The Black Crows Mentis Freebird is an 80mm ski-touring ski - the narrowest and lightest ski in the Black Crows 26/27 catalog, built for the gram-counting end of the sport. Each ski weighs 900g in the 157.1cm length and stays under a kilo below 171cm. The construction spends weight selectively: a paulownia core laminated with glass and carbon fibers, cap construction over the tip and tail, ABS sidewalls underfoot where grip and durability matter, and titanal reinforcing the mount zone under the bindings - the one piece of metal named in the ski. Independent reviews back the brand's skiability framing where it counts: on firm snow, the edge hold is unusual for the weight class.

The buyer picture is genuinely narrow. This ski exists for human-powered days on mostly firm snow: fitness skinning laps, traverses that stack up over several days, spring couloirs where a long effective edge earns the jump turns. If your skiing starts with a lift ticket, this is the wrong ski - a sub-1,000g build has no damping reserve for lift-lap speeds and end-of-day chop, and Black Crows' Serpo, Camox and Vena Cor are the resort tools. Powder is its floor, not its habitat: 80mm of waist with minimal tip rocker floats poorly, and the wider Freebirds all float better. It is a specialist, not a one-ski quiver.

At $1,049 the Mentis costs more than the wider Freebirds it sits beside; within the family, just the $1,199 Draco is priced above it - the light build is the point. If versatility matters more than the last 100g, the 85mm Ova Freebird at $849 is the more accessible pick. PTO stocks three of the four lengths - 157.1, 164.3 and 171cm. The ski comes flat, with no bindings, and Black Crows publishes no touring-binding compatibility statement, so we make none: bring the touring binding you have in mind, we check it against the ski, mount it, and help you settle on a length.