When you’re in the soft and deep stuff, 115 mm underfoot is a great place to be. If you want to add some beef to the playfulness of a ski, then you’re looking somewhere in the vicinity of what the Black Crows Anima will deliver. Built with a poplar wood core, carbon and kevlar strips, and a fiberglass laminate, the Anima is a bit stronger than it lets on, much to the delight of aspiring freeride skiers everywhere. The 189 cm length generates a 19-meter turn radius, so it’s on the turnier side of the spectrum, allowing for stronger edge grip for when the going gets sketchy. While they are capable of drifting and smearing, they do prefer to be in a turn, and can operate quite well with higher edge angles. All of this adds up to a super-fun powder and soft snow ski for advanced and expert skiers. Like most other 115’s underfoot, the Anima isn’t terribly quick or agile, and works better at a medium to higher pace. There’s a bit of a twin tip here as well, to help out with the playfulness, and Black Crows uses kind of a reverse swallow-tail shape in the tip to make it less hooky. If you’re looking to fill the wide part of your quiver, the Black Crows Anima is a soft-snow specialist that will stay on top of pretty much anything.
ROCKER PROFILE
Rocker / Camber / Rocker
CORE MATERIALS
Kevlar Stringers, Fiberglass, Semi-Cap
PREFERRED TERRAIN
Powder, Big Mountain, All Mountain
On the 182, Ryan Daniel noted that it was a little short. For a front side ski, a 182 would suit Ryan just fine, but the wider they get, the longer skis are quite nice. Unsurprisingly, Ryan scored the Anima a 5 out of 5 for flotation and stability, with 4’s given for maneuverability, torsional stiffness, playfulness, and overall impression. Ryan’s lowest score was a 2 out of 5 for versatility, which for a 115, is not shocking. He notes that the Anima is a “bit wide for east coast but she can still carve. Found the edge transition from edge to edge was nice and smooth. Easy to smear. Like the straight line too!!” While powder wasn’t on the menu for our test day, we certainly had a big pile of soft spring snow, so you could certainly feel the surfiness and flotation of these skis in our conditions. Marcus Shakun also noted that the 182 was on the short side for him, and that the “next size up would be nice.” Marcus scored the ski 5’s out of 5 for flotation and torsional stiffness, as these wide-bodied sticks are pretty burly to get up on a high edge angle due to the carbon and kevlar. Stability and Overall Impression received 4’s with the rest of his scores in the 3-range. “Animal more like it!!” Marcus begins. “Yep, a Big Mountain Shredder...right day right conditions. The deep spring corn had no chance. These things plow over anything in the way. I did think it turned fairly easy even being a 115. Didn’t feel like it was to overpowering nice fun energetic ride. Dig the shovel in and let it take you for a quicker turn or just roll into the next few turns. More active you were the more it gave back. Had some life and nap to it as big and burly as it looks and can also be. Not for a sluggish skier.” In general, more sluggish skis like this deserve more input from their pilots, hence the need for a more active skier to fully access the potential of the Anima.
Phil McGrory was on the properly sized 189, and generally noted that if you’re in between sizes on this ski, to size up due to the extended tip and tail rocker. Phil scored the ski a 5 out of 5 for flotation, making it a clean sweep across our testers for this category, and an additional 5 for overall impression. 4’s for playfulness, maneuverability, and even versatility are a good sign of a fairly well-rounded ski at this width. Phil notes that “the Anima is a great wide body freeride ski that is great for soft snow. Easy to pivot, slash and slide this ski around through the woods or surf through deep snow. felt plenty stable for a ski in this category so when you're traversing from one zone to another you will feel confident that this ski will hold in any tough situation. High Intermediate to Expert skiers.”
On a side note, I got to follow Phil with our GoPro and it was pretty cool to see how the skis handled the softer spring snow that we had for our test day. In addition, I got to ski these earlier this winter and had some soft, wintry snow to play in, and they were pretty sweet in that stuff as well. If you’re looking for that ski in the 115-range, the Anima is about as cool as they come, complete with flotation and power.
