Here at SkiEssentials.com, we have a pretty strict philosophy to not assign superlatives to skis. We firmly believe that there’s a best ski out there for you and that same ski is rarely the best option for someone else. In that light, it took literally every ounce of restraint to not call the 2024 Black Crows Mirus Cor our favorite ski of the year. The reality of the situation is that we’re pretty surprised at ourselves for not seeing the benefits of this ski earlier. Some models, like Salomon Stance 96 or Dynastar M-Pro 99 arrive on the scene and we instantly love them. For one reason or another, even when we make videos and review these skis and tout their benefits, that enthusiasm doesn’t quite reach the general public. The Mirus Cor is the antithesis. When we first got on this ski, it took some time to see the attributes as a whole. At first glance, it’s kind of easy to see why we fell into this trap. It’s a creamsicle orange ski with an 87 mm waist, a 13-meter turn radius, nearly symmetrical shape and rocker profile, and a very strange looking lizard-tongue split tail. In our first review, we focused extensively on the uniqueness of this ski, but we still had a hard time identifying the target audience and the bigger picture when it comes to the performance abilities of the Mirus Cor. Hopefully, this review will provide a more insightful glimpse into our experiences from this past season, with clearer and more open eyes on our part.

We can go over the technical details again, but the ski has not structurally changed for 2024—just a mild graphic update. Built with a poplar wood core and fiberglass laminate, we get a single titanal plate in the middle of the ski. When it comes to performance, this metal really comes in handy—more on that later. We’re dealing with a semi-cap construction on this ski, but it’s more on the subdued side rather than exaggerated. It’s more of a stretch to find the cap than it is the sidewall—for all intents and purposes, I’d call it a full sidewall, even though Black Crows may identify it differently. It ends up being pretty light, tipping the scale at around 1850 grams per ski. Flex-wise, this ends up being a pretty average stiffness, but the symmetry of the flex is what stands out. It’s basically identical from the tip through the tail.

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The shape of the Mirus Cor is where it really gets wild. At 87 mm underfoot, many skiers will look at that number and instantly decide that it’s just too darn narrow. While that may be true for those, and other skiers out there, there are actually quite a lot more skiers out there who will fit better in an 87 due to the majority of their application. It’s basically a playful frontside ski due to this footprint, as it allows for some serious carving with that 13-meter turn radius, while allowing for a good mix of torsional stiffness in the ends of the ski and direct edge grip underfoot. In the 178, the 134 mm tips and 123 mm tails complement that narrower waist to make this an insanely turny ski while keeping some width to accommodate softer snow and mixed conditions. It’s fair to include the fish tail in terms of shape, but you could also argue that this portion fits better in the build section as well. Either way, it’s an interesting piece of the ski that’s more visually dramatic than almost anything else. Let’s pretend that Black Crows built this ski in the same shape, but with metal throughout and no fish tail. It would be very difficult to keep up with the turn shape. The ski would want to hook in and hold on from tip to tail. Now remove the metal from the ends but keep the fish tail. We would now have an easier entry to the turn, but still a pretty rigid finish. The flared shape of the tail (without the split) would still want to stay totally locked into the snow, making for a less playful finish. Now add the split. This removes torsional stiffness from the end of the ski, allowing skiers to complete their turn with greater control and ease. It still holds tight, but allows for a looser feeling when asked. The start of the split coincides with the widest part of the tail, so it’s safe to say that this was a design decision that altered the release point of the carve. With a ski that’s so focused on carving, it makes sense that Black Crows would take this into account.

We’re seeing more of a normalcy in rocker profile when it comes to more freeride skis, but for a front side ski, it’s still on the dramatic side. That is the nice blend that we’re dealing with when it comes to modulating between traditional performance and modern craziness. One of the more interesting aspects about the profile is the fact that it’s pretty low profile in both tips and tails. And it’s pretty symmetrical. Our friends at SoothSki measured the tip height at 36 mm and the tail height at 37. Again, these numerical similarities put this ski in pretty rare air—right up there with competition park skis, so it’ll be interesting to hear Jeff’s take on this ski as a true freestyle option. Keeping you close to the middle of the 3 mm camber height is a mount point that falls 4.6 cm back from true center.

