Review: 2027 Blizzard Sheeva 9

When it comes to women’s specific skis, Blizzard’s Black Pearl often stands out in demo fleets and best-of roundups as the brand’s approachable, yet sturdy, pick. However, the Black Pearl series has a more rebellious, aggressive, older sister in the Sheeva, and while most skiers wish they needed a wide, powder ski like the Sheeva 11 every day, that’s just not the reality. That’s where the Sheeva 9 comes in.

The women’s-specific counterpart to the Rustler 9, the Sheeva 9 is the hard-charging, crud defying, daily driver that will carve turns and smash bumps even through the longest high pressure cycles. Perhaps the best thing about the Sheeva is that it does everything it’s built to do super well and anything it doesn’t, it leaves to its wider counterparts, the Sheeva 10 and 11. Where they could have taken a “shrink and pink it” mentality to the Rustler or foregone making a women’s ski altogether, Blizzard worked with a team of female skiers, athletes, and industry professionals to develop and perfect the Sheeva line so that it stands alone as their women’s-specific freeride line. 

Blizzard has left both the Rustler and Sheeva lines untouched since their last update in 2024, and that’s a good thing. 

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2027 Blizzard Sheeva 9 Specs

• Lengths skied: 168cm
• Lengths available: 150cm, 165cm, 168cm, 174cm
• Sidecut: 128.5mm-96mm-118mm
• Radius: 15m (168cm)
• Profile: rocker-camber-rocker
• Weight: 3380g per pair (168cm)

Shape, Flex, and Construction

With a 96mm underfoot waist, the Sheeva 9 hits a pretty sweet spot when it comes to all-mountain skis: wide enough to hold its own out West, but narrow enough to cater to East Coast skiers as well. Like the rest of the Sheeva and Rustler line, the Sheeva 9 also has a nice shovel-shaped tip that comes in at roughly 128mm, depending on the ski length, which gives the ski a bit more float in fresh snow and versatility overall. Overall, the ski’s sidecut gives it a pretty short radius, especially for a freeride ski, but given how aggressive the Sheeva tends to be, this isn’t a bad thing, and keeps the narrowest version of it nimble in tighter terrain.

The Sheeva line uses Blizzard’s Trueblend Free Woodcore, which combines beech, poplar, and paulownia in 10-20mm stringers milled together to create a single sheet. The different woods are placed in a way that optimizes the flex of the ski, using their different densities. The stringers of each are also cut length-specific to the size of the ski, so that it has a softer flex in the tip and tail and is stiffer underfoot uniformly, regardless of length.

The Trueblend Free Woodcore is then layered with a piece of Titanal along the length of both ski edges. A piece of fiberglass is then sandwiched between the two sheets, along the length of the ski underfoot. Blizzard leaves a miniscule gap between the Titanal and fiberglass to allow for more torsional flexion through the width of the ski. Dubbed the W.S.D FluxForm Freeride system, the fiberglass piece is what sets the Sheeva apart from the Rustler, using a lighter-weight material to dampen the ski, rather than another piece of metal.

The result of the unique woodcore and FluxForm construction is a pretty darn stiff, aggressive ski. The narrowest ski in the line, the Sheeva 9 is also the stiffest of the three, however that short turn radius keeps it a bit snappier.

On-Snow Performance

Make no mistake- just because the Sheeva 9 is a women’s ski doesn’t mean it’s not every bit as burly and aggressive as you’d expect any Blizzard with a bunch of metal to be. The Sheeva 9 rewards good technique, a forward stance, and a skier who isn’t afraid to drive it. It thrives on groomers and hardpack and will rip turns, without much of a speed limit.

“This ski made me want to charge. It was more fun with speed and it thrived plowing through crud. I like that it forced me to be on my A-game, and I couldn’t be complacent,” said one tester.

In fact, if you are willing to take charge on the Sheeva 9, there’s not much it can’t handle, including some pretty gnarly ice that formed as spring weather turned quickly back to winter during our ski test at Grand Targhee. “While exploring the mountain with Izzy for some photos, we accidentally found ourselves on this steep groomer where the snow was really firm and terrible,” wrote a tester, “I decided to try to see if the Sheeva could feel good on that kind of surface and it kicked ass. After two test turns, I just skied it normally and the Sheeva really shined. It held an edge and it felt like I was shooting from one turn to the next.”

(I can confirm that this skier was, in fact, ripping, while I side-slipped the entirety of the run on my own daily drivers that were badly in need of an edge tune, in fear of eating sh*t with my camera in my hands.)

Where some skis that are similarly aggressive to the Sheeva 9 can also tend to feel a little monotonous, the lightweight construction and shovel tip give the Sheeva a bit more depth. When taken into moguls and some fresh, soft snow, the Sheevas come alive and tend to be pretty fun to hop around on. Chalky and a bit of dust on not-too-firm crust is particularly fun on these skis as well.

However, the Sheeva 9 isn’t everyone’s cup of tea given how aggressive they are. Testers noted that some skiers might feel a bit in-over-their-heads on the Sheeva without good technique, and that they’re likely too burly for new skiers. The stiffness of them also might deter a skier who prefers a soft, smearier park-style ski. 

Comparisons

The Nordica Santa Ana 97 is a natural comparison to the Sheeva 9, with both of them being aggressive, women’s specific all mountain skis. The two have fairly similar dimensions, although the Santa Ana 97 has a longer turn radius. The Santa Ana 97 also uses two full sheets of Titanal, whereas the Sheeva doesn’t. Despite this, the Santa Ana 97 tends to be a more intuitive, forgiving ski, in contrast to the burliness of the Sheeva. However, the Sheeva excels more in soft snow and its short radius and fiberglass composite make it a bit snappier and more responsive in some ways than the Santa Ana.

What type of skier is the Blizzard Sheeva 9 best for?

The Blizzard Sheeva 9 would make a fantastic daily driver for an advanced skier, who wants a hard charging ski that will take them as far as they push it. The Sheeva 9 will feel right at home in rocky, dry, technical big mountain terrain at places like Big Sky or Alta, and would no doubt be a blast bopping around mountains like Vail or Palisades Tahoe, or even ripping hardpack on the East Coast.