Voyageur

A mysterious French master, Bruno Compagnet stays ahead of the game.

- Hans Ludwig

AT 48, THE MAN WITH THE PIRATICAL BEARD and the knuckle tattoos that read “TRUE CROW” has been a professional skier longer than many pros have been alive. His ongoing career has kept him at the top of free skiing for more than two decades, from competing in extreme skiing contests against Doug Coombs to the Instagram and Dynafit era of today.

But most American ski aficionados have never heard of Bruno Compagnet. Perhaps the name rings a bell but there’s nothing else—at most, “Isn’t that the guy with the dreadlocks?” Considering Compagnet’s massive (and historic) ski resumé at the forefront of free skiing, his low profile is impressive, but it’s also emblematic of his style—a master-level pro who prefers to describe himself as a ski bum, a Frenchman who is from the Pyrenees and therefore not exactly French, a character of sometimes deliberate obliqueness and cultivated rock star mystique, a man who got in front and never waited for the pack jostling behind him.

Mystique is also an integral part of the ski company that Compagnet and fellow veteran freeskier Camille Jaccoux started in 2005—Black Crows. From the beginning, Black Crows cultivated an aura where style trumped the standard ski company marketing blueprint, where the spirit of the crusty lifer was embodied by Compagnet as the spiritual heart of the brand. His friend and Black Crows nest-mate Michael “Bird” Shaffer says, “He does really remind me of this crow, flying around looking for a shiny thing, a peak or a line or the good snow, and he’s going to go for it until it’s his. He’s almost childlike when it’s something important to him. He’s so in the moment.”