Ski: 2019-2020 Argent Badger, 184 cm
Available Lengths: 174, 184, 194 cm
Blister’s Measured Tip-to-Tail Length: 182.0 cm
Blister’s Measured Weight per Ski: 2250 & 2307 grams
Stated Dimensions: 136-107-129 mm
Blister’s Measured Dimensions: 134.8-107.1-128.8 mm
Stated Sidecut Radius (184 cm): 25 meters
Measured Tip & Tail Splay (ski decambered): 68 mm / 47 mm
Measured Traditional Camber Underfoot: ~1 mm
Core: Poplar + Full-Length, Full-Width Stainless Steel Layer + Fiberglass Laminate
Base: P-Tex 3200
Factory Recommended Mount Point: -1.4 cm from center; 89.6 cm from tail
Intro
Argent is a new ski company based out of Park City, Utah, that was co-founded by Ander Tallett and Jenny Greeve. Ander is a New-Hampshire based skier who’s been playing around with ski designs since 2006, and Jenny is based out of Washington.
Argent currently offers three models: the 102mm-wide “OSQ,” 92mm-wide “92,” and 95mm-wide “Ripcord.” They also have a couple of new models in the works, including the 107mm-wide Badger, which recently arrived at Blister HQ.
We’ll be getting time on the Badger soon, but there are a bunch of unique and interesting things about its design. We quickly touched on a few of them in our recent GEAR:30 podcast, but now, let’s dive into what makes the Badger really stand out from other skis on the market.
What Argent says about the Badger:
“The Badger is designed to be a hard charging big mountain ski, and is the right choice every day of the year. It is based around the concepts of modern big mountain skiing style, with the ability to pivot, hold an edge, land strong and get sendy. With a unique combination of stainless steel and poplar wood core, these skis charge and pop. They are the daily driver for the expert aggressive skier.”
While that description is probably deserving of one of our Swagger Award nominations, after looking at, measuring, and flexing the Badger, we actually think that this description isn’t unreasonable. Keep reading to see why, but for now, I think the key phrases here are “modern big mountain skiing style,” “hard charging,” and “expert aggressive skier.”
Shape / Rocker Profile
The Badger has a good deal of tip taper, and very little tail taper. In this regard, it looks a bit like the Prior Husume, but the Badger has a more rounded tail, while the Husume’s is more squared off. The Badger has more tip taper than a lot of the other all-mountain chargers we’ve reviewed (e.g., Blizzard Cochise, ON3P Wrenegade 108, Parlor Mountain Jay).
In terms of its rocker profile, the Badger has a fairly shallow tip rocker line by modern standards, and its tip rocker actually looks very similar to the Nordica Enforcer 100’s tip rocker shape. Rather than a low, slow rise from the start of the rocker line, the Badger’s tips rise pretty quickly to a fairly high tip splay of 68 mm.
In the tail, the Badger has a pretty shallow rocker line, but does have a considerable amount of tail splay at 47 mm. The Badger’s tail is basically a non-rockered twin, which seems in line with their talk about “modern big mountain skiing style.”
Flex Pattern
Here’s how we’d characterize the flex pattern of the Badger:
Tips: 9
Shovels: 9-9.5
In Front of Toe Piece: 9.5-10
Underfoot: 10
Behind the Heel Piece: 10-9.5
Tails: 8.5-9
This is a very, very strong flex pattern. It’s also a pretty round flex pattern, with little difference in flex between the tips and tails. Compared to the Moment Commander 108 (a pretty stiff ski), the Badger is noticeably stiffer throughout. The Badger’s flex pattern feels fairly similar to the old Head Monster 98, with the Monster 98’s tips being a touch stiffer.
So, while it has a twinned tail and a very progressive recommended mount point (keep reading), the Badger is by no means some flimsy jib ski.
Weight
For its size, the Badger is quite heavy. At around 2280 grams per ski for the 184 cm version, the Badger’s weight definitely puts it in line with other hard-charging skis. And since it flexes very stiff, we’re pretty excited about the weight of the badger — we’ve liked the combination of stiff flex + heavy weight on skis like the old Head Monsters and Prior CBC and Husume.
For reference, here are a bunch of our measured weights for a number of notable skis. As always, keep in mind the length differences to try to keep these comparisons apples-to-apples.
