This is what the Fischer guy wrote for our testers' info packet about the Transalp Pro: "...gets to the heart of what downhill-oriented ski touring professionals want: outstanding stability and power transmission for demanding descents, balanced with the lowest weight and a large range of motion." Well, our testers said that for once, the marketing mumbo jumbo wasn't B.S.--in fact, they said that description hit the nail on the head for this two-time gold medalist and category winner this year.
Many of our testers had put the Transalp Pro pro through its paces at last year's test but a few mentioned they were looking forward to this year's re-test of the unchanged entry because they weren't sure if they really liked it as much as their test forms suggested last time around--i.e., maybe last year's results were a fluke. Well, nope. Those guys loved it just as much this time, and continue to be amazed at how a micro-minimalist touring machine can generate the kind of power and stability that it manages to. It's about the lightest boot our test accepts an entry for (we are not tights-wearing rando-racers by a long shot) and it has the kind of range of motion that you expect is possible but is rarely achieved in releasable cuff boots but it puts a fat ski on edge like a 130-flex four-buckle overlap boot. Really. It's surprising.
Testers continue to gripe about the entry and exit--it's a little tricky--but once it's on it's a regular boot on your foot--albeit with a massive and frictionless stride. The Double-Lock Ski Walk release mechanism is simple and bombproof, and once locked in place creates a comfortably rigid cast that's ready to drive a ski. Some of our larger testers felt that there was a little over-flexing to the front but not enough to drop its stance or fore-aft stability scores, and they mentioned that its rearward resistance was rock-solid.
Not only does the Transalp Pro (and the softer Transalp Tour) have a nice, fat power strap with a cam-lock style buckle, it comes with the testers' favorite feature-du-jour, the rip-cord pull release for that cam buckle, but wait, there's more, the power strap is also releasable with a hook grabber (kind of like the GI Joe Kung Fu grip you may remember if you're old like us) that avoids having to re-thread the webbing strap through the cam buckle. Nifty.
Kudos
Caveats