All of this symmetry in shape, profile, and construction all adds up to some wicked performance out there on the hill. For more directional skiers looking for a playful carving and all-mountain ski, this one is a no-brainer. It’s easy to forget that narrower-waisted and shorter turning skis are a lot of fun—we definitely get caught up in the wider options these days as the lure of deep snow is just so very strong. In reality, most of us spend most of our time on the groomers. For years, we’ve been hearing that skiers want something that carves like a race ski on-trail but has legitimate off-trail capabilities as well. Nobody’s going to confuse the Mirus Cor with a powder ski—there are way better options out there. But for mixing front side carving with pretty much all other applications, the Mirus Cor has so much to offer. One of my favorite stories about this ski was during our 2024 Ski Test this past March when I rode up with two of our testers—one of whom was on the Mirus Cor. He was asking me about it, and I was telling him the deal. Near the top, I advised that he pretend that he was on a slalom race ski and make short, carved turns whenever possible rather than taking a more fall-line approach to the run. About half-way down the mountain, we re-grouped and chatted about the ski. He was extremely thankful for my advice, noting that he likely wouldn’t have thought it would carve like that given the strange shape. When I was following him down the rest of the way, it looked like he was directly connected to the ski, seamlessly making clean and round carves on our smooth and firm snow surface. This tester was impressed beyond belief that a relatively symmetrical twin tip with a fish tail could do those things. This was just one instance, but nearly everyone that we skied with on the Mirus Cor this year had a similar reaction. For me, on the groomers, I think this is about as cool and clean as it gets. I skied the 184 and really found that it worked well for leaning into the turns and just standing on the ski. I prefer easy to engage carving skis since I don’t have a racing background, but I also like skis that are grippy underfoot, again, because I don’t have a racing background. This is the ski for carving if you don’t really know how to carve, and that’s a huge benefit for a lot of skiers. Additionally, if you’re an accomplished carver or racer, you’ll still be able to get the benefits of this ski. The caveat here is that it really operates best at shorter radius carves or at more moderate speeds. You can ski it more directly and aggressively, but do not expect the ski to actually carve at those higher speeds. It’s just too flexible with too short of a radius to do so. It’s not that it’s unstable at speed, you just can’t quite get that true high velocity carve that we find so easy to accomplish on something like a Volkl Kendo.

Off-piste, or in more varied snow and terrain, the Mirus Cor is not only very easy to ski, but also has a surprisingly capable character. In trees and bumps, as you might expect, it’s pretty simple to get from one turn to the next. The most distracting thing is the width of the tips, since most of the time that we’re on skis at 87 mm underfoot, the tips and tails aren’t quite as wide. This makes it tough to keep your feet closer together, which is kind of a detriment to when you’re trying to make quick turns. It’ll pivot and smear quite readily, but if you’re hoping for more precise quick turns, you’ve got some work cut out for you. As long as you’re prepared for that style of skiing, you’ll be fine, but there is some tip clacking going on in the bumps and other tight zones. Creative skiers who are looking to find and exploit their flowy side will really gravitate towards this ski for their adventurous purposes. Again, nobody’s mistaking this ski for a pure powder or deep snow option, but since there are more days that do not contain these conditions, Mirus Cor does a fantastic job being opportunistic in these scenarios. I did get out on it during one of the densest and wettest snow days this year, and as long as that cement-style snow was fresh, I had no issues. When it got cut up a bit, I missed having some extra length in the arc to motor over and through the crud and chop. That’s really the one criticism of the shorter radius—it's tough to let it run in softer snow as the sidecut does want to hook in. It’s up to the skier to tighten it up, make some shorter and more creative turns, and the fun will follow. Speaking of fun, there’s a lot of terrain park fun to be had on this ski, and who better to describe that application than Jeff!

