Of all the new models introduced last season, K2’s Mindbender 99Ti took by far the greatest leap up in our standings, a stratospheric orbit it wasn’t able to sustain this year as new data knocked it back a few notches. But the slight dip in scores doesn’t negate the two crucial facts: 1) the Mindbender 99 Ti version 2.0 represents a vast improvement over its original incarnation, and 2) it’s one of the best AMW Finesse skis of its era.
Driving the 2023 Mindbender 99Ti’s ascension to the top rung of the Finesse ladder was a re-design of the ski’s signature feature, Titanal Y-Beam. It’s still shaped like a futuristic slingshot, with the forks of the yoke running up each side of the forebody, a wall-to-wall stretch underfoot and a centered tail section. K2 fiddled with the size and shape of the forward forks so the ski hooks up earlier and with more authority, but it’s the transformation of the Y-Beam’s tail design that contributes the most to the Mindbender 99Ti’s newfound tranquility on edge.
Not many skiers lose sleep thinking about the effects of tail design on turning accuracy, especially in a nation where carving a full turn is a dying art, but the palpable improvement created by a more supportive tail in the Mindbender 99Ti proves that everything that goes into a ski – from tip to tail – affects the total result. The new model earned higher marks in every single criterion, not just turn finish or stability at speed, which one would expect to be enhanced by a beefier tail. On average, its Finesse scores were even higher than its boffo Power scores, indicating that the new Mindbender 99Ti not only has a higher ceiling than any K2 AMW model in recent memory, it also manages to have a lower floor.
“This Mindbender goes for everything and comes up aces,” enthuses Mark Rafferty from Peter Glenn. The 99mm width is great for the rare powder day, but the selective use of Titanal allows it to grip and rip on hard pack. I always felt in total control. Fun in all conditions,” he concludes.
The first Mindbender Ti collection, introduced in the pre-pandemic 19/20 season, adopted the Titanal Y-Beam construction developed for the women’s Mindbender 88 Ti Alliance for the entire Mindbender Ti clan, men’s models included. Last year’s re-design focused on re-shaping the Y-Beam from end to end, adding more metal just behind the forward contact point for more secure turn initiation, running edge-to-edge underfoot and substantially expanding the width of the Ti laminate at the end of the Y-Beam’s “handle,” so the edge won’t wash out under sustained pressure.
In the 2023 men’s (a.k.a. unisex) Mindbender 89Ti, our testers awarded the new model substantially higher scores than its predecessor, boosting it near the top of our Finesse ranks. As more data was collected this past winter, its boffo scores slipped in our standings towards the back of the pack. It’s not unreasonable to conclude that the woman’s model cloned from its bones would suffer the same fate if only more women testers were inclined to try it in the first place.
K2 claims that its changes to the Y-Beam configuration were intended to make the Mindbenders more accessible to lower skill skiers, but the more palpable effect is how the new Titanal Y-Beam appeals to the other end of the skills spectrum.
The K2 Mindbender 89Ti has yoyoed up and down our rankings of the best All-Mountain East skis since its year of introduction in 2019/20, when the Mindbender 90 Ti debuted in last place among our Recommended Finesse models. Its position changed dramatically last year, in large part due to allotting more metal to the tail, creating a solid platform that was notably lacking in the original. The improvement was so striking, most testers lavished praise – and higher scores – on the upgraded design, putting it in sight of the podium in the crowded AME Finesse field.
The Mindbender 89Ti came back to the pack this year, largely due to an infusion of new data. Last season we had to rely on an unusually small sample, but we expected the ski to be important and the verdict was so coherent we let the results stand. The influx of new data from this past season’s testing diluted the degree of euphoria the Mindbender 89Ti initially inspired in a handful of testers, but it nonetheless remains an avatar of how an All-Mountain East Finesse ought to behave.
The dip in scores year to year doesn’t change the fact that the Mindbender 89 Ti represents a major improvement over the MB 90 Ti it replaced. The Titanal Y-Beam that provides the backbone for the 89Ti’s design was 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. As one of our 2023 test crew opined, “Fantastic ski. Lots of power at bottom of the turn. Stable and quick. Bit slow edge to edge but the stiff tail is easy to load.”
You can tell a lot about a ski by its immediate family. Rossi’s Hero Elite Plus Ti is closely related to the Hero Elite LT Ti and ST Ti, both legit non-FIS Race models, even though the Plus Ti’s plus-sized shape (78mm) is many mm’s more ample than the 71mm waist of the LT Ti and 68mm midriff on the SL Ti. The Hero Elite Plus Ti not only uses the same construction as its gate-bashing sibs, its sidecut radius is the same as the ST’s in the167cm size preferred by slalom specialists.
Three years ago, Rossi converted all of the Hero Elite clan to a new damping system, Line Control Technology (LCT). Instead of using horizontal sheets of Titanal, as has been the case for decades among race models, LCT uses a vertical Ti laminate down the center of the ski so the forebody is more resistant to deflection. Torsional rigidity is softened a tad to allow the deep sidecut to engage gradually and progressively as the ski is tipped and pressured. “Stable and forgiving into the turn,” assures Scott Sahr from Aspen Ski and Board, “without compromising edge contact.”
If you don’t know how to engage a ski at the top of the turn, and don’t care to know, you might as well stop reading about the Nordica Dobermann Spitfire 76 RB right now. It has the cleanest, highest, earliest connection to the next turn in a category in which this particular trait is prized. But if you’re still lingering on the downhill edge when you should already be tilting in the other direction, you’ll miss the moment. Don’t worry if you do, for the Spitfire 76 will find the edge as soon as you give it a chance. But part of what makes this review an unblushing rave will pass you by.
If you’re hooked on the G’s generated in a short turn, you’ll feel right at home on this cobra-quick stick. It has the reflexes of a fencer, moving unerringly into the center of the arc where it ignites and, as it says in its name, fires the skier across the fall line. The Dobermann Spitfire 76 RB has all the qualities a strong skier expects in a race ski, just de-tuned a red hair so it’s more fun for freeskiing. Jim Schaffner from Start Haus, a big man with an engrained race technique for which the term “powerful” seems inadequate, wrote of the Spitfire 76, “I felt like I could do anything on this ski. It’s fun, lively, snappy, with a dash of the Dobermann race heritage feel.”
