The Armada Tracer 108 is a curious beast, being surprisingly light for its dimensions given that it offers a pretty stiff ride too.
Pure touring aficionados would not look twice at a ski that is 108mm wide and comes in at around 1900 grams per plank, but, matched with the right bindings, the Armada Tracer 108 is a freeride ski that has the potential for a bit of backcountry adventure while keeping the thrills high for the downhill ride.
It gave a feeling of security zipping through cruddy and soft snow on a particularly bad visibility day in Galtür, which comes in handy when you're diving headfirst into the backcountry.
The consensus was that the Tracer 108 gives a sturdy ride, although one tester felt the rock-solid stability was too rock-like and lacked "bounce and pop" despite the addition this season of some subtle rocker.
But the ski is meant for high-speed powder shredding and excels at it, helped by titanal reinforcement under the binding, a poplar/ash wood core and Armada's proprietary 'Xrystal Mesh' dampening insert.
If more float in the deep is your thing then the Tracer comes in a 118mm version, while 88 and 98 widths allow the ski to arguably straddle the all-mountain category.
But the as an out-and-out freeride ski, the Tracer 108 ticked all the boxes - stable, floaty, playful and fun.
