2023 K2 Mindbender 89 Ti

Of all the new 2023 skis that are upgrades to existing models, none took a greater leap up in all key averages - Total Score, Power and Finesse - than K2’s Mindbender 89Ti and 99Ti. In the case of the Mindbender 89Ti vis-à-vis the Mindbender 90Ti that it supplants, the new ski blows the doors off its forebear no matter how you slice it. The retiring 90Ti languished near the bottom of our rankings last year; the new iteration ranks near the top, a strong indication that things have improved underfoot. As indeed they have, for the Titanal Y-Beam that provides the backbone for the 89Ti’s design has been significantly reconfigured. The metal laminate is still shaped like a slingshot, but the yoke in the forebody has been beefed up and the tail section re-shaped to cover a lot more area. The result is a serenity on edge that won’t shake loose under heavy pressure on hard snow. This quality matters, particularly in a daily driver that will perforce be fed a diet rich in groomers. The Mindbender 89Ti retains a bias for off-trail conditions, as evident in its baseline, sidecut and build, but the extra Titanal in the new edition makes all the difference in the world when the off-trail is iffy. The new Mindbinders are archetypes of the all-terrain, in-resort ski that loves to play around in new snow but can get down to business when the untracked turns packed. Theron Lee is both a world-class ski mechanic and a technically precise skier accustomed to skiing slalom race models. He spotted the improvement in the Mindbender 89Ti from the first turn. “The ski has a lot of power underneath the foot with the new metal configuration. The tip and tail have a lot more power to them and the ski makes a very round turn, unlike in the past. The ski was a lot of fun to ski and the roundness of the turn and the power of the ski made it made it a complete jam to ski.”