1923 & 1956 DPS Alchemist Wailer 106, 189 cm (17/18-18/19)
1996 & 2012 Dynastar Legend X106, 188 cm (17/18-18/19)
2013 & 2013 Moment Commander 108, 188 cm (18/19)
2022 & 2047 Faction Dictator 3.0, 186 cm (17/18-18/19)
2026 & 2056 Black Diamond Boundary Pro 107, 184 cm (17/18-18/19)
2030 & 2039 Rossignol Soul 7 HD, 188 cm (17/18-18/19)
2036 & 2064 Salomon QST 106, 188 cm (18/19)
2046 & 2120 Black Crows Corvus, 188 cm (18/19)
2112 & 2125 4FRNT MSP 107, 187 cm (18/19)
2143 & 2194 ON3P Wrenegade 108, 184 cm (18/19)
2182 & 2218 Nordica Enforcer 110, 185 cm (17/18-18/19)
2250 & 2307 Argent Badger, 184 cm (19/20)
2283 & 2290 ON3P Wrenegade 108, 189 cm (18/19)
2312 & 2386 Prior Husume, 188 cm (17/18-18/19)
2318 & 2341 J Skis The Metal, 186 cm (16/17-18/19)
2376 & 2393 Blizzard Cochise, 185 cm (15/16-18/19)
Mount Point
The Badger has a pretty directional rocker profile and shape, but its recommended mount point of -1.4 cm from center is much, much more in line with symmetrical freestyle skis. This was one of the biggest surprises while measuring the ski.
So we reached out to Ander Tallet about this, and he said that they have staff and customers skiing the Badger at a wide range of mount points. Some of their more directional skiers are 6 cm behind the factory recommended line, and some of their more progressive skiers are riding 1 cm in front of the line — i.e., almost dead-center mounted. (Which is fairly wild; is anybody out there skiing a Blizzard Cochise or ON3P Wrenegade 108 at dead center??)
So we’ll be sure to ski the Badger at various mount points to see how the ski feels.
Sidecut Radius
[Editor’s Note: Argent recalculated the Badger’s sidecut radius since we first posted this First Look and are now providing an updated stated sidecut radius of 25 meters for the 184 cm length.]
Some Questions / Things We’re Curious about
(1) How playful and / or forgiving vs. directional and demanding is the Badger?
(2) Most skis use titanal (an aluminum alloy) if they use metal, but the Badger uses stainless steel. Will we be able to notice any significant differences between it and titanal skis?
(3) Like the Badger, the Prior Husume is a pretty heavy, very stiff ski with a lot of tip taper and little tail taper. The Husume is also a Best Of winner. So how similar or different will the two skis feel?
(4) How intuitive and / or natural does the Badger feel at different mount points? Does it really work well at – 6 cm and also -1?
(5) How difficult or easy is it to bend the Badger into tighter turns? And does it work (at all?) at slower speeds?
Bottom Line (For Now)
One of the cool things about small new brands is that they tend to bring new things to the table. And that definitely seems to be the case with the Argent Badger. It’s a very stiff, pretty heavy ski with a full layer of steel in its layup and a fairly long stated radius. But it also has a twinned tail and a very progressive recommended mount point.
We’ve never seen anything quite like it, so we’ll be getting it on snow very soon and report back on what we find. Stay tuned…
Flash Review
Blister Members can now check out our Flash Review of the Badger for our initial impressions. Become a Blister member now to check out this and all of our Flash Reviews, plus get exclusive deals and discounts on skis, and personalized gear recommendations from us.
Wow. Really curious about this one. You’re exactly right that the idea of stiff, heavy, metal, 36m sidecut has me excited, but I’m very much not the sort to mount a ski -1.4. (The current/old Blizzard Bodacious 186 might be my favorite ski ever and I ski those mounted on the line, which if I remember right is something like -9.5). This thing sounds bonkers.
If I were to buy skis solely off of base graphis alone. This would be the ski.
Very Interesting – Cant wait to hear how it feels on snow at -6 and rec mount point
That “bullet” tip shape on the Badger looks more like the old 4FRNT EHP tip than anything else I can think of in the last 5 years. EHP also had a 40m stated radius, a mount point of around -5cm from TC, and weighed over 2300gm in the 186… and it was awesome!!!
Hope the Badger has the same magic combo of porpoisey pow chargeyness and amazing pivotability. Looking forward to the full review!
Something weird is going on with the stated radius of this ski.
I first thought something was up when you could clearly see the side cut profile in the base picture; a 36m sidecut is barely visible (think early 90’s gs skis). Then looking at the measurements, the waist width is 25.5mm less that the tip/tail average. As a comparison, a 185 Cochise is 21mm drop tips:waist with a stated sidecut of 27m, and a 187 Bonafide has a 29.5mm drop with a stated sidecut of 21m.
Long story short, this sure appears to be a ski that Blizzard (and I believe most all other manufacturers) would say has a sidecut radius of somewhere in the neighborhood of 24m. Definitely not 36m as Argent is stating.
Yeah, was thinking the exact same thing. No way in hell that ski has a radius that large. 26 maybe, I would think even lower than that though. Something’s definitely fishy.
