2021 K2 DISRUPTION MTI SKI REVIEW
Before we get into the article, a quick reminder that you can WIN a pair of these 2021 Disruption MTI skis in our February SkiHappy Photo Contest!
A few weeks ago, we introduced the new 2021 K2 Disruption frontside carving line and four early-release models you can pick up right now. Today, we’re taking a deeper dive into one of those skis, the Disruption MTI. I’m going to go out on a limb here and call the MTI the flagship model of the new line. K2 doesn’t specifically say that anywhere, and all the skis they released in this early batch use the same materials, construction, technology, etc. They’re also all the same price. The MTI, however, is black. It looks pretty darn badass. Not that the others don’t, in fact a lot of people prefer the bright yellow of the 82Ti from my discussions so far, but there’s something about the blacked out graphic that I personally am drawn to. This ski also sits in the “GS” range of turn shapes, which are often the flagship models among carving ski collections.
Anyways, whether it’s the flagship ski or not doesn’t really matter at all. What matters here is this ski’s performance and how K2 has carved out a little niche in the frontside world for their skis to live. We skimmed through the construction of these new skis in our introductory article, but let’s take another look. Remember Titanal Y-Beam in the Mindbender all-mountain series? K2 is using a similar concept here called Titanal I-Beam. An almost-tip-to-tail sheet of metal runs through the center of the ski. Underfoot, it’s the full width of the ski, but in the tips and tails the metal doesn’t extend along the edges. K2 uses what they call Powerwall sidewalls, an extra thick sidewall underfoot that’s milled into the wood core of the ski. I had a chance to see these skis being built at the K2 Development Center and this was one of the most impressive attributes of these skis. It’s a precise, impressive design that’s really cool to see first-hand. Watch the video review that goes along with this article and you can see some of that construction footage. The last piece of innovative technology in these Disruption MTI skis is Dark Matter Damping. Along the edges in the forebody of the ski, outside of the metal, K2 sandwiches a polymeric damper between two layers of high modulus carbon. The goal is to increase edge grip by reducing vibrations in the forebody of the ski. A slow-motion video of a typical carving ski would reveal the way it skips and bounces under load, which picks the edge off the snow, even if just for a millisecond. Dark Matter Damping is designed to drastically reduce that effect.
The shape of the ski is pretty straight-forward, which is kind of nice to see. The 175 cm length (which I’ve grown fond of at 5’10” ~150 lbs) has an 18.1 m turn radius. Obviously not as big as an FIS GS turn shape, but pretty standard for a “consumer” or “beer league” GS ski. There’s no early taper in the sidecut whatsoever. In fact, these Disruption skis have extremely square tips, giving them a very long effective edge. At first glance, they look to have a full camber profile, but when you put the skis together base to base and de-camber them, you’ll see some subtle tip rocker, about 6 inches in length, but only a couple mm in rise.
So how do they perform? How do they feel? In my opinion, the Disruption MTI is the best GS-turn carving ski K2 has ever produced. It’s incredibly smooth, damp, and powerful, yet also feels lighter on your feet than most skis in this category. They are definitely taking out some weight by not using full width sheets of metal, but you still get the smooth feel that metal delivers. Dark Matter Damping might sound gimmicky, but the MTI feels amazing when you’re laying over turns on firm snow. The way the metal is shaped reminds me of some other skis on the market like the Salomon XDR or the even-more-all-mountain Blizzard Rustlers. If you’re looking at the metal laminate in the Disruption and thinking it’s not going to deliver enough power, stability, vibration damping, etc, you’d be wrong. I can understand why you might think that, but they are plenty powerful and that Dark Matter Damping is definitely making up for not having metal along the edges in the forebody of the ski.
As I mentioned, I was very impressed by the construction and design elements that go into the Powerwall sidewall design. I’m just as impressed by the resulting performance. You can really stand on these things in a turn and they have a more confident, stable feel than most carving skis I’ve been on. The Dark Matter Damping and the partial metal laminate is also adding to that feel. Carving skis can often be harsh. You hit an imperfection in the snow the wrong way and get vibrations and shock sent through your body, and probably mess up your turn. That doesn’t seem to happen nearly as often on the MTI, or any of the Disruption skis. They eat up imperfections in the snow and also don’t accentuate mistakes in my skiing, which as a non-World-Cup-average-joe, I appreciate.
During my time with the K2 guys this past summer, we talked a lot about the intention of these skis. K2’s engineer, Jed, talked to me a lot about how he wanted to build some versatility into these skis. Not necessarily versatility in terms of applicable terrain, but rather versatility to make different carving turn shapes. This is a pretty common thing to hear when talking about frontside skis these days, and companies have developed different ways of doing it. The MTI feels like it achieves this through its flex pattern rather than varying sidecuts or any wild designs. I’m not exceptionally heavy, but I found I could flex this ski into shorter turns with more willingness than I find in most consumer race skis.
In our Disruption Introduction article and video, we called these skis “carving skis with attitude,” and I still think that’s a perfect way to think about them. You’re not going to see World Cup winners on K2 Disruptions, you’re not going to see many at your local high school race series either. You are, however, going to see a whole bunch of good skiers ripping turns on groomers next season, I can guarantee that. And maybe, just maybe, it will make carving turns cool again.
