Review: Blizzard Titan Kreitler Pro Model

[fez]

This seems to be identical to the Blizzard Titan Zeus IQ except for top sheet, so comments should apply to both skis.

About Me:
6'2, 240#, 40 yrs old. grew up racing on the east coast, been skiing around the west for the last 17 years or so. used to get 100+ a year, now im a desk jockey lucky to get 40. my skiing style is fast and agressive, not much into airs anymore, but still hit some 10 - 20 footers now and then.
I havent skied a whole ton of powder/fat skis skis and havent skied any of the new shapes. But fat skis i've liked: Stockli Asteroids, Head Monster m103, Atomic Big Daddy (original grey/orange ones), Atomic Pow Plus. Fat skis i havent liked: Fischer Big Stix 106.

About the ski:
I haven't heard much about this ski on here, so i suppose people arent familiar with it. 135-119-125 dimensions in a 191, 58 m turn radius. the skis are nearly completely straight and look like water skis. pretty stiff, i'd say stiffer then my Big Daddys but not as stiff as the head monsters. They appear to have a bit of tip and tail taper. Traditional camber, but it is fairly flat camber. probably a half height twin tip.

I've been skiing skis with similar tip dimensions for a few years now (Big Daddys) and rarely does anyone commment about how big those are. but i had three different people remark on how fat the blizzards are. they just look huge with the lack of side cut.

Mounting:
The skis came with a 'Blizzard Freeride 16' binding. Actually a co-badged Marker Duke modified for the Blizzard IQ system. Basically a rail molded into the ski and the binding slides into the rails and is held in place with one screw. The Kreitler Pros have two holes pre-drilled, i've heard they have added more on the Zeus and have a slightly different system coming out next year. Generally I'm not a fan of system bindings, but the deal on bc.com was good enough to get me past my misgivings.

This was by far the easiest ski mount i've ever done. just moved a little plate on the bottom of the binding to the boot sole range i needed, slid the binding into the rails until it lined up with the hole and screwed it home. i chose the further back of the two holes, i tend to be very on top to slightly forward on skis and wanted a little help with tip dive.

I had some shipping issues with BC.com, so im not sure if they sent me bindings from this year's skis or something, but my bindings had machine screws included but there were no inserts or anything and the holes weren't threaded. So i grabbed some standard wood thread binding screws and those worked fine. a range of holes 4 - 6 or so with threaded inserts would be sweet for dialing stance.

Hard pack:
not bad. once you get up to speed and if you get on the skis they can handle hard pack ok. i took a couple groomer runs to start the day and get the feel for the skis. if you could carve turns on a straight 210 GS ski, you can carve turns on these. if you think carving is rolling a ski up on edge and waiting for them to turn, you'll be waiting for a while. i could force them into fairly tight turns on the groomed, but the tails would wash out.

if you;re a tail gunner, forget about it. i got back a little once and the blizzards just took off on me. i was pretty surprised at how fast they were gone once i got back.

i took the skis in to a shop and asked them to wax them, detune tip and tail and make sure they're flat. the skis dont feel quite 'right' on hard pack and it may be tune related. i may revisit this once i get another tune. i really need to get a shop set up at home.

Crud:
After a couple runs on groomer, i hiked up saddle peak for (hopefully) some powder turns. We had 10" or so a few days earlier and i was hoping to find something fun up there. The wind was howling. My first run was just the lee side of a little ridge and i was getting a variety of wind loaded, wind slab, cut pow conditions. to be honest, it was almost hard to tell the difference. the skis just chewed it all up and kept rolling.

these were conditions that would have been interesting on my Big Daddys, most likely the Big Daddys would have been tip diving or breaking the tails through any crust. The Blizzards just motored through. Just big fat fast lazy turns, tons of fun. Tips stayed up nicely even with a over to forward stance. I've learned to modify my stance for the big daddys and get back a little in junk to keep the tips up. I intentionally stayed over the blizzards just to see what would happen. nothing but fun.

i could really make damn near any type of turn shape. short, long, medium, none, and the blizzards handled it fine. very stable and predictable, dont wander or hook at all.