Jeff’s Thoughts:

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Before I get into the park application, there are a couple of other concepts here I want to talk about. First, yes, the ski carves incredibly well. Carving is super fun, and we’re seeing a resurgence of skiers who find value and enjoyment out of linking clean, round turns. The forces you can generate and the rewarding feeling of creating energy through turning a ski is hard to beat. The Mirus Cor provides that feeling, while retaining the ability to do a bunch of other stuff too. Bob touched on a lot of that already, but one thing I didn’t want to miss is how the ski feels at speed. It’s an interesting phenomenon. When you consider a shape like this with its ultra-short turn radius, it’s hard to imagine that it wouldn’t feel a bit twitchy at high speeds. Take a slalom race ski, for example, when you start to go really fast and straight, it’s somewhat terrifying as the ski tries to hook up and enter a turn, giving you this quick, unstable, and reactive experience. The Mirus Cor can do that, yes, and it’s still somewhat of a concern, but when you really start to open it up, the amount of rocker in the tip and tail and the lack for torsional stiffness in those areas allows the ski to feel completely different than at slower and more moderate speeds. At those more conservative speeds, it just hooks up into those fun carves. At high speeds, however, it’s more of a straight/sideways style ski. It loves to slash, smear, and get flicked around, but it does prefer going fast if you want to do those things. It’s very interesting to me, and another example of just how many different ways you can ski this thing.

Anyways, with that said, we can focusmore on park now. We’ve already talked at length about how good it is in other applications, so expecting park performance too almost feels weirdly selfish. I think from an objective standpoint, the Captis is probably a better park ski. The Camox might be too, but the Mirus Cor is right there with those skis. The same uniqueness that it boasts around the rest of the mountain holds true in the park. It’s carvy and playful and rewarding without having to ski super hard, go really big, or scare yourself. For high level, super technical park tricks, it’s not the best in my opinion because of the short turn radius. The same phenomenon and its eagerness to enter a carve will happen in the park too, and if you’re lining up a 75 foot triple cork, you’re better off with a longer radius ski that won’t feel as reactive. For those of us who have no interest in doing that, however, it’s great. I love carving off takeoffs, and the Mirus Cor does too. You do have to adapt to the shorter radius, however, but that didn’t take long for me. I over-set and over-rotated a couple tricks when carving, but quickly learned to just initiate tricks a little slower on the Mirus Cor. Sliding rails and jibbing around the park is an absolute dream. I love how quickly and efficiently you can cut from side to side in a park, switching up your line, hitting different features, and just being super creative. I can’t wait to spend more time on this thing in the park and really see what I can do on it. Unfortunately, at this point, that will have to wait until next season.

Is the Mirus Cor for everyone? Certainly not. It is a good ski? Absolutely. Who should buy it? I think there are a few different ways to look at that. For the skier who already has it all, well, you don’t have a Mirus Cor. If you have a big quiver of skis and you’re looking for what’s next, there’s a good chance it’s this. On the other hand, it’s so incredibly versatile and so much fun to ski, I do actually think it could be a one-ski-quiver for certain people. As Bob mentioned, we often get questions along the lines of “what ski will carve, but also handle trees, moguls, and some park?” Generally, that question is basically impossible to answer as most of those performance characteristics just don’t exist in the same ski. The Mirus Cor, however, as well as some other skis starting to emerge on the market, answer that question and solve that riddle with a new approach. It’s very interesting, very fun to ski, and I can’t help but look at this ski as some kind of window into the future. A glimpse of what’s to come down the road. Will the end product evolve and be tweaked? I think yes, that’s the natural progression of new ideas and products, but I do think Black Crows is on to something here, and I think the concept is here to stay.

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Written by Bob St.Pierre & Jeff Neagle on 04/24/23