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 Mindbenders 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.

The in-resort emphasis bears stressing, as K2 has already concocted plenty of options for those willing to hike for their turns. A new series, Dispatch, targets the skier who is more focused on the quality of the descent than the challenge of the climb.  While the Dispatch skier might grab a lift to access something untracked, the dedicated climber will prefer the lighter weight of K2’s venerable Wayback series.

Point being, the Mindbender 89Ti is an in-resort ski with an open mind about its terrain options. It conforms as comfortably as one can to today’s tricky mogul formations, and its slender silhouette slithers through the trenches in tight trees.  Of course, it can handle powder, where its more supportive tail helps maintain a balanced stance.

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.”

While the new Mindbender 89Ti busted a major move in such Power attributes as continuous carving, its calmer edge inspired an even greater improvement in Finesse properties like forgiveness and low-speed turning. In other words, the newest Mindbender has both a lower threshold and a higher ceiling than the ski it replaces. Sized appropriately, there’s no ability level it cannot serve, and serve well.

For maintaining K2’s tradition of simplifying all-terrain skiing, we award the much-improved Mindbender 89Ti a Silver Skier Selection.