Given its tapered tip and tail, the Kore 99 probably doesn’t care much about rocketing around on hardpack, but it has the good manners not to show it. Proof that it can handle the rigors of hard snow comes with the application of speed in increasingly heavy doses. (Note the nearly 9.0 average score for stability.) But the Kore 99’s proficiency on crispy corduroy is hardly the point; this ski was built for powder and its evil twin, crud. Not only is the Kore 99 palpably lighter than the norm, which reduces the power drain on the pilot, but its fairly straight midsection allows it to pivot more or less at will. This allows for the minor course corrections that are the difference between finding the freshies between the tracks and missing them. In a genre already well stocked with fall-line chargers, the Kore 99 provides an alternative snow feel.
The core that the Kore name is meant to call attention to is made from Koroyd, a synthetic honeycomb, and Karuba, a bantamweight wood often found in AT skis. Graphene is used in the tip and tail, making the extremities not only lighter, but inherently stronger and stiffer. This allows the center of the Kore 105 to bow more easily, a benefit when skiing on a surface that gives way when you press against it. You expect the Kore 105 to be light. But you don’t expect it be this strong. It smoothes out chunder that would treat most non-metal skis like a rented mule. Its relatively straight-waisted mid-body facilitates foot swiveling, a godsend in the trees where there’s neither time nor space to execute a carved turn. Its tapered tip isn’t itching to carve, either, but it can bank into a wind berm with the cornering confidence of a bobsled.
Head was the first major brand to jump on board the carving revolution, and it continues to invest a little more shape than the norm in every recreational ski it makes. The Super Joy is the top pure carver in Head’s Joy collection of women’s skis, with a tidy 12.5m sidecut radius that could make slalom turns in its sleep. Unlike the top carvers in the men’s Frontside fold, the Super Joy is almost insanely light. It can weigh almost nothing and still earn better Power scores than most skis in the genre because of its unique carbon, Koroyd and Graphene composition. Three hundred times stronger than steel for its weight, Graphene can be tactically deployed along the ski’s length to modify flex and rigidity, creating all the support lightweight skiers need.
