Lee Lyon and friends at dawn on the approach to a mystery peak in South America. Zach Paley photo.
I had the great privilege–again–of spending the Northern Hemisphere summer skiing down in South America. In fact, as you're reading this in late October, I'm still down here, and the skiing's still great.
Along with the pleasure of skiing summer powder was the opportunity to try out some of G3's backcountry-specific gear that I'd heard a lot about for this upcoming season. I was able to spend about two weeks skiing around the Andes on G3's Ion 12 tech binding, ZenOxide 105 ski, and Alpinist LT climbing skins. Check out some of my impressions of the gear below.
G3's Ion 12 Tech Binding
The G3 Ion 12 is a light, strong, 12-DIN tech binding. While it does not revolutionize tech bindings, it is a solid offering from G3, and has received much praise from other testing outlets. While I had a couple very minor problems with the Ion, I was very pleased with its overall performance, both uphill and downhill.
DETAILS
MSRP: $550
DIN: 12
Claimed Weight: 1 lb. 4. 6 oz. per binding
Reviewer: 5’10” 150lbs
Days Tested: 15
Location: Las Leñas, Argentina
Downhill Performance
G3's Ion binding looks burly but was ultimately not much more inspiring to charge on than other tech bindings of similar weight. Zach Paley photo.
Overall, I did not feel that the Ion was a significant improvement over other tech bindings of similar weight. It perhaps felt a little more solid while skiing, and it does look stronger and burlier, but not enough so to inspire to me to ski it more aggressively than I would another tech binding.
I only released once from the Ion, and I suspect it was due to mud in my tech fittings rather than any kind of force. Regardless, I skied the rest of the time with the toe up one click (as I do on all tech bindings), and I never released again.
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The Ion has nifty plastic towers on the toe that hold your boot in place and make it easy to click in. Unfortunately, they don’t work if your toe lug is too worn out (like mine), and actually make it more difficult to click in. I don’t think this is a negative necessarily, just a piece of personal experience.
After 15 days, there are no signs of wear and tear on the Ion. Unfortunately, I cannot comment further on durability yet, but I am cautiously optimistic that this binding will hold up better than other tech bindings would.
Uphill Performance
The Ion tours well, but the brake and heel risers need some further tweaking. Zach Paley photo.
The Ion tours very well, as I would expect it to, as it is a fairly lightweight tech binding. However, there are a couple of issues that I did come across.
The Ion employs a unique mechanism for holding the brake up while touring. When you turn the heelpiece to tour, a little plastic hook extends. Then, when you step down with your heel, the brake grabs on the hook and is held up. This is a cool system, but it doesn’t work 100% of the time. I have had a few experiences already where the brake has fallen back down while touring. I believe that this is because if you bump the heelpiece and turn it at all, the hook can retract and release the brake.
The Ion uses heel risers that are similar to the Dynafit Radical, but look tougher. They are good, but they need to be spring-loaded so that when you flick them with a pole, they snap into position. As they are, you have to guide them through their entire path with your pole, rather than just giving them a quick flick. This is a minor inconvenience, but I figured it was worth mentioning.
The Bottom Line
Tasty Andes turns earned on the G3 Ion. Zach Paley photo.
The G3 Ion 12 appears to be a simple, strong, durable, 12-DIN tech binding. While not revolutionary, it may separate itself in the market by being very light for its powerful 12 DIN, and by being more simple and potentially more durable than its competitors. While I had a couple issues with the brake staying up and the heel risers not being as effective as they could be, this binding performed very well overall.
G3's ZenOxide Carbon Fusion 105 Ski
The ZenOxide Carbon Fusion 105 is the perfect ski for a hard charging ski mountaineer. It is light, stiff and straight. It excels in hard snow and at high speeds. However, it is not the ideal ski for softer snow, as it lacks a ton of tip rocker, but can be skied in pow if you're the kind of skier who likes big, open GS turns down the fall line. A poppy, new-school, super turny fun pow ski it is not, though.
