For the love of Ullr stop skiing your low tech bindings at the resort!

[toast2266]

Glad I was working today...

How cold?

Seth

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Perfect temps until the last hour. Then temps dropped about 15 degrees and wind picked up a lot. Pretty sure lifts will be closed tomorrow. Supposed to be -50 at the top.

[SB]

Dang, that kold.

Its seems to be this "I am so kewl thing", this skinning at the resort. I tend to mess with them and yell from the lift they are going the wrong way. I tend to also make it a thing to always ask someone I see on touring gear at the area where and if they tour. Maybe they would like to go touring sometime yanno.

Seems more than half tour at the ski area.

I do know a couple of SP folks who skin at the area for the work out. Guess they need something to do.

[El Chupacabra]

Yes and yes, I believe so. The beast binding feels much more planted and solid.

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Interesting. Wouldn't have thought the heel made such a big difference alone.

[Lindahl]

Saw a nut case last Friday skiing Dfits with the toes locked out. I pointed this out to him and he mumbled something and other wise acted like he had not heard me.

Saw him later down the slopes toes still locked out on the main trail. He must ski them like that all the time. He was not skinning.

I was doing some laps testing some lightweight touring skis for a review and when I landed an airplane turn, it forced the toe springs open and I blew out the side of the binding and slid down half the run. Was moving really fast near trees. Scary and not fun. Ever since that, I lock out inbounds. But I don’t ski touring gear inbounds unless I’m going out the gates or testing, so... there’s that too I guess.

[Eluder]

15-20" of blower today. Deepest day of the season so far. Still a fair number of people hiking up the groomer (that wasn't groomed) all day, while the lifts were turning. I don't get it.

Just stop, you and I both know that 70 waist 165cm skis paired with 900 gram nordic boots are the best possible tool to avoid the face shots we had to endure yesterday.

[smooth operator]

Anyone here got experience doing a burlier tech binding like the beast for a 70/30 BC/resort set up?

I used to run beasts (14) on OG Cochises and thought it was pretty good.

Until I swapped them for a pair of STH w CAST and I was blown away by the improvement in snow feel.
Surely the Beast is better than other tech bindings, esp. due to the toe absorbing some shocks. But I did not expect going back to alpine would be such a big step.

[I've seen black diamonds!]

A) If you can't or won't ski smoothly, don't ski traditional tech bindings inbounds (or out of bounds for that matter).

B) If you can ski smoothly, go for it. In untracked, in particular, tech bindings perform just fine, although expecting them to release as reliably as alpine bindings is probably a mistake.

C) If you'll be doing much resort skiing, especially on hard snow, you'll almost certainly have more fun (and likely be safer) on a burlier binding. Whether something like a Tecton or Shift will hold up to the abuse of resort skiing likely also depends on how smoothly you ski.

E) If you find yourself prereleasing on a pair of bindings, figure out the problem and/or get a different pair of bindings.

D) There are a number of reasons people skin inbounds, but it mostly sucks.

[XXX-er]

. Haven't heard of any substantial numbers at my home mountain where prolly 30 percent of total skiers are on tech binding setups charging everything in sight. Kinda kept a finger on the pulse of things...a few heel piece explosions, some broken toepieces and one broken tib/fib specifically attributed to tech binding non release/specific motion fall...over the past half a decade or so afaik. Acceptable numbers.]

pretty much the same 2 hrs east where youwill see lots of frame and lowtech AT bindings on the hill, but these are both small hills, with mostly soft snow conditions and slow chairs/t-bars

the rad heelpieces and Kingpin toe pieces were going to explode wherever they were skied

[reckless toboggan]

Euros on Black Crows with pintechs at resort, inbounds skiing with all the technique of an 80s ski instructor (legs glued together skiing off the last 15 cm of the tails), and that weird vaguely limp pole plant that matches their wet-fish handshakes.

Pretty much all I saw up high in the French Alps last year.

[margotron]

inbounds skiing with all the technique of an 80s ski instructor (legs glued together skiing off the last 15 cm of the tails).

Gotta admit it's pretty from the chair

[sheel44]

Yes and yes, I believe so. The beast binding feels much more planted and solid.

