K2 Almanac Snowboard Review

An In Depth Breakdown of the K2 Almanac For Average Riders Review by The Good Ride

• User Reviews
• Product Specs
• Product Images
• Questions?

How The K2 Almanac Was Tested:

I borrowed the K2 Almanac for an extended demo and sent it back.

I compared this against the excavator 150 and 154.

I also compared this against the Stranda Biru, and you can see my comparisons on Patreon for paid members.

Size: 153
Days: 3
Conditions: Varied but mostly good spring groomers.
Riders: James (Size 9, 5’10”, 185-195lbs). I’ve tested and compared 800+ boards and close to 1,000 if you count different versions of the same Model over the years.
Boots: Nitro Team TLS
Insoles: Footprint Kingfoam Orthotic Elite
Bindings: Union Force
Redundancy: Strap-ins in case boots or bindings break.
Jacket: Skyline Fuse 3L Jacket, Skyline Fuse Light 3L Jacket
Pant: Burton AK Gore-Tex Pro 3L Hover Pant, Skyline Faze Pant
Goggle: Smith 4D Mag
Gloves: Burton AK Clutch Mitt, Burton AK Tech Leather Glove, Drop Tahoma Mitt,

James’s Set Up

21″ 21.5” Wide. Stance Angles +18/-3, +18/+3, +18/-9. Close to Freeride and Freestyle Reference.

Similar Boards We Like (but not the same):

Lib Tech Orca, Gnu Gremlin, Salomon Dancehaul, K2 Excavator, Stranda Biru, Telos Backslash,

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Construction / Durability / Weight

I really like the construction of the K2 Almanac: it’s well-built and focuses on dampness rather than being very light, which makes it very fun to ride. (We don’t put in the exact weight because with wood cores, there is no consistency in a board’s weight)

Sizing

The 153 K2 Almanac is perfect for me.

I wouldn’t want to go larger or shorter; I felt between 150 and 154 with the excavator. This felt just right, especially for a short, wide K2 Almanac.

K2 does not address boot sizing, which is not good, and only addresses weight on its site. This is far from ideal, as these boards all come in different widths.

The Good Ride’s Conservative / Safe Boot Size Recommendation

These are sizes that will keep you from booting out (super bad) or being too wide to turn quickly in critical situations. This is a unique board, as it can work as a short/wide for some and as an almost-normal size for riders with bigger feet who aren’t super heavy or tall.

149: 7-9 US
153: 8-10 US
157: 10-12 US
161: 11-13 US

There is often more than one size that will work for your specs and how you like to ride. Size down for more control and size up for more speed/stability/carving power.. If it comes down to boot size or weight, I would ensure it fits your boot first, and then your weight, a close second.

Shape & Setback

You do have a tapered directional shape, with 12mm of taper in the tail versus the nose, which is much less than the 20mm of taper with the excavator.

And this almanack has two reference stances. It has the freestyle reference stance and the freeride reference stance, so not as much setback on board as the excavator.

That’s about 4.625in back from the center board if you want to set it all the way back.

Camber

The K2 Almanac has a mellow camber underfoot, with equal amounts of early rise at the nose and tail.

You have ABS sidewalls that then taper down almost into a sandwich-like construction, and the tip and tail.

Flex Personality

The Almanac flex is for sure on the medium side. A little stiffer in the tail and maybe a touch softer in the nose, but not super soft in comparison to the overall flex.

And as you can see, it’s got some energy, but not as much as their higher-end construction on the K2 Almanac.

On Snow Feel

Now let’s talk about how this shape, construction, camber, profile, side cut, etc., all work together to give you the on-snow feel it has.

You have a pretty stable, forgiving ride that I think could work for intermediates all the way up to experts, maybe even a committed beginner who wants to get a little weird and try a short wide to start out could go for it too.

It’s very stable, one-footing off a chairlift, and flat basing in all conditions you want to ride; it doesn’t feel too sketchy.

It’s pretty easy to skid a turn, and this grip holds pretty well in borderline hard snow on the K2 Almanac.

Edge Hold

But when it really gets firm to icy, you’re really going to have to dial back your turns.

And there are better boards for that out there.

Uneven Snow

But when it comes to hard, uneven snow all the way up to soft, messy, uneven snow, this does an excellent job.

It is a very damp all-day ride. It’s never going to cause problems.

And it’s one of the best short wides I’ve ever tried in all conditions on the K2 Almanac.

Turning / Speed / Carving

For a board that’s 27cm over the front foot and 27 five over the back for size nines, this initiated a turn pretty quickly.

It’s not the fastest of fast, but when I got this deeper side cut engaged, the turn was really fun. It really likes more across the groomer to circle carve.

But it’s fine with medium-radius turns, and then can graduate into down-the-line turns pretty well.

And this is damp enough to point it. You can go pretty fast with this if you want a straight line here and there, and if you want to carve, this drives out of a turn really well.

It’s not the popiest and springiest. I did enjoy the Excavator’s construction and flex personality out of a turn more than this, but it’s very good.

And I could weight my turns any way I pleased, where the excavator seemed to favor a little more back foot weighted turns in comparison to this K2 Almanac.

Base Glide

And this is a centered 4000 base that holds its wax very well.

But it isn’t that fast. It’s definitely medium tier for sure. But at least you don’t have to wax it all the time.

And it doesn’t have those low lows. It just never really has those high highs in comparison to a lot of other nicer high-end basses.

But it’s not bad for the K2 Almanac’s price point.

Switch

And what’s really fun is you can throw this thing around, switch, and ride it really well either direction.

It’s not perfect, but it’s very good for a short, wide, and it just reminds me of a much damper but less poppy Solomon Dance Hall.

That board could do the same thing, too, just like the K2 Almanac.

Buttering & Ollies

And when it comes to buttering around, I felt it was easy, but not super easy to butter in the nose and tail.

Doable for most, for sure.

And the Ollie power was good, but not amazing. That’s one place where I didn’t enjoy this as much on the K2 Almanac.

Jumps / Pipe / Jibs

This is a little heavier than the excavator and the dance hall.

Those popped a little more easily, but this tracks super well into side hits and jumps as well.

If the side hit is small and tricky to get into, this wider platform isn’t the best, but for every other kind of jump, even into big kickers, this will handle no problem.

This isn’t a bad pipe board, but not the best jib board. Because of this, a somewhat medium to medium-stiff flex, but advanced to expert jibbers could handle it.

Powder

I didn’t get this in powder, but being the kind of rider that I am, who likes a setback directional ride in powder, I like to get a little bit surfy.

I’m going to like the excavator better there. That’s just going to make directional float easier, but this isn’t going to be bad at all on the K2 Almanac.

I think a lot of people will have a lot of fun with this, either taking it centered and occasionally riding switch and powder.

They’ll really like that, but if you want to set it back and get a little bit more directional float, then most all-mountain boards out there will be on par with a lot of freeride boards. I think this will do a good job.

It wouldn’t be my first choice for low-angle powder, but medium-to-steep-angle powder would be a lot of fun on this.

Final Thoughts

And overall, I really enjoyed this K2 Almanac.

I would love to see what it would be like if they did the same kind of construction and top sheet they do with the excavator. That would just make this board incredible.

But as it stands now, it is incredibly damp, and it is an amazing all-day ride.

So if you like the dance hall but want something more damp and better all day, this could be a really fun choice. So there you have it.