2021-2022 Armada ARG II

36 comments on “2021-2022 Armada ARG II”

1. Holy shit that rocker profile. The shape looks a lot like the Protest, which I own in a 192 and love, but they sure don’t look similar at all in profile. Crazy stuff, looking forward to hearing about these.

2. As someone who skis the predecessor to this ski (the Bubba) on a regular basis, I would like to plant a Maritime-snowpack-seed in the Continental-Blister-brain: have you ever skied a West Coast pow day w/ a foot or more of heavy, wet snow, where “modern” <110mm pow skis sink enough to require jump turns in tight trees & rocks, but 120mm+ fatties simply float & smear where you want them to? This describes conditions West Coast locals see on a regular basis.

   • Intellectual challenge for Blister: reconsider automatically classifying superfat skis as “bottomless blower” tools, and think about their everyday utility for skiers in heavy conditions of more than a few inches.

     • Paul Forward and I have been saying for about 8 years now that the 138mm-wide, DPS Lotus 138 is one of the best skis we’ve ever been on for (1) breakable crust, and (2) heavy mashed-potato snow. I’ve talked about the incredible versatility of the previous Blizzard Spur and the Kingswood SMB, and the very good versatility of the Praxis Protest (128mm-wide).

       Long and short: this isn’t some categorical mistake we’ve been making, and we don’t and haven’t automatically classified all wide skis as always “bottomless”-specific. And in our First Look here of the ARG II, we note that we are interested in checking its performance in slush and corn.

     • I know these comments are dated, but I agree with what you’re saying here Matt. I have an older pair of Bubba’s and went to the new JJ this year but they just don’t perform as well in mixed conditions, tight trees and chop. I’ve gone back to the Bubba. I think I might have preferred the older JJ with a hair more rocker and more taper in the tips and tail.

   • Yes. Quite a bit. Various reviewers of ours (myself included) have skied plenty of days like this in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, New Zealand, and Argentina, and (though so many people seem to assume that “continental” areas never experience maritime conditions, I have skied a number of days in Utah (in particular) in where ~110mm-wide rockered skis barely wanted to budge. So, yes, we know what you mean.

3. Rocker looks exactly as old Moment Ghost Chant lol

   • When is the full review coming?

     • We didn’t get this ski till very late last season, so we’re hoping to get the full review out mid- to late-season this year so that we can get enough time on it in a variety of conditions, including very deep snow.

4. I own both the original ARG and a pair of 188 Bubbas, nothing even comes close in powder then a reverse/reverse ski, I laugh at Blister when you guys Are calling 115mm skis powder skis. These are the true powder skis, and with the winter we had here in Tahoe this year, I spent a lot days on both skis, nothing beats dropping into waist to chest deep heavy Sierra powder on a reverse/reverse ski in tight trees or chutes

5. Also let me add that you don’t need a deep day to ski the ARG, as long as it’s 6” deep soft or heavy corn their a blast, detune the heck out of the edges and they will go sideways just as much as foreword, super fun in deep soft chop/crud. They will be my main deep corn snow ski this spring at both Squaw and Kirkwood

   • Bingo: superfats as “everyday drivers” for 6″+ heavy, coastal snow is thought I was trying to convey.

6. Super curious about your perspective, Matt N. I’m an eastern Washington (continental) skier. The one weekend I’ve been able to ski high water content snow – at Stevens Pass – it was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. I was on Surface New Life 194s, which are reverse-camber but not tapered, and it seemed to take a lot of speed to avoid hooky behavior.

   • Well, I’m not Matt N, but I am from western WA and ski Crystal as my home mountain. I’ve got a pair of Praxis Protests in a 192, so I’ve got a bunch of time on something not truly reverse-reverse, but pretty close. Sidecut is definitely not your friend in deep, wet, heavy snow. Unlike hardpack, you do sink into the snow, so having wider shovels and tails means that that you have to push snow around with those parts of the ski a lot more to get them to release from a turn, but unlike blower pow the snow’s heavy and sticky and that can be hard to do.

   • Camber, sidecut, taper, & tip/tail rise all play significant roles, but they vary based on snow consistency. In heavy, fresh maritime snow, significant rocker, rise, and taper in both tip and tail will yield maximum maneuverability. I detune tips & tails and only ever notice hookiness issues when encountering inconsistent, crusted layers in the snow. Those New Lifes have very conventional tips & tails: Blister loves wide tips for busting crud, but the heavier the snow, the more those big, bulbous tips & tails fight your ability to pivot them like a true reverse/reverse, or even a hybrid-camber 5-pt ski like Armada’s Bubbas or the JJ.

     • Matt – it sort of feels like you keep assigning to “Blister” positions that we don’t actually hold?