Appreciate the detailed response, think I'll go demo them before making a decision

[Chugachjed]

Leaving the resort today some gaper with light touring boots and pin bindings asked me for a day pass. They’re not even trying to skin here they’re trying to mooch passes.

[wooley12]

Fell as I dropped into the park on my Cham HM 97 and ST's. last week. Lost a ski and slid 50' vert. Caught the lose ski as it went past. Brake was gone. I toe released doing a hockey stop once with Comforts on frozen EC cordaroy groomers at -12 deg. I ski like it was 1960.

[snoqpass]

I skied on tech bindings today and nobody posted anything

[rod9301]

I skied on tech bindings today and nobody posted anything

Crazy, right?

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[NakedShorts]

First BC rig was bought, on the cheap, from said Gringo. 10 Cm to big for his liking / abilities. He liked his wife's better. Check CL.

Heavenly is a mostly mellow resort with a funky lift protocol. I see the merits in a flexible setup. Getting "After it" isn't really the same as some other resorts so the added flexibility significantly outweighs any performance differences.

I ski the same ski with alpine binders and fritchies. Same alpine boot. Slightly different mount point. Fritchies ride higher and create a different angle and flex ever so...Best excuse to buy a new pair.


It is cool to be core, remember that. My mind is always blown by this I see it too.

[NakedShorts]

If you rip then STFU we are not even talking about you!

[waxman]

https://www.powder.com/gear-locker/h...VGRqgToxVLUh18

[Boissal]

https://www.powder.com/gear-locker/h...VGRqgToxVLUh18

I read that earlier, not sure the catastrophic failure of an essentially new tech binding in a section of LaGrave which can hardly be described as "the resort" supports the argument. A fresh out of the box P18 could randomly explode on your for no apparent reason and leave you equally fucked. Homegirl who appears to weigh about 120 lbs wasn't exactly overstressing the design parameters of a tech binding with a short straightline in hard snow... Now she's traded the risk of a freak incident for the much more prevalent risk of ripping out a knee with a P18 set on its lowest DIN setting which is probably on the high end for her (I know I know, she's a badass guide and probably skis HARD but that doesn't change the fact that a DIN of 8 isn't exactly a low release value when you don't weigh much).
This is a perfect example of knee-jerk reaction followed by dubious rationalization. Abandoning your flimsy rationale for not wearing a helmet after taking a 500' ride is another illustration of that. The amount of cognitive dissonance in that article is cringe worthy.

[mall walker]

Yeah I read that a few days ago. Idk, I sympathize with her at least in the sense that when a piece of gear fails on me it has bad juju and I never use it again. I wish she said what binding it was.

[Vt-Freeheel]

The helmet part of the story was "interesting"

[plugboots]

Also, she didn't need to be on tech bindings then or there. La Grave is a near perfect place for the CAST system, as it's all side country, the lift takes you up, and only very infrequently do you skin. Most of the time a short bootpack gets you to the line that isn't directly accessed.

[BlatantAlias]

I had the pleasure of skiing with her in la Grave over the course of a week this past March, and got to hear her story firsthand. I agree La Grave is certainly the near perfect place to use the CAST system, but I completely disagree that she "didn't need to be on tech bindings there", or that it's all side-country, or that you're infrequently skinning, and it's all boot-packing, etc..

Remember that she's an IFMGA guide making a living of schlepping people around the mountains every day. Some days we didn't skin, some days we did, but wanting to keep options open meant we were always on touring capable gear.

She had a catastrophic failure of a tech toe piece in a no fall zone, and is lucky to have survived. Now her main goal is retention - not to release, or have a failure in a critical no-fall zone, which she finds herself in literally every day. For her that "freak incident" isn't such a freak occurrence.

[Boissal]

For her that "freak incident" isn't such a freak occurrence.

It is completely a freak incident, it's the very definition of one. Tech bindings are less reliable than alpine bindings, no doubt about that. I'm sure there's data out there to support that with actual numbers which I don't have access to. However, the failure rate remains very low which is why a lot of us are out on tech bindings day in day out without an afterthought and we continue to live to tell the tale. If 10% of tech toe pieces experienced catastrophic failure on a routine basis nobody would be touching the things with a 10' ski!

[mall walker]

I value retention over release which is why I always lock my fucken toes