The Head Kore105 is a very clever combination of some Old School principles, a few features that are de facto standards in the Big Mountain genre and technology that is on the cutting edge of ski design. Head is the only ski maker with a license to use Graphene, carbon in a one-atom thick matrix, which allows its engineers to stiffen or soften flex with minimal affect on mass. To maintain this weight advantage, the heaviest component in the core is a slice of poplar next to the sidewall; the rest of it is a synthetic honeycomb called Koroyd and a quotient of Karuba, an ultralight wood commonly found in Alpine Touring skis.
The Kore 105 gets its power and energy from the carbon, fiberglass and Graphene that are laminated around this exotic core. To further trim grams, the topsheet is a cap made from polyester fleece, another dampening agent that’s only downside is it’s difficult to decorate, which is why all the Kores look murdered-out.
This recitation of low-mass components makes it sound as though the Kore’s only selling feature is its lightweight chassis. There’s no question that the Kore design is laser-focused on keeping the ski light, but if that were its only accomplishment it wouldn’t be such a big deal. What makes the Kore construction remarkable is that it’s light but never wimpy. Once you ski it for a few runs you forget about the lightweight and just ski as you would normally, only with less labor and fatigue.
When designers are working with a new material, it takes a while to figure how to optimize it. Head was using Graphene in its skis for six years before it was ready to roll out the Kore 105 and its kin. Somewhere in that process it adopted a few current conventions, such as tips and tails that are rockered and tapered so neither can take over a turn. Because the Kore 105 is so stout underfoot, its relatively inert extremities don’t dilute its hard snow holding power.
As for its traditional values, the Kore 105’s sidecut is very shallow for a Head, with only a 30mm drop between the widest point just behind the shovel and the waist. The relatively mild tip-to-center taper angle harkens back to the first years of shaped skis. Then as now, the less radical shape allows the ski to plane more evenly through snow that’s anything but level, softening the blow from the constant changes in consistency.
“The dampest lightweight ski ever, awesome energy and snow feel. Works all day inbounds or backcountry,” raved Lucas from Footloose last year. “[My] favorite ski in the test.” One of The Sport Loft cohort captured its multiple personalities: “Soft for the soft snow, stiff and stable for the hard snow. For the weight, the best ski for the money, period.”
For continuing to fulfill the promise inherent in Big Mountain skis – that they’ll make off-trail skiing easier – we again award the Kore 105 a Silver Skier Selection.
