For 2026/2027, K2 relaunches their Mindbender collection. The Mindbender series has been around for several years now as their hallmark freeride ski series, with sizes ranging from low 90s all the way up to powder skis. They’re usually characterized with a slightly directional shape to give you good bang for the buck on precision on firm snow while still being fun, playful, and dynamic in soft snow.
The new skis don’t differ much in their goal of being a versatile all-mountain freeride collection, but they do differ in construction significantly. Here’s where the Dark Matter comes into play. You’ll notice looking at the skis right away there’s a small bumper or weight on either ski edge in both the tip and tail. Those little bumpers are “stainless steel powder injected TPU” weights. That’s right, just what it sounds like. Weights on the skis to help keep the skis planted, while lightening up the rest of the core.
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Video Summary
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Alex from Powder Seven reviews the new K2 Mindbender series, highlighting the innovative \"Dark Matter\" technology. This updated all-mountain freeride line focuses on versatility and weight reduction, utilizing strategic weighting to balance a flickable feel with stability in variable snow conditions.
What's up, everybody?
It's Alex from Powder Seven.
We're up here at Loveland on a beautiful day,
skiing some 2026, 2027 gear.
And you may have heard about a little thing
called Dark Matter.
This is the new tech from K2
that they're putting on their revamped Mindbender series.
As a refresher, K2 Mindbender series
are kind of like all-mountain freeride complement
to the really freestyle-inspired Reckoner series.
So these are a little bit more versatile,
running in side-waist widths from like mid-80s
up to now 111 with the new Mindbender 111.
I just got off the new Mindbender 96,
and it's pretty sweet.
They're doing some pretty big,
cool new stuff with these skis.
You can see, I've been calling them bumpers.
Basically, there's these little weights
on the edges of the ski,
both on the tip and the tail.
These are essentially just little TPU rubber
kind of weights on the ski
that are injected with a stainless steel powder
to kind of give it some rigidity.
And these allow them to lighten up the rest of the ski.
So it still has the carbon spectral braid,
still has heat and all in it,
but they've lightened the ski up by about 10%.
So what you really feel that in the tip and the tail,
they feel very easy to swivel and slash, very flickable.
But when you're on some hard snow
or you're just laying down a hard carve
or pushing through some crud,
you have some support where you need it in the ski
to have that confidence-inspiring feel.
Aspen and Polonia core,
so again, a pretty light wood core in here.
And then the shape's really interesting.
You get this cool, pretty deep rocker,
but it's very low slung.
And you can see that in the tip as well,
splayed just out here,
and then it gets really low slung,
but your contact point is in here.
One cool thing about the 96 and the 88,
compared to the 101 and 111,
these little bumpers are in different positions on the ski,
kind of optimizing it for the snow conditions
you're skiing.
Just got off the 101 as well.
Those are moved back a little bit
to make the ski feel a little bit more playful
and have it really come alive in soft snow,
whereas this is moved out
to give you a little bit more power
for more variable snow in that 96 waist width.
But I really loved this.
It was really fun in some soft chop.
It was more composed than I expected.
Doesn't have that feel of a hard, charging metal ski
where you're going to plow through everything.
Ski's really fun with a dynamic ski style,
but it's pretty accepting of like,
if you want to lean in and press those shovels
and ski fall line, it can do that too.
So pretty cool new ski from mine, from K2.
And we're super strict to spend more time on them,
especially as we can find some more soft snow
during this low tide season.
But in the meantime, happy turns and have fun skiing.
