Salt Lake City, UT -- The Ski Trab US race team won the 2007 USSMA ski mountaineering race series, with Ethan Passant placing 1st and Scott Coldiron taking 3rd in the grueling season-long competition. The dominating performance of Team Trab continues from last season when Pete Swenson and Karen Kingsley both won the men’s and women’s divisions for the 2006 series.

Ethan has delivered a solid performance all season long with 6 wins and a 2nd place finish in the 7 races he has entered. In addition to winning the Life-link USSMA series, he also leads the COSMIC race series in Colorado. He took 1st in the highly competitive Wasatch Powderkeg last week and just missed winning the National Championship race this weekend in Jackson, finishing 2nd in a close race.

Ethan also anchored the Trab team that won the inaugural Powderkeg relay race, the first-ever ski mountaineering relay in North America.

Scott Coldiron took 3rd in the season long series, while Pete Swenson finished 5th, Zahan Billimoria 8th and Grant Guise 10th. Scott has come on strong this season, winning the Mad River Glen race and taking 3rd at Alpental. Look for him to do even better next season.

Pete amazingly managed podium places in 2 of 3 races while racing on the mid-fat Duo Sint Aero, finishing 2nd at Crested Butte (missing 1st by only 3 seconds!) and 3rd at the Powderkeg. Between organizing COSMIC and coaching the Trab team, Pete has had minimal time to train and race this season, not to mention he was the only top athlete to compete on non-race skis.

Grant finished in the top 10 while only doing 2 races. Visiting from New Zealand, he had planned on 3 races; however the canceled Kirkland race left him with time for only the Powderkeg and the Jackson Hole National Championship, where he came in 4th just missing the podium by 20 seconds. Zahan had a conistent overall season, capped by a 3nd place finish in the Skin to Win race at Bridger Bowl.

Ski Trab manufactures high quality touring and randonee race skis available in the US through www.skitrabusa.com. The United States Ski Mountaineering Association actively promotes ski mountaineering competitions throughout the US and also benefits local avalanche forecast centers, via www.ussma.org.

The challenging Ski Mountaineering Race Series tests the competitors’ endurance, equipment and downhill skiing skills while skinning up and skiing down some of the toughest terrain found in North America.