Many lifelong skiers are familiar with the decidedly mixed history of lightweight skis. Anyone who wants to re-visit the dubious joys of a stripped-down ski can always hop on a $399 package ski. Suffice it to say, you’ll learn quickly to keep your speed in check.
So I suspect most veteran testers who try a Head Kore model for the first time carry with them a hint of suspicion. You can tell in the hand that they’re lighter than the typical wood-and-metal make-up usually found at the top of this popular genre. Will a noticeably lighter ski like the Kore 99 measure up to the standard set by powerful skis like the Bonafide, MX98, M5 Mantra and Enforcer 100?
Yes, indeed. The Kore 99 annihilates every negative ever associated with lightweight skis. Lightness doesn’t’ affect its grip or stability, which is nearly on a par with the metal-laden i.Rally. It holds a medium-radius turn without a hitch, delivering effortless power usually associated with a more traditionally built ski.
For the Kore 99 is anything but traditional and a significant departure from Head’s customary wood and metal constructions. The Kore’s principal components are Graphene, Koroyd and Karuba, a lightweight wood often found in backcountry models. The Graphene does the heavy lifting in terms of distributing pressure along a flex pattern that provides the feedback experts expect from a high performance ski.
Because any competent tester will be focused on trying to find a flaw that derives from the Kore 99’s lightness, the first run on this ski feels experimental, sort of like a first dance with a new partner. Somewhere during the second run you realize it can do whatever you can do, you relax and just ski. You stop focusing on its differentness and gain a deeper appreciation of how well it mimics the performance envelope of this hotly competitive category’s perennial all-stars.
Not only do the Kore 99’s Power properties meet the highest standard for edge grip and stability at speed, its lower mass means it takes less effort to ski, forestalling fatigue and lengthening the ski day. It’s the perfect marriage of Power and Finesse. “Comfortable balance point,” confirms Jim Schaffner from Start Haus. “Easy to get rolled up on edge. A solid player in the 100mm-waisted category.”
Unlike some of its burlier bros in the All-Mountain West genre, the Kore 99 feels quick to the edge and reactive off it. “It didn’t ski like a short (180cm), fat ski,” writes Bobo’s Theron Lee. “It was very nimble yet very stable at speed and able to follow terrain quite well. The biggest surprise was the width: it did not feel like a 99mm width, it felt much narrower.”
For delivering elite performance with less effort from the pilot, we again award the Kore 99 a Silver Skier Selection.
