Take a peak at the MX74’s turn radius measurement: 14.7m in a 172cm. That’s cobra quick. With a whopping 50mm of width differential between tip and waist, the MX74 sucks the skier into the top of the turn with the irresistible authority of a black hole. Once on edge, your trajectory is predetermined by the angle of the base against the snow surface plus whatever pressure you apply. The more energy you put in, the more you get out.
Some skis just aim for the next turn; Head’s Kore 117 aims for the bottom of the mountain. If skis were golf clubs, the Kore 117 would be an illegal driver. Head may have finally found the combination of materials that delivers the damping and torsional stiffness that only Titanal has provided up to now. Crud is powerless to deter the Kore 117’s dominating will. On hard snow, the Kore 117 begs to be laid over. The tapered tip isn’t much interested in this condition, but the rest of the ski grabs the snow like Gorilla glue.
The contrast between how the Pinnacle 118 looks and how it skis is striking. It looks like another big barge of a Powder ski, but it handles like an acrobatic All-Mountain model. Unlike most Powder skis that prefer to bank off a wall of snow on their bases, the Pinnacle 118 will hold a carved turn with only its edge in the snow. Because its edge grips so well and its core isn’t too torsionally rigid, the Pinnacle 118 skis feels quicker edge to edge than other skis with its XXXL dimensions.
The most notable feature of the new K2 Catamaran is its asymmetric tip profile. As the Catamaran is a twin-tip, naturally the tail is likewise asymmetric. In action, the uphill ski engages less with the snow. The asymmetric effect is somewhat mitigated by the Catamaran’s full Powder rocker that keeps its ends off the snow.
Meet Ms. Mid, aka the K2 Luv Sick 80ti. Her waist width is in the middle of the Frontside bell curve. Her tapered tip and tail and all-terrain rocker gently disengage her extremities so she can concentrate her efforts on the middle. While her sidecut is capable of making a tight radius arc, she’d rather ride at a lower edge angle and peel off medium-radius turns to keep her speed – you guessed it – moderate.