The Playful Women’s Ski You’ll Want This Season: K2 Reckoner 110W

K2 Reckoner 110 W Specs

• Size skied: 170cm
• Lengths available: 156cm, 163cm, 170cm, 177cm
• Sidecut: 138mm - 110mm - 135mm
• Radius: 18m (170cm)
• Profile: Twin rocker
• Weight: 1880g (170cm)

Shape, Flex and Construction

The Reckoner 110 W is designed to be an everyday powder ski with a freestyle-inspired shape. A waist width of 110mm underfoot means the Reckoner 110 W falls in the category of soft snow or powder ski, but isn’t so wide that it can’t carve or hold an edge. A gradual, extended rise in the tip and tail and fairly significant sidecut means this twin-tip ski is made to keep you afloat in deep snow whether you’re skiing forwards or backwards, and support all your pow-day jibs. 

The Reckoner 110 W has a full aspen core, making it one of the more lightweight fat skis out there and providing more flex, durability, and snap than other woods might. Now here’s a mouthful: K2 combines their Carbon Boost Braid technology with their Spectral Braid design and Triaxial Braided core to stabilize and dampen the ski while providing torsional flexion. 

What does that actually mean? The Triaxial Braided Core interlocks strands of fiberglass around the milled wood core, which allows for reinforcement of the aspen’s natural flex pattern. Longitudinal carbon stringers are then woven into the Triaxial Braid to add pop and rebound. To top it off, K2 has added their patented Spectral Braid technology which uses carbon fiber woven together in a variable diamond grid pattern throughout the ski. The braided carbon is tighter in the middle of the ski, making it more stable and stiff underfoot. The tips and tail of the skis have a looser carbon weave, making them softer and more flexible.

The Reckoner 110 W also uses a bio-resin binding agent which makes them more lightweight, eco-friendly, and consistently flexible across a wider range of temperatures.

On-Snow Performance

The Reckoner 110 W is made to be playful in soft snow and float in powder and it does just that. I skied the Reckoner 110 W between refreshes at Sunshine Village this April and found it to be just what I expected in the best way. I tried the ski in a 170cm length, which is towards the smaller end of what I normally ski, but it didn’t feel too small. They were easy to turn, predictable, had a pretty intuitive feel, and were just plain old fun.

The Reckoner 110 W’s wood and carbon construction made it an easy ski to throw around and they were plenty playful and poppy. The softer bits of ski in the tip and tail also gave it a smeary, buttery feel without being dead or overly soft. “It was really easy to do tail presses or butters and was a super playful but also responsive ski,” said another tester of the Reckoner 110 W during our gear week. 

I definitely sought out softer snow to ski the Reckoner 110 W on, in anticipation that they’d perform best in powder, but given we were between storms, I also skied some groomers and more variable snow on them. Despite being a wide, light ski, they actually held an edge pretty darn well on groomers and I never felt like I was going to wash out or couldn’t make a turn on hardpack. Other testers also agreed with this saying that “they were soft and playful jibbing around, but still managed to hold an edge on groomers.” 

The one spot where I found that the Reckoner 110 W had trouble was in more chunky, variable snow. The soft construction and jibby feel meant they didn’t ski super predictably when hitting weird or chunky snow at high speeds. That being said, a ski that’s both stable in all the chunks and fun is a tough thing to find so it doesn’t really count against the Reckoner 110 W in my mind. 

Comparisons

Put up against the RMU Valhalla 107, the K2 Reckoner 110 W was both a bit softer and a bit heavier, but I found them to be more predictable and playful. Where the Valhallas felt a bit too damp to me, but not stable enough to be put up against a stiffer, metal ski, the Reckoner 110 W maintains its composure on hardpack and comes alive in soft snow. The Reckoners are also a bit wider and would be better suited as a mid-width versatile powder ski than as an everyday ski.

On the other end of the spectrum, when put against a ski like the Blizzard Sheeva 11, the Reckoner 110 W is a much more playful ski. Both of these skis float plenty well in soft snow and the Sheeva’s fiberglass center plate makes it softer than other Blizzard skis. But the Reckoner’s twin tip shape and flexible carbon stringers allow it to be much more buttery and freestyle-friendly, with many testers even loving it in the park. On the other hand, a ski like the Sheeva might perform better as a one-ski quiver due to its outstanding performance in variable snow and ability to really lay down an edge on hardpack. 

What type of skier is the K2 Reckoner 110 W best for? 

We’ve all seen those people who use the mountain like a playground–every little piece of terrain is an opportunity to butter, jib, or surf around the snow. That’s who the Reckoner 110 W is for. For skiers who want a ski they can throw around all day long, whether it’s in the park or skiing bigger lines in pow, and have the most fun doing it. Predictable, light, and endlessly playful, if you can find the full potential of this ski, you’ll never stop having fun on it.