Photo Credit: http://www.powderheads.com / “J.Hayes”

WHAT

The Saab-Salomon TransAlp XWing Rally that I mentioned previously, has recently concluded and this text is an account of the experience Jason of The “Three Plumbingos” from Canada had during the rally. The TransAlp XWing Rally is a contest that Three Plumingos, who got their name because of their profession as full-time plumbers, won by writing a qualifying letter of their favorite place to ski by receiving the most votes out of the 32 qualifiers. Jason believes that it was “quite easy really considering the considerable rewards.”

WHEN

The Saab-Salomon TransAlpe XWing Rally took place between March 23rd and March 30th, 2007.

WHERE

This rally began in Annecy which is a city in the Rhône-Alpes region of the Eastern-Central part of France and concluded in Sölden which is a municipality in the Ötztal valley of Tyrol, Austria.

Here is the schedule of stages.

HOW

“The Skis!”

All Teams skiied on Salomon XWing Tornado skis. In the words of Jason “the idea was to ski 7 days in all conditions and all slopes on 1 pair of skis”. These skis were clearly up to the challenge as you will see with this kind of rugged extreme skiing.

Here is more about the skis and conditions. “The ski is well suited to those who want an all mountain ski all in one. It does not perform all tasks as well as it does on piste, but rather does all things quite well. I found that it really needs to go fast in deeper soft snow, but it may be hard for less experienced skiiers to trust that it will turn eventually, turns are a bit tough starting but do finish well. I will appreciate having this ski for days that are primarily hard pack, and likely leave my ‘ 07 volkl ac4 for the days where chop, crud, and delicious Western Canada blower powder are the order of the day. I tend to be slightly more aggressive than this ski, except on hard pack where it does quite well.

Above all a great ski if you only have one pair, I would recommend them to most any skiier except the most aggressive and talented riders.

“The Saabs!”

All XWing Teams were outfitted with 2007 9-3 SportCombis complete with winter package and Saab-Salomon roof box. Jason’s team of the “Three Plumingos” were in Saab 9-3 SportCombi #7.

Here are Jason’s comments about the Saab 9-3 “I was thoroughly impressed with these auto’s, once I figured out the Manual tip-tronic trans. 250 horses” and here is a quote about his experience in Italy during one of the legs of the rally.

Driving the Saab 9-3 SportCombi in Italy and in fact for whole 8 days, was exhilarating, it is a fine piece of permormance machinery, wrapped in a deceivingly family appearance package. I think they have created a wonderful marketing tool for both the Salomon name and the Saab cars with this whole event, I know I would buy one as a family go to the mountains car. And just for fun we tipped the speedo around 200K all the way through Italy, they drive fast there. I passed some police on the side of the road at 200K and I swear he took a drag of his Cig. and turned to his buddy cop and said look at that Saab, he’s going prettty fast” the 9-3 is a powerful beast in manual trans mode yet quite well behaved and luxury oriented if left in automatic. Leather heated seats GPS and all the toys one could want also compliment this car and make it good for everything from a trip to the grocery store to this completely off the wall event called the Transalp rally. We are also thankful for the anti spin control system which likely was responsible for keeping the shiny side up on several occasions.

It is clear that Jason and the Three Plumingos had the time of their lives and here are some important pieces that they want to mention:

“These 8 days were the most gruelling, yet exciting, and thrilling experiences of my life. I am sooooooo sore and tired yet strangely very satisfied and happy.”

“I must ensure that thanks are given to all the folks who made this happen, from the people who voted for our secret spot to help us win this trip , to the numerous staff ( and President of Salomon) this has been the adventure of a life time and will never be Forgotten. A huge pole clap to you all.”

I will be following up on this story with additional notes of their daily experiences during this incredible Saab-Salomon XWing TransAlp Rally in Europe.

Thank you Jason and the Three Plumingos for providing such incredible photography and descriptive text and congratulations on winning the 2nd place in the quality of photography contributed during the trip.

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