you'd expect a stiffer metal laminate ski to. They are smooth, stable, and damp. The lack of camber means that the ski does not have much pop from turn to turn. But they do what I wanted them to extremely well – they handle almost any condition well, and are fast and stable through crud. Pretty much a perfect go-to resort ski. Then can make short smeared turns, or long radius carves. They hold an edge as well as anything.

I skied the Answers in the CB tele comp and felt they were the perfect ski for that kind of environment. Small enough to throw around, stable enough to haul ass in the runouts, wide enough to handle any condition, narrow and laterally stiff enough to feel totally stable on edge on hardpack above exposure.

These are probably not quite stiff enough for heavier guys that really charge hard. They are a bit stiffer than Volkl Katanas or Nordica Blowers, but not as stiff as a Rossi RC112. Pretty similar to a BD Zealot, but better edgehold and more stable in chop (due to sandwich construction and metal) at the expense of weight.

Although I am on the 09/10 version, I believe the ski is totally unchanged for 10/11.

Cons:
-They weigh roughly 10 billion pounds. I would not want to tour on them.
-P-Tex 2000 bases. I destroy these much faster than 4000 bases.
-For a 110mm underfoot ski, they are not a particularly good pow ski. I tend to get a bit of tip dive with them when skiing deeper snow.
-Would like a little more camber underfoot, and a little bit more tip rise.
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mediocre kneedropper

[Paul Lutes]

Sounds like a Blizzard, all right! I didn't realize any of their free-rides had metal. I've been "experimenting" with a pair of their Magnum 87s - heaviest ski for it's size in the universe; it's painful just to carry 'em on my (boney) shoulder. Your factory tune advice is critical - with the magnum's 19.5 M radius, they overturned something fierce.

[Nurse Ben]

Thanks Jeff

I like the "kill, kill, kill"
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Hi Mom!

[Danno]

[Nurse Ben]

[Danno]

If Jeff is average, then I think I am in need of some remedial classes!
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"anecdotes are fine assbaggery is not"
"But of course to Telemark is just one function of ski gear, but to have fun is the other. If I so much want to make Parallel turns all day long, I shall do this as well"

[Nurse Ben]

[adrenalated]

I believe the older model Answer was softer than last years/current model. I will say that mine do feel a bit soft tip and tail hand flexing, but they don't ski that way at all.

And Danno, I do think about it before I drop a 20 footer. Sometimes things I think are 10 footers turn out to be 20 though
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mediocre kneedropper

[Nurse Ben]

[adrenalated]

The newer models only have one insert per ski, so only one bolt.
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mediocre kneedropper

[NTNer]

Got to ski these over Xmas break.

These are the 08-09 Answer in 184cm, which is a slightly narrower than the current model and uses the older (narrower) IQ system.

I was able to play around with them adjusting trim, found them to be a very stable and predictable ski, not too much swing weight for their size, really easy skiing on firm and pow.

I was not able to find a speed limit, nor did I feel that they were driven off line by rough conditions. Think Hippy Stinx, but harder charging without being too stiff. They have virtually no camber, but it didn't seem to affect performance. No rocker, just a low cambered ski with twin tips.

These can still be had for cheap, but to ski them with tele you need have a tele adaptor plate which are in very short supply; I have two. I believe that the Base Camp may have some skis with plates left.

The best part of these skis is the IQ system, truly amazing, I was not only able to quickly adjust the ski trim on the hill, but when I wanted a narrower ski I just slid the plates off the Answers and slid them onto my other pair of Blizzard IQs (RX, twins, 87 waisted) and away I went.

Note that the original Blizzard IQ is not totally defunct as it is still used on their narrower skis (<75mm) whereas the newer Max IQ is for wider skis (>75mm). The two plates are not interchangeable.
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I like to ski, ski, ski, in the morning...