I cant review the ski but I can review the skiers – having spent many days in Utah trying to keep up with Ander..including one day with him on this ski at The Canyons. I believe he was on the 184cm.
I own one of the other mentioned Argent models and love them.
Watching Ander RIP tight trees and cruddy irregular West Coast moguls on a marginal day, you wouldnt know the ski has anywhere near the characteristics defined, but when you see Ander and his brother stomp the cliffs in Big Mac and Squaretop backcountry areas, you can see it fully.
These guys are born from ice, East Coast skiers who have spent a fair amount of time out West and developed a truly inspiring skiing style that combines everything east coasters are known for with the playful, big mountain attitude of the skiers in “Idea: (if you haven’t watched it, add to your list).
The reason for the center mountain is obvious when one needs to straight line groomers forward just to keep up with these guys skiing switch. They also work really well for switch pow – both turning and landing.
If this sounds like you at all, give them a try. I hope to this winter.
The graphics are all Jenny..if you are lucky, you can also get one of her custom shot skis for Apres when you are done crushing on your Badgers.
Yeah, even at the recommended line -1.4, that’s a 24m radius. 36m? Where did that even come from?
W.r.t. 36 m radius, I suspect that they applied the FIS method (http://member.fis-ski.com/skicalc_info.htm) without adjusting for the deeper taper on this ski vs a racer. FIS assumes that the tip taper starts at least 80% of the way from waist->tip and that the tail taper starts 90% of the way from waist->tail, so if you apply it to a ski that violates those assumptions you get a bogus number.
The FIS method is still very useful for skis like this (I do it all the time) but you have to modify it by selecting point S just behind where the tip taper starts and point H just in front of the tail taper. As others have said, if you did that with the Argent I suspect you’d get something in the mid/high 20s.
Never mind that last – their spec’ed sidecut is just bogus.
Even if I assume that the widest points are the very tip and very tail (i.e. zero taper, no shovel, and no tail) I can only get to ~33 m. That’s true whether calculated by trigonometry or via the FIS-approved approximation (which is within a percent or so for all “real” skis in my experience). By the time we allow for shovel/tail/tapers this ski is going to be down in the mid 20s in terms of average sidecut radius.
As others have said, the Badger’s dimensions are those of a fairly turny ski,
I visited the Blister Showroom in January and fondled Blister’s 184cm Argent Badger.
When I looked along the edge, there was an obviously visible “abrupt corner” (a.k.a. slope discontinuity) in the sidecut underfoot. To me, the sidecut looked pretty straight (R=infinity) in the front half of the ski, but with a more common curved sidecut in the back half of the ski. Perhaps that combo led Argent to report a seemingly nonsensical number for the radius. The only other skis I’ve seen with such an “abrupt corner” underfoot were ON3P skis with RES design…And ON3P’s website this year claims they finally added a “blending radius” section on RES skis to smooth out that corner in their 2018-19 releases.
Also, the amount of asymmetry between the tip rocker profile and tail rocker profile makes me want to forecast a mount point at -9cm. Argent’s stated mount point of -1.4cm makes sense to me ONLY for the exaggerated-rocker-tail versions of the Badger shown in photos at https://www.facebook.com/argentskis/photos/a.816727575073273/1581519251927431/?type=3&theater and https://www.facebook.com/argentskis/photos/a.816727575073273/1973110349434984/?type=3&theater …but Blister’s Badger does NOT have that exaggerated rocker tail.
Any updates about this ski?
Hi All, this is Ander, I designed the skis and run Argent. The feedback is awesome – and yes, we screwed up the calculation for the turning radius. It should be 25m, and I let Blister know as well. As others have stated, they are actually a relatively turny ski if you put them up on edge. Our first model to go on sale so appreciate the feedback.
The mount point is a really interesting discussion. As has been pointed out, you can ski these in a lot of different mount points. We (Argent founders) have actually skied them +0.5 and others have mounted more like -6cm on average. When we sell the skis we add in a little card which describes mount point and what it does to the ski. We ski switch a lot, and love the feel of a near-center ski. Right now my favorite mount point is -1.5cm for Utah and 0cm for the skis I use out East (which also have the turned up tail, a version we may sell depending on interest). At -1.5cm on the production version it feels like you have landing gear coming off a big huck, you can rotate including nose-butters in pow, and you can ski switch at speed (we have clocked in at over 60mph). If you want a more directional ski (closer to most of the big names out there) mount at -6 or further back, and you will have an amazing big mountain charger.
Let me know if you have any questions, I’m at ander@argentskis.com – super stoked for our first season selling beyond friends and family and love feedback.
Ander
Let me know
Their website says titanal not steel, is the production model going to use steel or titanal?