2021 Blizzard Firebird HRC

The Firebird HRC is designed for precision, powerful carving on groomed slopes. The entire Firebird collection blends race-bred construction with a progressive attitude. Carving is fun, hands-down. Blizzard knows that, we know that, you know that. The feeling of generating lateral acceleration and brushing your hip against the snow is hard to match, and that's what these skis are all about. They use a wood core with two full sheets of metal, along with Blizzard's Carbon Spine and Carbon Armor applications. Turn radius is essentially right in between slalom and GS, at least in terms of consumer skis, which gives the HRC the ability to make a lot of different turn shapes. It's intended to be powerful, snappy, energetic, and rewarding when linking carving turns. The HRC is back for 2021 with just a cosmetic graphic, which isn't a tremendous surprise as our testers sang its praise back in our 2020 test.

Jeff Neagle tested the 174 cm length and awarded the Firebird HRC some high scores, including 5 out of 5 for stability, quickness/maneuverability, and torsional stiffness/edge grip. He did add a note about the quickness score, saying "it's not maneuverable in the sense that you can pivot or smear turns through tight trees, which is often how we think about maneuverability. Rather, it's incredibly quick edge to edge, allowing for super quick adjustments and seamless edge to edge transitions." Jeff also seemed to like the turn radius of the HRC, commenting that "it's nice having this medium turn radius. The ski feels more responsive than most "GS" skis I've been on recently, which I think a lot of skiers will prefer. It comes across the fall line really easily when linking carving turns, which makes it easier to manage speed and gives me a little more confidence to let them run." Jeff makes a good point here. If your goal is just making nice, clean carving turns, you don't necessarily need a big turning radius, and often if you go too big, you'll end up feeling like the ski is taking you for a ride.

Mike Thomas opted for the 182 cm length, which he felt was the right length for his size. Makes sense, because Mike's a pretty big guy and 182 cm is the longest available length in the HRC. Similar scores from Mike as we saw from Jeff, including 5 out of 5 for stability, torsional stiffness/edge grip, and overall impression. "Really fun ski! This is kind of versatile for a race-like ski. I really enjoy the feel Blizzard gets from their skis. Torsionally strong, but smooth and buttery in longitudinal flex. This would be a great ski for a hard snow addict who likes technically sound turns. Perfect for an upper-level ski instructor too." Marcus Shakun also skied that 182 cm length and practically drew a line down the 5 column in our numeric scores. Forgiveness was the sole criteria that fell below a perfect score, not terribly surprising for a ski of this nature. "One ski to do it all on the frontside. Can make a variety of turn shapes. Not quite a slalom turn nor a full GS. Snappy and energetic in and out of a turn. The more you push it, the better it gets." The application of carbon in the construction of the Firebird HRC gives it a little more energy and a snappier feel when linking carving turns compared to a lot of high-end frontside skis with metal, which is a heck of a lot of fun.

Ultimately, the Firebird HRC is at its best carving turns on firm snow. That's what it's designed for, that's its best application. It does it, however, with a feel and performance that's slightly different than what you might expect in this category. It's not planky, rather it feels fun and responsive with a reasonable flex pattern. It won't beat you up, at least not too badly, but you can still achieve those high level, technical carving turns that upper level skiers look to make. In the world of frontside carving skis, it's hard to beat the fun-factor of the Firebird HRC.