Black Crows Camox Birdie 2026/2027

The Camox Birdie is the women's build of the Camox, the all-terrain platform Black Crows has taken into a fourth generation. At the lengths the two share, the published specs are identical — Birdie here means the short-length run of the platform, with its own colorway. The build is semi-cap, ABS sidewalls running the full perimeter, over a poplar core that carries a pocket of ash reinforcement; no metal laminate appears in the official materials. Gen 4 shortened the radius to a printed 18 m at each length, evened out the flex and made the pivot more responsive.

On snow, the fourth-generation Camox Birdie tested as a pivot-first ski that has grown calmer. Independent testers — three women, on the current ski — scored stability 9/10 and called it fun to go fast through steep crud. Playfulness scored 10/10, with heavy slush singled out as its element. One tester turned in the same 8/10 in category after category, which is about as clear a picture of a daily driver as a scorecard can draw.

The Camox Birdie's limits are just as well documented. It does not encourage wide carving turns, and the testers split on the edge: one scored grip 9/10 and praised the hold, another found it unresponsive when pushed into hard carving. Read that split plainly — it grips well for a playful 97 mm ski, and it does not carve like a frontside ski; the piste-oriented Serpo exists for the skier who wants that. Gen 4 also traded some of the old freestyle bounce for its composure — one tester said it lacks pop — and at 1,550-1,900 g per ski it is mid-weight resort mass; one tester called it heavier than she would have liked. That mass is part of why it stays quiet in crud, and anyone planning real touring should look at the Camox Freebird instead.

In deep snow the Camox Birdie reaches its ceiling: flotation scored 6/10 — enough for slush and fresh resort snow, out of its depth on true storm days, which is the 105 mm Atris Birdie's job ($929). Skiers who equate ice-day security with metal should also look elsewhere; a metal-laminate ski in the Nordica Santa Ana 98 class is more damped and more locked down, where the Camox Birdie's whole argument is maneuverability. It comes in four lengths from 156.1 to 175.2 cm — the two shortest exist only in the Birdie — at $849, sold flat: the binding is a separate purchase, and we mount and adjust it in the shop. Skiers earlier in their progression have an in-line route too — Black Crows positions the narrower Captis Birdie ($669) as the accessible women's entry below it. For a woman who steers her skis actively and wants one of them to handle the whole mountain, this is the Black Crows to start with.