Pow:
Once i got down a little lower on saddle, i got into a couple little meadows that had some settled fresh pow. maybe got 15 - 20 consecutive turns in heavy pow. the skis were really nice here too. made me realize that the junk i'd been skiing up higher felt like skiing untracked pow. nice powerful fun turns. I came into one of the meadows pretty hot after a short straight line. i was headed for some trees and was able to throw the skis sideways and dump a bunch of speed. im not sure, but i may have experienced my first 'slarve'.

surprisingly for the dimensions and massive turn radius, the blizzards are very playful in soft snow. i really could do whatever i wanted on them.

Fez Jumps:
Like i said, not much of a hucker. but i hit a couple 5 - 10 footers and the skis were fine, stable on landing, they like going fast so yeah, for my uses, just fine.

Moguls:
did you see the part about 119 mm underfoot and a 58 m turn radius? yeah, they suck in moguls. and really so do i, so i dont much care. since they are so straight, a good mogul skier may be able to zipper line on them, but not me.

Bindings:
The Dukes were fine. didnt tour on them at all, maybe i'll check that out this weekend. I dont notice ramp angle much at all, so while i know they're flat, i didnt notice it. had the torisional stiffness to roll the titans up on edge.

Overall:
I really like these skis. I bought them intending them to be an every day ski. Because of the hard snow performance, i'm not sure they can fill that slot, but we'll see. But a spectacular soft snow ski for sure.

They almost add a third category to the side cut types. There's traditional side cut, there's reverse side cut, and the titans have no side cut. It seems to be a bit like both trad and reverse in one. the titans are playful and fun in soft snow, but can hold an edge and carve on hard pack. They almost look to be reverse sidecut because of the tip and tail taper. and actually a guy on one lift did ask if they were one of those 'new reverse side cut skis'.

[lobstahmeatwad]

vewy interwesting..

[rip]

Nice review.

Sounds like a perfect Snowbird ski. Just curious...but have you skied the XXLs before?

[fez]

I have not tried the XXLs. it was definitely on my list of possible skis for an every day ski, but the blizzards showed up at too good a deal to pass.

[fez]

So i have a bunch more days on these now.

Bottom Line: if you liked the Head m103 but wanted something a little fatter, you'll love these skis.

My second day on them, first run, i blew up the toe height adjustment on the duke bindings when i hit a frozen mogul under 10" of BB blower. Unfortunately since they were the Blizzard IQ system, not straight up Marker Dukes, i had to send them back to Blizzard. It took a while to get them out to Blizzard, but they had them fixed and back in the mail the same day. After some searching on here i figured out it was probably my own fault and that i didnt have the forward pressure set right on the bindings. the boot fits much more snugly into the binding than i am used to, so i guess i didnt get it right. even though it feels weird, i got the forward pressure set right and no problems since.

i took the blizzard titans out to Crystal for a storm chasing trip with a buddy. we got 18" new one day and spent the second day hiking the south backcountry. the storm came in upside down and i had some tip dive issues in the fresh untracked pow. keeping back on the skis a little kept them up nicely. once it got skied up a little the blizzards just crushed it. motored through everything, skied really well, just a fun dominating ski.

second day the pow had a chance to sit and settle some. we were hiking out and getting untracked all day. didnt ski anything sketchy because we were unfamiliar with the area and the vis was pretty bad. but the blizzards gave me what i was hoping for in the pow. nice and poppy, very predictable, really able to make any size turn.

I've also had a few more days at BB on them. Mostly tracked up pow, crud, sun baked mashers and groomed. Any soft snow, it doesnt matter the consistency, the blizzards just rule. stable, fast, smooth. On groomed, i've gotten the feel for them better and really have no problems making any type of turn on them. Every once in a while a ski will hang up on edge in a carve and i have to pick it up to reset it, but it doesnt happen too often. I've even found them to be ok in bumps now that i'm used to them. I'm pretty sure these will be my every day ski for next year. I'm still planning on picking up some pow specific skis for big days, but the titans will be there for the day after.