Heritage Lab Announces New HB122

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Today Heritage Lab Skis is officially announcing their latest ski, the HB122. If you’re plugged into certain, meme-centric corners of the internet, you may have caught wind of this earlier this year, but for the rest of the world, here’s the lowdown on this new (old) pow ski.

To be very clear, here at POWDER, we’re not in the habit of covering every new ski launch as “news” especially when we’re still locked into the malaise of summer, and haven’t even gotten a chance to ride the new skis. But these are sort of special, sort of sentimental, and really different, so we couldn’t say no.

Who is Heritage Lab, and why are they making a Hellbent?

Heritage Lab was founded last year by industry vet Marshal Olson. Their tagline is “Bringing Back the Best” in reference to the fact that they’re making modern versions of classic, high-performance skis that were discontinued prematurely. It doesn’t take too much detective work to figure out where each of their models draws inspiration from, and Marshal is very upfront about the skis he’s loved, and the attributes of each that motivated him to resurrect them. In this case, it’s an ultra-classic, the K2 Hellbent.

The Inspiration

Skiers of a certain age (my age, approximately 30, apparently) hold a soft spot in our hearts for the K2 Hellbent. The Hellbent was K2’s playful powder ski from 2008-2013. After 2013 it became the Powabunga, shed its classic topsheet graphics in favor of flat black or green, and became a specialty ski for heli and cat ski ops. But for six perfect product runs, the Hellbent defined the genre of silly fat goofy pow skis.

Ryan Schmies drew the graphics for each iteration - for a deeper dive into one of my favorite ski artists of all time, check out this piece.

The Hellbent features heavily in IDEA (if you haven’t watched this ski movie, you need to, now), as well as several iconic Sean Petite parts in MSP movies. For the true nerds, there’s also the legendary 2008ish X-Games performance, where Andy Mahre and Pep Fujas lofted floaty zero spins and shifties on Hellbents on the slopestyle course. If anyone has the footage, post it up!

The Hellbent was really rockered, really wide (122 mm underfoot initially, before bumping up to 132), really soft, and really silly. It developed a cult following, in part thanks to how “different” it felt in all conditions, not just powder. It didn’t perform like a traditionally versatile all mountain ski, but it was an absolute hoot, even on days with nary a patch of fresh snow to be found. Something about its absurdly short effective edge, huge, soft tips, and centered stance made jibbing and bopping your way around the hill really fun.

K2 discontinued the Hellbent after 2013, and those of us who really loved that ski were left hoarding our pairs, and scouring ebay for more. Luckily, in collaboration with the Instagram account @back2hellbent, Heritage Labs is bringing back the ‘bent (not to be confused with Atomic’s Bentchetlers).

The Ski

When K2 discontinued the Hellbent, while I was heartbroken, I also understood why. It’s not a practical or mass-market-friendly ski. It’s not a ski that needs to be sold in REI. Which makes it a perfect fit for Heritage Labs.

The HB122 matches the original (2008-2010) Hellbent shape, with a 122 mm waist, full, symmetrical rocker, relatively heavy weight, and soft flex. In 2008 tip and tail taper wasn’t really a thing, so it isn’t really a thing on these either.

Just like the original, the HB122 is available in two lengths, 179 and 189 cm. And just like the original, the skis measure 4.4 cm longer than their stated lengths. So a 179 cm Hellbent is pretty similar to a 184 cm ski from most brands—not that most brands make a ski this rockered. Heritage Labs has a recommended mount line for the HB122, but let’s be honest, if you buy this ski, you should mount it at center, ditch your poles, and track down a Helly Hansen survival suit.

The HB122 is currently on presale here for (appropriately) $666.

It is interesting to note that photos of rumored K2 prototype skis, with a similar rocker profile to the Hellbent, have been floating around recently. Will we see a resurgence in big, silly, fun powder skis?

The Graphics

For a lot of us, Ryan Schmies defined the Hellbent. His dark, twisted graphics were a perfect compliment to its massive canvas. The 2009-10 version even had glow-in-the-dark skulls. A friend of mine purchased a pair of that version off Craigslist and hid them under his bed because he wasn’t supposed to be spending his money on ski gear. His mom found them, glowing there, and made him spray paint over the topsheets because she was uncomfortable with their demonic imagery.

Hearing that story on the chairlift, as my friend clicked his black spray painted edges together, completely sold me on the Hellbent. Every model’s graphic brings a slightly different flavor of awesome to the table. In a perfect world, I’d have life-sized prints of the original lineup framed in my office.

For the HB122, back2hellbent ran a design contest, which Mitch Sander won. His graphic pays a nice tribute to the black, gray, and red of the classic topsheets.

My Time on Hellbents

In 2013, I bought a pair of 2011 Hellbents off the internet. I was young, had been skiing for just a few years, and wanted a real pow ski. I ended up using those 179 cm Hellbents for just about everything, from deep pow to big park jumps, for a couple of winters. They were so silly, and so fun.

When you stand centered on the ski, it’s very easy to pivot and slash, and when you lay it on edge, the soft flex and lack of camber make for a really unique “carving” sensation. There’s a lot of tip and tail flap when you get to speed on firm snow, which honestly makes park laps that much more entertaining. And yes, I and a lot of other folks skied plenty of park on the Hellbent. It felt, in a lot of ways, like riding a bike without training wheels; because it was so soft, it had a pretty small sweet spot for taking off and landing without washing out.

But, once you found that sweet spot, it was so much fun to loft into big, lazy spins, pressing off lips and through landings. Those wide, soft tips and tails meant you could just lean on them wheeling through slush.

In a lot of ways, the Hellbent was the antithesis of modern pow skis. Nowdays, I’m checking the snow report and the webcam, trying to figure out if it’s worth bringing the fatties up to the hill. But, when I skied Hellbents, I ignored the weather, and just had to decide if it was a Hellbent day or not. It doesn’t matter the conditions - if you want to have a Hellbent day, skiing switch, pressing every little feature, and throwing 180’s, grab your Hellbents. If you want to ski directionally, and carve and do the things people do on their once-yearly ski vacations, it’s not the right day for Hellbents.

For Now

I’ve kept an eye on Heritage Lab since their inception. Sometimes in our race for “progress” and “innovation” it feels like the difference between new skis is shrinking. Everyone is trying to make the same flavor of “good” skis. That’s why Heritage Lab exists, to bring back the skis that stood apart, that made a lot of sense for specific groups of skiers, but were lacking in mass market appeal.

Up until this point, few of the skis Heritage Lab was making really spoke to me. The most-mourned skis of yesteryear are mostly big mean skis, for folks who ski more directionally than I do, and complain about taper and the “dumbing down” of modern skis, while messaging me their angry thoughts about BOA boots. And that’s fine, I was happy Heritage Lab was making skis for those people.

But, with the HB122, Heritage Lab has come out with a ski that resonates deeply with a special time in my life, and in skiing, when my knees were fresh, style was everything, and the mountains were a canvas primed with infinite possibilities. It’s exciting to see that dream return in the HB122.