Big Mountain Skis from Black Crows.

It was the winter of 2005 when long time friends, and professional skier’s, Camille Jaccous and Bruno Compagnet met Christophe Villemin, an industrialist passionate about both skiing and mountaineering, in a cable car in Chamonix’s Grands-Montets region. An instant friendship was sparked and before they knew it they were around a dinning room table somewhere in Chamonix creating the amazing brand we know today as Black Cgrid-xs.

Both Camille and Bruno felt that the freeski world lacked a ski that allowed the user to truly pursue the pleasure and absolute freedom that freeskiing had brought to them and were determined to stand up against the norm and create such a ski. With Christophe’s support, the 3 set out to create a ski that would inspire the freeride world, one that would reign supreme in deep snow and yet still be capable of spritely short turns. Thus the Corvus was born. After many prototypes and test laps on the long descent’s of Mount Blanc the 3 amigo’s, in addition to their friend Yorgo Tloupas who now headed up the graphic design of the skis, finally had a ski they were ready to launch to the masses, and what better place to launch a new freeski than in the freeride capital of Europe, Chamonix.

It was December 2006 by now and the launch of there freshly pressed 195 pink and black chevrons with bright pink bases were ready for the masses. They thought to themselves, “What’s the best way to gain market exposure and bring a diverse group of people together to show off our newest creation?” Throw one kick ass, soon to be legendary, party! Not only did they help launch Black Crows into stardom they also inadvertently created a new venture, Black Weekend. Camille and Bruno have been long time believers that apres-ski and skiing go hand in hand so the thought of throwing a series of parties to celebrate the ski season and help promote their new business was a no brainer. It’s since grown into a 3 day event held in Chamonix, from April 3 – 6, feature live performances and dj sets from a variety of different artist’s performing all over the mountain.

To say the small Chamonix brand has blown up is an understatement. Having produced 83 models of skis since 2006 the brand now boasts a full offering of ski wear, in collaboration with GoreTex, on top of their own ski poles. And with the likes of athletes such as Mark Abma, Callum Pettit and Michelle Parker on board Black Crows have a strong future ahead of them.