In reply to nickinscottishmountains:
Hi Nick. I can help with some comment on the Black Crows. I ski the navis Freebirds with Dynafits (my touring set up), and the Atris with Kingpins, (my backcountry / steeps / sidecountry type set up). Im in La Grave now with the Atris. (smiles!).
You can ski the Freebirds pretty hard even though they are fairly light. They respond well to being driven and will cope with any terrain. I agree with superturbo in that they feel solid enough for chop and the less camber on the tail gives a bit more rear edge control skiing steep stuff. Particularly with short scrub speed, gully type turns. For touring, mountain journeys, and steep harder snow I'd go for the Freebirds over the Atris.
The Atris are a bit softer to ski and slightly more forgiving. You can drive them or take a bit more of a backseat ride. (Probably not good skiing technique!!!) They are a lot softer in the tip and tail, with a fairly large tail rocker, which gives them a suprisingly short effective edge. This means you can drive them edge to edge with a bit less effort despite their width. (Because they have a fairly short effective edge dont be afraid to get the next size up from the size you would normally take with a less rockered ski). They are superb in powder. Softer tails and tips give more absorbtion in soft chopped and crud, but you do need to be on them, steering them through such terrain. For general playing, on, off and around the piste and mountain I'd take the Atris over the Freebirds. They are also super stiff in the centre of the ski so they respond well to a slightly stiffer binding.
After saying all that, you say your after a stiffer heavy ski so I would say the Corvus is perhaps more that type of ski than the Atris. Cant comment though as I've not skied the corvus.
Post edited at 14:34