Black Crows' Camox Freebird is the ski for tourers who want their backcountry quiver to be one pair: 97 mm underfoot, 1,300 to 1,400 g per ski in the stocked lengths, and a design brief that treats the climb and the run back down as equal jobs. For 26/27 it enters its fifth generation, and the change list is structural - refined tip, wider platform, new sidecut, roughly a tenth off the claimed weight, and an updated climbing-skin system. Black Crows' own line on the sidecut is that it makes the ski more dynamic through weight transfers and more stable on edge.

Mechanically, the Camox Freebird is its own touring build, not a lightened resort Camox. Semi-cap construction puts cap molding in the tip and tail for lightness with ABS sidewalls underfoot; the core is paulownia and poplar, reinforced with fiberglass plus carbon tape. That yields 1,300 g at 167.1 cm, 1,375 g at 173.1 and 1,400 g at 179.2, per ski. The official sheet is also notable for its silences: flex is described in words rather than a number, no base material is named, and no rocker or camber figures are published - one retail listing describes front rocker, camber underfoot and an early-rise tail, and a touring magazine lists it as double rocker, but for 26/27 that profile rests on those third-party sources, not on Black Crows.

How the fifth generation actually skis, we could not find openly published as of July 2026 - the one magazine test we located sits behind a paywall. What exists is prior-generation evidence, and we label it as such: in one independent test, the earlier Camox Freebird came through as a damp, forgiving all-arounder whose stability at speed sat mid-pack, and breakable crust asked for precise technique. That character is consistent with the official playfulness-first framing, but a redesigned, lighter ski has not yet proven it keeps the same manners. If you need test-confirmed behavior before spending $949, the honest advice is to wait for the 26/27 reviews to land.

Inside the Freebird range, the Camox is the middle of the width ladder. The Navis Freebird (104 mm, $999) is officially the descent spearhead, with the Draco Freebird (110-112 mm, $1,199) above it; the Orb (91 mm, $899) is the step below in width, and the Ova (85 mm, $849) and Mentis (80 mm, $1,049) are the narrower, lighter uphill-first choices. The resort door is the standard Camox at $849: same waist, heavier all-terrain build, $100 less.

The size run is 155.2, 161.1, 167.1, 173.1, 179.2 and 185.5 cm, with the radius printed at 18 m for every length; PTO carries the middle three. Black Crows flags its weights for the shortest two and the longest as to-be-confirmed. The skis ship flat and bare: dedicated Pilus skins are sold separately, and the brand has published no 26/27 binding statement, so compatibility is not something we will assert - talk to us with your setup plan before anything gets drilled.