K2 Mindbender 116C

“I kinda disagree with this comment actually - I think that the process described here is just the natural progression of skiing. Demos only tell you so much about a ski, especially when you are new to skiing. And, demoing skis is time consuming and sometimes hard to orchestrate. Obviously, if she's able to easily demo something she may want, then cool, go for it. But it's natural to just take a leap of faith on your setup and then learn your preferences as you progress and get used to it. I would say this - buy something you can afford that she thinks looks cool and seems to be a reasonably good fit purpose-wise. I'm sure some commenters will thumb their nose at this. Looking at K2 women's skis and reading what you wrote, maybe like the Mindbender 99 in one of the shorter widths would be a versatile ski that'd be good on groomers and give her some room to grow on other parts of the mountain if and when she wants to branch out. Plus, purple!”