       So let me try to at least clarify a couple positions that I, at least, have found to be generally true after being on a whole bunch of skis:

       (1) The narrower the ski, the more I find that heavily tapered tips will deflect in crud. So the narrower you go, the less, I think, that a lot of tip taper makes sense or is needed.

       (2) Conversely, I have consistently said that the wider the ski, the more that tip taper *does* make sense. I.e, the DPS Lotus 138, and the previous Blizzard Spur.

       (3) Truly “bulbous” tips — i.e., skis with tip shapes like the Renoun Z-Line 90, the current Head Monster 88, the 110mm wide Scott Punisher — those are tip shapes that I do not think are good in crud and chop, because their oversized tips tend to catch and get pulled into a turn when you don’t want them to.

       (4) In terms of tail taper, see our comments about the ON3P Billygoat — the more you are skiing in really dense, heavy, wet cake batter, the more that tail taper is your friend.

       So given that I can’t see that we are actually disagreeing about anything here, please stop attributing to us (or, at least me?) positions that we don’t actually hold, and we will do our best to be clearer than we have been in the past, if need be. :)

     • Matt N, I have read every blister reviews of all skis over 120mm waist many times. Nowhere in any of their reviews do they say anything that supports the views you are trying to attribute to them.
       If you are of a different opinion, please tell us exactly what review you are referring to, and exactly where i the review.

       I suspect you have not read them at all.

       Jonathan Ellsworth, no need to be clearer, you have been perfectly clear in these matters in all your reviews.

7. Hey David. I’ve skied the 184 new life in wet heavy Tahoe snow and as David mentioned above the side cut is not your friend in those conditions, super hooky unless you really round those edges in the tip and tail, taper helps a lot in those conditions. I run into people all the time in Tahoe wondering how we ski the powder out here, because they are struggling so bad

8. Wow! That’s a beautiful ski. I owned the original and loved how you could nuke on it and then shut it down instantaneously with a sideways slashing turn. Also loved how it would slither through tight trees effortlessly. Groomers back to the lift were tedious though and the previous years of low snow conditions caused me to dump them. But I missed those mind-blowing moments of pow ecstasy so I ended up buying a 4Frnt Renegade with the intent of re-living the glory days on the ARG. They don’t slither as well in tight trees but are more stompable, easier on groomers and still give you the big pow-O! Both skis can rip at high speed in the deep, but IMO, the Ren probably wins in heavy snow.

9. Scott. It would be interesting to compare the 188 Bubba to the Ren, since it floats better then the ARG, is more stable at speed, and stomps better, and with side cut is actually pretty fun on groomers, it’s not as quick or pivoty as the ARG, but is more suited for open areas whereas the ARG is best in tight spots or trees

10. Thanks for the maritime snow perspective, David G, Matt N, Billy and Jonathan. I need to add something along the lines of an ARG/138/Protest/Renegade to my quiver.

11. Really looking forward to the full review.

12. What’s the rockerline measurement (front and back pls)?
    Cheers!

13. A/B with protests please!

14. Lust.

15. So, coming back from Swiss alps where the high alpine conditions switched between dumps and oscillating temps, from smooth dry powder to the wet hooky one and of course crust in between.

    My general weapon BC Atris has 108mm underfoot which was fine but at tiles started to sink a bit too much. So this article has me intrigued.How does the ARQ compare to a bit more generalist skis like Bent Chetler 120s or other DPS than the Lotus?

16. We had 3 pair of the arg 2 skis in the fleet at a bc catskiing operation last winter. Never (not even close) has there been such stoke on a ski from the staff.
    I still ski on the Rocker 122 and hadn’t tried anything that got me excited until the arg 2. Fun in the pow is a major understatement! It really does change the way you ski pow. Downside….it’s the wrong ski for 98% of skiers. I tailguide catskiing so I am part of the lucky 2% who this ski was made for.

17. Best ski ever if you ski pow

18. “if you’ve never skied untracked powder on a “reverse-reverse” style super-fat ski, you owe it to yourself to give it a try.” -Paul Forward, 2020

    These words played on replay in my head, over and over, tormenting me, luring me, as a siren song. And after re-reading this review one evening while covid quaranting and sipping beers (multiple beers), I made the mistake of opening eBay on my iPhone ™ “just to see” if they had any reverse-reverse skis on auction.

    To my surprise there was a listing for a pair, NIP, just asking me to “make an offer”. After a couple lowball bids were rejected, the effect of the beers lowered my inhibitions and began to impair my negotiating skills. When I awoke the next morning, I was made aware that I was the proud new owner of the Armada ARG II. I took solace in the thought that this might just be the motivation I needed to book that Cat trip, or even to get me back to the Shangri-La that is the Chugach Range.

