B&D Ski Leashes

A snowHead

Following my problems with binding breaks see here I bought some of these before I went away at Christmas from The Piste Office. In some ways it seems a bit pretty pricey for a couple of phone cords with attached loops, two metal hooks, a piece of plastic tube and cord, and a few plastic widgets. But I liked the concept of having leashes that will keep the ski's close by but would say breakaway in an ava. Here is my experience of fitting and using them.

Ths instructions for fitting don't come with the product but instead are listed here My first fitting issue came at point Step 1. In 1 It says 2-3 inches of cord is sufficient. I have no idea how you can make a decent knot as mentioned in 5 with the amount of cord recommended. Also why it doesn't make sense to use a much longer piece. You have to tie the knot whilst it is looped tightly round a part of your binding. It probably didn't help I was tying to the backend of an alpine binding but nonetheless I had really problems getting a good knot. And one of them came undone a couple of times before we resorting to a new bit of cord taken from a goggle bag!

Also it doesn't tell you that it makes more sense to already have the cord running through the plastic widget before you tie the knot rather than after. Indeed the Step 2 picture is unclear and also doesn't indicate how blinking difficult this procedure is. Using a screwdriver I didn't find particularly easy or helpful. The nature of the "fuse link" is such that you clearly you dont want what goes in to easily come out. Unfortunately getting the two loops in is then really difficult. We did get there in the end.

So onto the performance of the product. Well they did do what they were meant to. I had a couple of low impact falls where the bindings released. And the leashes expanded out but the fuse link held. I could take the ski's off and walk with them without too much issue - though I tended to unclip them from my boots most of the time. The metal clip that attaches the leash to the boot can be a bit fiddly but can be operated with gloves on and does hold firm. It can get snowed and iced up and therefore difficult to undo. It was often easier to clip onto my boots before putting my ski's on. Most of the time they didn't get in the way when clipping into my bindings. Though it would be easier if the binding attachment point was at the front rather than the rear.

Now they are fixed on OK I've gained confidence they will provide what I need. I think for back country and touring skiing they would work vvery well.

Help!!

B&D Ski Leashes

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