Season Diary - Day 19

Henry

Jan 303 min read

Thursday 30 January, 2025 - La Clusaz, France

What happens when brands renowned for their freeride skis decide to make piste skis? The jury is still out ...

I have loved watching from court-side seats the evolution of skis over the past five years. The COVID pandemic saw ski brands go in a headlong rush towards touring skis, generating a slate of hybrid skis ready to uphill as well as downhill. The pendulum has now swung back the other way, with skis re-focused on going downhill better, hard, faster and stronger.

Piste skis have been equally fun to watch. More and more, brands are incorporating technology that has them winning races on the World Cup circuit, with, particularly, loads or vibration dampening technology as well as more race-like side-cuts.

But what happens when brands try to make piste skis without these technologies? This has been the attempt of two brands over the past couple of years, Black Crows and DPS.

Black Crows you will have seen around, if for no other reason than their Mirus Cor ski that has been going for a couple of years now. Bright, flourescent traffic cone orange, it belows on top of the Duke of Wellington's head as much as it does on a ski slope. Swallow-tailed and all piste demensioned, it isn't a particularly amazing ski, but it is a fun ski, in both looks and feel - that is, after all, what we're here for, so I actually make no bones about this ski.

Building off this success, Black Crows came out with the Octo and Octo Birdie last year, a thinner version of the Mirus Cor ... sort of.

The Octo is, quite frankly, one of the worst skis I've ever skied on. The even worst bit is, Black Crows know this - I can see the Rep die behind the eyes whenever I bring it up. Black Crows problem is they've followed the same technological principles as some of their wider skis (i.e. none) and given the Octo the exact same size ratios as their wide skis. This means they handle like a fat elephant on a fully loaded oil tanker, even on piste and on really good snow. I know the girls on the test team enjoyed their time on the Octo Birdie, but for the guys, the Octo was, quite frankly, shit.

Contrast this with the DPS Carbon Piste Works 79. DPS are an American brand who are known for two things - making really stiff really fat really expensive powder skis, and using a metric fuckton of carbon to make these skis.

They have come out with a ski of similar dimensions to the Octo, a 79mm underfoot all piste ski. Difference is, this one is full of carbon and designed in such a way that it absolutely sings when you ski it. You can load the carbon really easily, allowing you to crank it all the way over in carving turns, but because carbon doesn't feedback in the same way metal does, it gently leveraged you out of the end of the turn, rather than flipping you straight up and out and into the next turn.

The ski also works incredibly well in the powder, easily the best ski this narrow I have skied in powder. They were incredibly balanced, requiring just the subtlest shift in weight towards the rear to pull the tips up and bring them round in some of the smoothest turns I have been able to pull off in the powder.

Now, if only I have a spare $2,500 lying around ...