    While fantasizing about the possibilities of a Spring heli-trip, I started to hear chatter on OpenSnow about an Atmospheric River that would soon flow into the Central Sierra’s. For those who have never experienced an AR event, I highly recommend it. Difficult travel, including significant delays, and re-routes are rewarded with snowfall measured not in centimeters, nor inches, but feet. Multiple feet. This, I imagined, would be the perfect opportunity to test drive the ARG II, without the added expense of Hobbs.

    My go to resort pow ski is the Moment Wildcat 190, which I absolutely love, and IMO is the perfect combination of playful crud buster that excels inbounds where I ski most (Utah). Other pow skis I have enjoyed the Bilster Pro 184 (resort), OG Rossi S7 (resort), Atomic Automatic (resort), Salomon Rocker 122 (AK), and the Armada Bubba (Japan). All that being said, the float that the ARG II delivers is unlike anything I have stepped into previously. My first day the resort was reporting over 3 feet of fresh, and it was definitely deeper in places. Whether skipping through low angle trees, or hitting steeper fall lines, the ARGs planed quickly and easily. My buddies struggled on anything without sufficient pitch as I sailed through effortlessly.

    When we found steeper terrain the skis really started to show off. So easy to get into the flow. Each down cycle a faceshot, slash ‘em sideways for a full barrel overhead. Surfy is the dominant adjective that comes to mind. I felt like I was back at Playa Santa Teresa, the fluid nature of the ride, the silent serenity of the bottomless snow. It was, well, Pura Vida.

    The ARG IIs also surprised on the soft covered groomers. It was surprisingly easy (for a 133-wide ski) to roll them onto their edges and slarving and sliding were also quite enjoyable. They did not however perform well in the rutted-out bumps that formed by mid-day, not that one would expect them to, but by lunchtime I was longing for my Moments. By the end of the day, I had convinced myself that these, while not 100% one dimensional, were a tool designed with a specific task in mind, and that task is mechanically accessed, untouched pow.

    • This is awesome. Thank you for sharing your experience!

19. Hi all,

    I have an unexpected to go on a 4-day heli-ski trip next February in the Cariboo Mountain range in BC. Given that this is likely a once-in-a-lifetime (for me, at least) opportunity, I want to be prepared with the best possible equipment. I have a pair of Line Vision 118s (189 cm) that I bought toward the end of last year as my 50/50 resort/backcountry powder ski. While I only got to ride them twice, I did like them quite a bit.

    Still, I’m wondering if something like the Armada ARG II or the Praxis Protest might be a better tool for this VERY specific job. This ski will be dedicated to untracked powder on this trip, and possibly any future similar trips I might get lucky enough to take. As I already have the Vision 118s for inbounds powder days (and even backcountry days), I don’t need a ski that can handle crud or groomers. I just want something that will give me the best experience in deep, Maritime alpine powder and trees. What do you think?

    P.S. I get a pro deal on Armada, so if the ARGs are as good or better than other options, I’d be inclined to go with those to save some $$.

    • If you still need a pair for that Feb 2022 heli trip, haven’t left yet and are flying into Calgary shoot me a line, I have a pair of original ARG’s with Guardian 16’s (large) that I only use for heli & cat days that you can borrow. I have a pair of Bibby 190’s and a pair of Blister Pro 190’s (great resort powder skis!!!) which used to be my backcountry ski until I had a chance to A-B test run the ARG’s with the Bibby’s on a trip into Chatter Creek in 2015. I love the Bibby’s but the ARG’s were a better ski in variable conditions (sun crust, wind slab, heavy mashed potatoes), tight-steep trees, pillows and SUPER fun when skiing perfect snow, as the Bibby’s are too. Quick turning and still stable at speed, very purpose built, special ski for non packed snow. #less effort-more fun

20. The second heaviest ski ever reviewed (?): The OG Blizzard Bodacious 196, at 2685g per ski. (My favorite ski ever, and I try not to miss an opportunity to mention it when I sense even a hint of relevance.)

21. I picked up an inexpensive pair of the original ARGs. I’m 6’5″/235 lbs and was worried that 185cm would be too short–it is not. Skied them in 20″ of medium-density pow on Mt. Spokane’s opening day. Holy shit–so much fun. I’ve never been able to turn so quickly in the trees. They’re great in the open, too.

22. I brought mine out at Mt. Spokane on Sunday, hoping that they’d make tree skiing through semi-refrozen wet snow easier–which they did. What I did not expect was how well they worked on-piste. It wasn’t even a packed-powder day. The snow had melted and refrozen, but I could carve the everliving shit out of them–as long as I drove through the ball of my foot. You really have to lean into the shovel to get them to veer off-course. Mine have very sharp edges underfoot, which probably helped a lot.

23. How do these A/B to the DPS Lotus 138 Spoon?