DETAILS
MSRP: $700
Length Tested: 178 cm (also available in 167, 171, 186, and 191 cm lengths)
Dimensions: 131-105-123
Claimed Weight: 3 lbs, 10 oz for a single ski
Reviewer: 5’10” 150lbs
Days Tested: 15
Location: Las Leñas, Argentina
Flex
For a featherweight touring ski, the ZenOxide can charge and stomp like few skis in its class. Zach Puley photo.
The ZenOxide is an astoundingly stiff, damp ski for its weight of just a hair over 3 pounds per ski. Indeed, it is one of the stiffer, damper carbon skis I have ever seen. It likes to go fast and straight, and sometimes made me forget that I was on tech bindings. The ZenOxide requires a powerful skier who isn’t afraid to point it fall line and drive their ski. The stiff flex, relatively long turning radius, and lack of rocker is not going to ski like the fun, easy-going, bouncy, turny, smeary all mountain or powder ski you've probably picked up in the past few seasons. If that's what you're looking for, you're probably looking at a separate G3 ski like the Empire or the Synapse.
Shape
The ZenOxide has a long turn radius in the mid 20’s, lots of camber, a low profile tip with slight rocker, and a straight tail. It is very much a traditionally shaped ski that has great edge hold and prefers longer turns. All these things make it a great ski for going fast in hard snow, and also make it terrible for going slower in softer snow. This ski is not playful, and sinks like a submarine in powder, manky spring snow, breakable crusts and any other variation of soft snow imaginable. In those conditions, it requires a dedication to speed to get the ski to plane.
Weight
Light enough to skin up for turns like these all day long. Zach Paley photo.
The ZenOxide has a carbon fusion core, and G3 claims a weight of 3 lbs. 10 oz. per ski. This is an extremely light ski that definitely fits into the category of ultralight carbon skis. Considering that it charges harder than just about any other ski in this category, the ZenOxide Carbon Fusion 105 is a formidable option–if it suits your style.
The Bottom Line
Light, stiff, and begging for the fall line. Zach Paley photo.
The ZenOxide Carbon Fusion 105 is a stiff, damp, super light ski with a long turn radius and lots of camber. It likes to go fast and straight, and has great edge hold. It excels in hard snow, but struggles in softer snow or at slower speeds. It is the perfect choice for a ski mountaineer who likes to charge and often finds themselves in firm conditions. For slower speed or deeper conditions, I'd recommend checking out G3's Synapse or Empire lines.
G3's Alpinist LT Climbing Skins
The G3 Alpinist LT Climbing Skins are a trimmed down, lightweight version of the classic G3 Alpinist Climbing Skin. Essentially, they sacrifice some of the grippiness of the classic Alpinist skins in order to be lighter and more packable. By utilizing a lighter tail clip and lighter backing to the skins themselves, G3–on paper at lest–knocked off between 5% and 15% of the weight of the regular Alpinist skins. Retailing for between $189.99 and $199.99, you pay about a $20 penalty to save the weight.
On the long walk out to another run in the Andean backcountry. Zach Paley photo.
They are made of 100% nylon, and generally exhibit the typical pros and cons of nylon skins. They are durable, grippy, and waterproof, but they don’t glide well and don’t pack well. The Alpinist LT glides better and packs better because they have trimmed off a lot of extra material, but it still doesn’t compare to a mohair skin in these respects.
Personally, I prefer a minimalist mohair skin when I am prioritizing glide, weight and packability. However, if you want a lighter version of the Alpinist, or if you want the benefits of a mohair skin but with the durability of a nylon skin, the Alpinist LT is the perfect choice.
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G3
November 5th, 2015
Glad you like the gear Lee!
Also for this winter season, G3 has made two refinements to the ION heel piece which directly address your concerns:
1) Brake lockdown reliability and prevention of inadvertent switches from Touring mode back to Ski mode: A change to the heel lifts and brake hook assembly greatly improves these two issues. With some boots, the old heel lift design could cause autorotation, or it could occur during extreme ski flex.
2) Brake base and turret top cap parts changed from aluminium to sheet metal reinforced plastic parts. This solves a potential icing issue of the brake hook, which at times prevented the brake from locking down.
Ryan Dunfee
December 17th, 2015
Thanks for the comment, guys!