2008/2009 189 K2 HELLBENT REVIEW

[bridge]

I've put about 20+ days this season on my hellbents, been debating on doing a review for a while, finally decided why not? All of my skiing was at snowbird

Me:
6'3ish
190
Third year skiing after 5 years of snowboarding, have skied 50+ days a year since starting
Skies mounted at +6 for a 327 bsl
Other skies I've skied: 169 Fujatives, 189 Obsethed, 191 Armada Ants

First Impressions: I was waiting for snowbird to get a good base before taking these out, but in late December I got restless and took them out two days in a row of 4 inches of skied out pow. I didn't like these at first. Coming off my Ants these seemed really soft, I thought the tips got bounced around a lot, I couldnt just point em through variable conditions like I could with my Ants. For some reason I kept trying to lean back, and ski them differently for some reason, I just wasn't happy with em. But my opinion soon changed.

Powder: My first real pow day on these was is about 15inches of blower. I was skiing mainly road to provo, rasta chutes, then mineral basin/bookends. I waited for the road to provo rope to drop, booked it to the rasta chutes and straight lined it, at first I was skiing centered, then decided to try to sink the tips, leaned forward, tips didn't sink, tried to drive them into a nice long turn, felt like I was on rails, no tip dive. When it started to flatten out, I started leaning back out of habit, then decided to lean forward, NO TIP DIVE. In fact the only place I have issue with tip dive is in 18 plus inches, going slow on flat areas and uphills. but as long as you have any speed at all, you will be fine. As the season progressed I started skiing a lot of tree's, tight chutes, and other not so easy terrain, the massive tail rocker made these babies so easy to swing around, especially for a ski that measures 194 cm. You can really make these skis do whatever you want in powder, long, medium, short turns. You can carve them, slarve them, and drive the tips without tip dive.

Hardpack: I didn't expect these to be worth a damn on hardpack due to the fact that there is hardly any running lenght to these, but the edge grip is amazing, they bight into ice better than my obsethed or Ants do. As long as you keep them on edge they can nice turns, but if you lay them flat at higher speed, (think bottom of big emma where it flattens out), the tip and especially the tail will flop... hard, which doesnt really bother me except when I have been skiing pow all day, my legs feel like jello, and I have to catch the bus. But they are a pow ski, so I am fine with it.

Tracked out pow/crud: As I mentioned earlier, I didnt like these in these conditions at first, but the more I skied these skis in pow, the more I like them everywhere else. I got used to the softness of them and starting using in to my advantage, these don't really like to blow through crud/chopped like my Ants, but rather like to bounce over it, which sound bad, but again, after you get used to it, it is a blast. You can turn a tracked out bowl into a mini terrain park. I now feel very comfortable boming through any conditions with these. However, I still bring my Ants out when it hasn't in a 5 days or so.

Airs/drops: Fun. Everybody complains about the tails washing out, which they can if you land too far back, but the flex is so forgiving that no matter how you land you dont get any recoil, in other words you can ski a little sloppy and get away with it, flat landings dont suck as much anymore. Keep in mind I haven't done anything over 20 feet. One place these really shine is rollers, small drops, multiple drops in a row. On powder days after everything is tracked out up top, I'll take tiger tail down to Baby Thunders and ski under the lift for a few runs. I can straight line the whole thing, hit every little roller, go through tight trees, only spend half the time actually on the ground with confidence, the word Jibby comes to mind.

Durability: Topsheet do kind of peel, but not as bad as my obsethed for some reason??? bases are insanely strong, I have hit a lot of rocks and usually cant even find the scratch.

Overall: I love these skies. If I only had one ski for Utah, this would be it (although I am thankful that I can still have my ANTs, because I love them) It takes a little getting used to, and if you only like stiff skies that cut through snow rather than float over it, look elsewhere. The hellbents are a soft, fun, jibby ski that can float in anything, and are very manuverable for there size.

[BBskier]

Good review. Skied my friends 189s last year and they are definitely a sweet ski. They killed it in the choppy powder that day despite I was using boots that were slightly to big for me. Soft ski, although felt relatively stiff after coming from my EPs.

[Bird Blaster]

Glad to see others love their Hell Bents too. I think they are an awesome ski and use them ALL over the place in lots of conditions.

[seanpistol]

Sounds like you finally discovered the best skis ever made in the best size ever made.

[seanpistol]

Wait till you ski next years.....

[skew]

What is different with next year's except for the psycho clown graphics?

[seanpistol]

132 underfoot, a little stiffer, almost 0 tip and tail flop. True to size as well. A 179 is actually a 179 instead of a 185.

[DHogg]

I've had mixed feeling about mine. Some days i absolutely love them. Funnest ski ever in soft, deep snow. Being able to drive a ski in pow is kinda unique and makes everything more fun. I can definitely say the most enjoyable days i've had on skis in my life have been on Hellbents. I guess i'd kind of like something inbetween the 179(185) and 189(195). Although the 189 is awesome for just skiing around, there are times when i'm doing some more jibby stuff when i find the 189 was a tad too big. Thats a long ski to be spinning and going upside down on. Also how soft they are, while great in untracked, can get knocked around a bit.

Sounds like most of this stuff is going to be a non issue with the new version so props to K2 for the changes.

[bridge]

I didnt know they made em stiffer next year too. Might have to find a reason to buy some at the end of next season, finding a way to keep the float, versitility, and playfulness while getting rid of the tip flop would make this ski invinsible.