Curated Expert Thomas Harari got his hands on the Black Crows Camox Freebird skis and put them to the test at Powder Mountain in Utah this spring. Check out how they performed in the carving, touring, and freeride categories. But don’t forget, every skier is unique; if you have any questions about the Black Crows Camox Freebird or would like recommendations on what skis would be ideal for your needs, reach out to a Ski Expert here on Curated.

Before we jump in, a quick note that Curated Experts are not sponsored by any brands, all of these reviews are completely unbiased.

Brand Claims

What does Black Crows claim about these skis? This is Black Crows’ lightweight touring ski that’s under 1400 grams. This is a ski that you're going to take only for touring. It’s not great at the resort, even though that's what I did a little bit of today, but it's going to be a ski that flies uphill and skis down pretty well, also.

Overall Impressions

What's your overall impression of these skis? To simulate real touring conditions, I skied these with my touring boots, with a marker alpinist tech bind, and only slightly on groomers. But realistically, you're not going touring to ski groomers. So I tried to ski off piste as much as possible.

For the weight, these skis are awesome. As you get into the chunder and chunky stuff that was kind of underneath, that was refrozen from last night, it's not going to be fantastic, but that's kind of what you're trading off with the weight drop. The lighter you go, the less powerful it's going to be. But for what these are, they are going to go uphill fantastic. They're going to be something you can tour on all day long. And if the ultimate goal of touring is to ski smooth turns and smooth snow on the way down, then the lack of power of these skis is really not going to hold you back.

Touring

Is this exclusively a touring ski? This ski is definitely best as a 100% touring ski. Or, if someone used it for 80% touring, 20% resort, I think they could make it work. But there are way better skis out there if you want to do a 50/50 touring-resort ski. This is a ski that, honestly, if you were to ski it hard in the resort and ski bumps and jumps, you could break it pretty easily if you had a big crash.

How does the topsheet perform? The top sheet does a really good job of shedding snow. Just by looking at my partner’s skis after the exact same run as I did, he had a lot more snow on his top sheets. This doesn't really matter if you're skiing on a chairlift. But if you are touring in the backcountry, who cares if your ski is light, if you're dragging around a couple pounds of snow as well.

Carving

How do they turn? These are super light and super easy to turn, that's what they're all about. They’re great for making smooth turns in the trees and the open powder and really savoring every little bit of soft snow you get rather than really just pushing through hard.

How are they in terms of speed? Since these are so light, they're not a great top-end speed ski. You're hopefully not skiing any sort of firm snow on them, but you're not going to carve groomers, and you're not going to go super fast.

Freeride

How are these skis in powder? They're going to float reasonably well in powder for a ski this size. These are going to be a pretty standard all-mountain touring ski that you can ski on the firmer days.

Any terrain skiers should avoid with these? Definitely don't take this to the park. I think you could take it to the resort once or twice, but I would not recommend this as a resort ski. I see a lot of customers that are looking to get this ski because they see how light it is. But light is bad off of a chairlift. The lighter the ski is, the more chattery it is, and the more rattle it gets on the icy, crusty snow. Again, stay away from this ski for skiing at the resort.

Recommendations

Who would you recommend this ski to? I would highly recommend this ski as a 100% touring ski, and I’d advise you only tour on this with a light tech binding. Anyone who's looking to tour can do great with this.

Who should avoid these skis? If you're looking to jump off a bunch of cliffs and ski super hard in the backcountry, I would go with something a little bit burlier. And, this ski is not for anyone that's skiing off a chairlift, anywhere.

Skis work differently for different types of skiers. If you want help finding the right skis for you, reach out to Thomas or any other Ski Expert here on Curated for free, personalized recommendations on the best setup for you.