Lightweight Freeride Ski

Blaze 86 - Review 2023

About this guide

We gave our Review Team one job:
Find the best and most popular products and review them. Our review team always considers durability, price, quality, and value in their reviews.

Our review team:

Hunter Bierce

Editor at DIVEIN.com

Hunter is a PSIA ski instructor based in the Northern Cascades.

Bradley Axmith

Editor at DIVEIN.com

Grew up shredding Canadian snowpacks and sold gear to pay for it.

Disclosure: We are reader supported, and earn affiliate commissions If you find a good deal on DIVEIN, you click to the retailer, and you buy the product, we get a commission of the sale. That's is how we pay ourselves. It does not make the product pricier for you. when you buy through us.

Völkl’s Blaze series stormed into the market last year as their very competitive offering in the lightweight freeride category. It’s an all-rounder that’s most at home on the soft, shallow resort snow you’ll spend the majority of your season on.

The most defining characteristics of this most narrow offering are that it’s easy to turn and easy to learn, balancing a forgiving, versatile ride with a little more pop and liveliness than we’re used to seeing from Völkl.

Check out the Blaze 86 W for additional women’s sizing options.

Anyone who values dependability and predictability will be well-served by the Blaze series, these qualities being just as important on the resort as they are in the backcountry.

These skis, particularly the new 86mm version, are light compared to all but dedicated backcountry skis optimized for climbing. Also noteworthy is the price, compared to most all-mountain skis they’re awfully cheap, making them one of the stronger budget options.

With precut skins available for purchase, they’d also be a great starting point for an enviable hybrid setup.