Trab Skis now Distributed by Scarpa NA, Looking Mighty Fine
This coming season’s Trab lineup for North America is tasty. Volare model looks like it’ll touch the “V-spot” for our human powered pow market, 129/99/116, with Trab’s awesome performance/weight ratio. I visited these guys a few years ago and checked out their manufacturing and culture. They’re everything they say they are. Perhaps I’ll go back this winter and watch them sing Volare as they make skis.
Trab skis for 2011 2012. Click image to enlarge.
From left to right:
Race Aero World Cup 96/64/78
Freerando Light 112/79/96
Freerando 112/79/96
Tour Rando XL 113/80/99
Tour Rando 105/73/90
Stelvio Light XL 125/90/112
Polvere 123/88/109
Volare 129/99/116
Have to get some real world weights, sorry, nothing for now as I hesitate to just quote PR weights.
Trab Volare looks to be the sweet spot. I'm afraid to ski this, they might be so good they touch my V-spot and cause me to sing VOLARE at the top of my lungs as I ride the white.
Trab is known for their contstant innovation in their skin attachment systems. Volare and Polvere have an interesting jingus built on the tip that holds a skin attachment tab. Testing will commence.
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19 Responses to “Trab Skis now Distributed by Scarpa NA, Looking Mighty Fine”
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Awesome! Glad to see them getting some good representation, and maybe I can get a deal on a pair now!
Did they drop the Duo Sintesi?
Unfortunately the Trab Duo Sint Aero will not be distributed here. I hadn’t asked about the Duo Sintesi, but I suspect the situation is the same with that model.
I am waiting for next season’s Funiculi Funicula model.
All-mountain, all-terrain, with the new self-climbing skins.
Lighter than air, tastier than fondue.
Is that the upgrade from Volare?
Let’s go from here below up to the mountain, O Nannina, a step away!
You can see France, Procida, and Spain,
And I see you!
You rise, pulled by a cable, quick as a wink
into the sky.
We’ll rise up like a whirlwind all of a sudden knows how to do!
Let’s go , let’s go, let’s go to the top,
Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go to the top,
Funiculì, funiculà, funiculì, funiculà!
Let’s go to the top, Funiculì, funiculà!
Wasn’t ‘ Volare ‘ the name of a 70’s or 80’s hum drum Chrysler sedan back in the day?
Something like that. Our first snowmobile was decorated with the name badge from one of those. Hilarious.
Yeah, check this out.
http://tinyurl.com/3f86l3l
Sorry for your wasting your web space with this Lou.
Fun to chat about, actually.
But those skis have no rocker as far as I can tell. How can Trab say “modern dimensions”?
Hi Eric; I personally question whether rocker, and, curl up tails are worth the extra length/weight that they add to a BC ski. If you are counting every gram, some ski designs add 15% (more or less) more ski, and, weight. I am not convinced that it is worth it to me to carry this extra weight. I guess the question is; what constitutes modern dimensions?
I read in the post about voile skis that rocker sometimes makes skinning more difficult. Anyone got experience with this?
I’m skeptical about the net benefits of any noticeable early tip rise (or whatever we’re supposed to be calling it) on a ski <= ~90mm, i.e., all skis Trab has made until this season. But for a ski at 99mm in the waist not to have any new school tip geometry in the vertical plane is surprising (if that is indeed the case with the Volare).
Some of the competition’s wide models with otherwise impressive weight:width ratios lose some of that advantage with tip geometry so pronounced that you have to size up significantly for a longer and hence heavier ski. But then again, you’re taking on some extra weight via extra width in return for better performance on the down, so taking on some extra weight via extra length also seems justified for better performance on the down. I’d be surprised if a 99mm ski put the weight compromise entirely on the former with none on the latter, but we’ll have to see how it skis – backcountry skis are always about tradeoffs between the up vs down. (And I am of course willing to be the guinea pig!)
If the Volare incorporates any of the Trab heritage it will handle more than you might think.
The Volare is the ski they should have produced instead of the Polvere, which from a width perspective was outdated on realease.
I was surprised at the versatility of my Stelvio Freeride XLs. I bought them as a touring ski for light, soft, deep powder which is the predominant snow condition for the region I ski, while trying to cover off on some flexibility to handle a mixed bag of back country, on-piste and side country. Steering away from the go fatter unsolicited advice from friends, I stuck to my guns and am happy I did. They certainly performed well in the deep stuff and surpised me no end when an injury restricted me to GS turns down the piste for a week or two. Boy did they hang on.
The team at Trab may be a bit behind the “now”, “fat”, “reverse cambered” “rockered” blah blah blah but they are craftsmen and they do make a quality product.
In saying this, the dimensions of the Volare would have swayed me if it was available when I bought the Stelvios.
David, interesting thoughts, thanks. Fortunately though, the season inaugural issue of Backcountry Magazine has settled it for us with their typically thoughtful, thorough, and comprehensive write-ups in reviews of both the Volare and Polvere.
Okay, enough sarcasm.
So, I think they sort of liked both skis, although the Volare sounded more positive than the Polvere.
The irony is that although the gear guide contains the usual self-congratulatory descriptions of their testing regimen (and partying), each review contains just a couple sentences of brochure excerpts, then a few quotes from various testers, often entirely at odds with one another. (I hope Off Piste Mag reviews some Trab skis for this season, as I really like their reviews.)
The other frustrating aspect of the gear guide is they brag about testing ~350 products, but note that they publish reviews of only the ~100 best products. So for an omitted ski, the reader is left wondering whether it simply was never tested, or whether it tested so poorly that it wasn’t written up.
Plus of course the vast majority of the gear is very poorly suited for actual backcountry travel (as opposed to the magazine’s main focuses of sidecountry/slackcountry plus lift-served tele).
i thinking the Volare is going to be my perfect midwinter soft snow touring ski, I would of liked to see a little rocker in the tip design of such a wide ski (i might actually end up with the stoke if this still nags me).
The early rise tip or rocker design really suits my skiing, i.e. i love the surfy feel in the soft snow, being able to whip my tail round and snake through the trees (trees are often an issue in Norway).
the Volare certainly has my weight concerns addressed, I just hope they can handle a bit of everything the inevitable search for the soft stuff dishes out.
is suppose Coomback is always an option, allbeit a heavier one 🙁
Wondering if somebody could help me out. I have a pair of Ski Trab Duo Sint Aero’s bought in 2008. 164 cm. Unfortunately, the boot center info was printed on and has worn out. Anybody know per chance how far from the tail that boot center mark should be?
Thanks – Dan
Dan, unfortunately those skis are past their expiration date. Fortunately, I am an authorized Trab disposal center.
If you still want to risk mounting (and skiing on) such old skis, then when I get back home tomorrow (Saturday) night I can measure the straightline distance from the very end of the tail to the boot toe mark. (Yes, they use a boot toe mark instead of a boot center mark. When I originally mounted them for my 26.5/27.0 ~302mm Scarpa Matrix, it matched up very well with my detailed measurements for aligned ball of foot for center of the running surface. Since then the skis have been used with 26.5/27.0 ~301mm Dynafit TLT4, 26.5/27.0 ~304mm Scarpa F3, 26.5/27.0 ~30? Scarpa F1, and finally 287mm 26.0/26.5 DyNA/TLT5. Over the years this different boots have probably results in slightly different fore/aft positions, but they’ve all felt fine.)