The Blizzard Bonafide absolutely, positively doesn’t care about the prevailing snow conditions. Should the weather change suddenly, the Bonafide couldn’t be more indifferent. It can transition from brittle corduroy to 18 inches of fresh without a hitch in its stride. It’s this chameleonesque character that makes the Bonafide a perennial contender for the title of best all-condition ski, end of story.

There’s a bundle of interrelated reasons why the Bonafide is so good in so many different snow conditions, starting with its Flipcore baseline. The Bonafide is double rockered, but it once tipped on edge, the entire ski feels connected, without a hinge point anywhere. The supple forebody does a brilliant job of adapting to whatever terrain it can’t charge through; in the battle between ski and crud, the crud has no chance.

The Bonafide is able to bully beat-up snow because in many respects it’s built like an Old School GS race ski, which was the powder tool of choice in the era just prior to the proliferation of fat skis. A vertically laminated wood core sandwiched between two sheets of Titanal has provided the structural foundation of the world’s best skis for decades. Fiberglass and/or carbon are added to the mix, contributing resilience, responsiveness and damping.

There are no do-dads on the topskin, no secret ingredients, no visible signs of its inner workings, unless you count the carbon weave in the tip and tail, evidence of Blizzard’s effort to lower the Bonafide’s swingweight. Last year the Bonafide was given a wee bit more shape, making its carving performance even crisper without detracting one iota from its drift-ability in gnarly old snow. In fact, its surface area increased, however minutely, which can only aid flotation.

The continued success of the Bonafide against an ever more competitive field proves that when traditional construction is applied to a subtly rockered and cambered baseline with a fairly shallow shape that travels well off trail, great things can happen. Extraordinary performance is the product of insightful design and the quality of its execution; the Bonafide attests to Blizzard’s scrupulous attention to both.