There's always excitement when a ski manufacturer launches a completely new line and Head created a bit of a stir at pre-season expos when it rolled out its Kore freeride range.
Everything about the skis are designed to keep weight down without compromising performance, and that is immediately noticeable in the lack of a traditional topsheet.
Instead there's a brushed polyester dappled-grey top layer that seems to be the ski equivalent of bubble-wrap, as it's hard to resist running your fingers up and down and squeezing the indentations.
Underneath there is a karuba woodcore and koroyd honeycomb layer, tucked between a graphene fused tip and tail.
Up on the slopes and away from the groomers the Kore 105s perform brilliantly: they're fun, playful, stable, float like a dream and are easy on the legs.
They won't be for everyone, though, as the 105s are never going to provide the same rock-solid certainty of hard-charging freeride skis sporting double titanal layers.
But while you can expect the odd bumpy moment in chopped up crud, especially if you're a lighter skier, the Kores will flick their way up, down, over and around pretty much anything you encounter on the backside.
Head is marketing the Kores with bindings included, which is unusual for freeride skis and great for people who just want to get hold of a pair and get busy.
But at less than 1900g per ski the 105s - and the 93 and 117 models - are genuine touring options, which would involve a bit of unnecessary hole-filling, drilling and added expense of new bindings to get the Kores up to touring spec.
