[The test results for the Pinnacle 118 are from 2016; its only changes for 2017 are cosmetic.]

If memory serves, Seth Morrison was the first freeride athlete to have a signature model. He’s been flying the K2 flag for over two decades, often upside down into a crevice of powder surrounded by a rock garden. After a jaw-dropping aerial entry, Seth doesn’t clear out the bottom of couloirs with a sideways smudge but skis a clean line using classic technique.

Just as Morrison is a remarkable hybrid of Old School skills and New School bravura, his ski, the Pinnacle 118, is responsive to conventional, directional ski technique despite an amply rockered baseline. There’s no need to adapt your style to fit the ski or the situation; just aim at the deepest pile of snow you can find and go get it.

The Pinnacle 118’s powder properties are impeccable, setting up a rhythmic pulse that takes full advantage of the skis’ surfy surface area. But buoyancy is expected of a big board like the Pinnacle 118; what’s unusual is how well its Konic construction grips on hard snow.

Almost all Powder skis are made to swim sideways and the only way to calm them down is to find a lot of loose snow they can bank into. But the Pinnacle 118 doesn’t need more than a few millimeters of snow to set its edges in, so it handles the run-outs, roads and transitions that fill the spaces between powder plunges.