06/07 Trab skis

[Jonathan S.]

The Duo Sint Aero looks great in my basement ski room!
Unfortunately, the view out my basement windows is not so great right now . . . but supposedly an actual snowstorm is on the way (well, maybe with sleet, freezing rain, plain-old rain too), so I might actually finally mount them up and ski on them soon.

The view out my basement windows is now . . . white!
And the Duo Sint Aero is mounted.
And I've even skied on them!
Unfortunately though, it was very brief - dawn (literally) patrol at Pico on Saturday, and I had time for only 1470' vert since I had to drive to NH to teach a ski patrol mtn travel/rescue class. (Plus I didn't want to totally exhaust myself the day before the L-L MRG/S'Bush rando race.)
Impressions thus far:
- Absurdly light for its dimensions.
- Skin system is very secure, and skin can be peeled off from either from the tip or the tail.
- Turn initiation is super quick and easy, more so than I would expect from the sidecut radius.
- Skis very well in a few inches of fresh powder on top of groomed and skis very well on freshly groomed (what is up with all that Pico grooming right after a storm?), but then again probably anything would, so sorry I don't have more details to report so far.

[Jonathan S.]

I have the Duo Freerando.
Unfortunately though, I have no snow!

Finally got out on the Trab Duo FreeRando.
Setup details: length = 164cm, bindings = Dynafit Comfort, boots = Scarpa Matrix w/ Flexon tongues, me = 148 lbs.
Comparison ski = my old 162cm BD Mira.
Both days were on the same terrain - long flat approach (both there, and back again) for multiple laps (7 first day, 8 second day) on about 600 vert, around 25 degrees at the top, then flattening out.
Both days were untracked powder, though on the first day we were sometimes crossing over semi-covered tracks.
Overall, the skis performed flawlessly, though of course the conditions were quite nice. But the impressively low weight for the dimensions was a great plus on the long flat approach, the float seemed to be exactly what I needed for the conditions, and sidecut seemed just right. Thinking back to my Mira, I’ve sometimes felt that the Mira’s tail hooked up in a weird way - had no such problems w/ the FreeRando, although then again I’m not sure if these were the conditions I would have felt that.
The skin attachment system worked very well: super quick to get on-off, very secure, and offers the option of peeling back the skin from either the tip or the tail.
Pictures here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jshefftz/DuoFreeRandoDay1
http://picasaweb.google.com/jshefftz/DuoFreeRandoDay2

[Jonathan S.]

Two more outings to report on the Duo Sint Aero.
Setup details: length = 164cm, bindings = Dynafit Comfort, boots = Dynafit TLT Evo (3 buckles, basically an updated TLT 4S/Pro), me = 148 lbs.
Comparison ski = closest skis in the quiver would be 160cm Atomic TM:11 (mainly just for racing now) and 170cm Atomic R:9 (w/ Diamirs, mainly a lift-served setup now).

First add’l outing:
- Skinned up for two laps on a 600' slope that has pretty solid pitch all the way (for the east), measured at 25 degrees.
- Conditions were freshly groomed and skis were perfect. Turn initiation was very quick. Almost felt like my slalom race skis! Stable at higher speeds when I backed off the edge angle.
- Skin attachment system is great: goes on/off easily, super secure, and can be peeled back from either the tip or the tail.
- My presentations for the avy course weren’t until the afternoon, so the lead instructor let me and another assistant instructor go out for some lift-served runs.
- The slope I had skinned up before was now quite slick. Skis felt great. So great that I almost went over to the junior race coach to ask the coach if I could try a run in the slalom practice course! (Figured that would just be too weird though even to ask with the funny-looking skis, odd little bindings, and big ski patrol jacket...)
- Also skied several runs in a tight icy mogul field. Skis performed quite well here (not that I plan to make a habit of taking this setup for lift-served skiing in moguls...)

Second add’l outing:
- Skinned up a long route of snowshoe trails (first tight & rolling, then steep, then open & rolling), then skied a backcountry gladed, then skied some lift-served glades and open slopes.
- Glades were deep wind-packed powder; open slopes were perfectly groomed powder. Pitch was upper-intermediate at most.
- Skis did quite well given their 73mm and the conditions. (That is, my brother-in-law on tele gear a bit more narrow than my setup had gone on at length warning me how the deep snow was so dangerous and it was ideal conditions for tearing a knee, etc, and my snowboarder brother-in-law had told me how he got stuck in the powder, etc.)
- Obviously a wider ski would have been ideal, but they were still fun to ski on in the conditions, although I had to be careful with my technique.
- The skinning on such a super-light setup was obviously a joy! Basically it’s like having a rando race setup on the ascent but a much more versatile setup for the descent.