The tale of the Black Pearl 98 is instructive on several levels. On the construction front, this Pearl has been through several phases, including periods when it was a direct copy of a men’s model. It still uses the same tool as the unisex Bonafide – perhaps the greatest all-terrain ski ever – but Blizzard switched to a Women’s Specific Design (WSD) a couple of seasons ago. What’s notable is that the model that most closely matched the Bonafide was a flop, but the WSD Pearl 98 is so well-balanced women want to take it everywhere.

“A great ski for all conditions!” exclaims Kimberly from California Ski Company. “Makes nice turns and the 98mm width is good on groomers and in the trees.” The current Black Pearl 98’s became a couple of steps quicker last year when it adopted a tighter sidecut with an earlier contact point. Along with the weight savings from WSD, its new, deeper sidecut makes the Black Pearl 98 feel narrower and consequently quicker edge-to-edge.

Another edifying aspect of the Pearl 98’s history is its relationship to the rest of the Blizzard line. There would be no Pearl 98 without the Bonafide from which it was cloned, but while the Bonafide soon became the focus of the men’s freeride series, the Black Pearl 98, then known as the Samba, lived in the ever-lengthening shadow of its more slender sister, the Black Pearl. The success of the original, 88mm-waisted Black Pearl became such that its sister skis, the Cheyenne and Samba, were reborn as Black Pearls, so the luster of the original might burnish their fortunes.

The name change and sidecut tweak may affect the Black Pearl 98’s popularity, but it’s the WSD adaptations that make it so good off-trail. Lifting a page from backcountry ski designs, a unidirectional top layer of carbon carries a lot of the structural load, and the primary glass laminates are inlaid with carbon stringers so they don’t have to be thick to be strong. The same stability and responsiveness that have made the Black Pearl 88 the best selling ski in America are also embodied in this all-terrain gem. If you spend more than 60% of your time off trail, it’s time you met the Pearl 88’s bigger sister.