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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
As I sit upright in pain trying to get comfortable nursing my broken ribs and recovering from my shoulder ball joint being screwed together after it split into 4 pieces I wonder how did it happen?
There I was merrily playing off the sides with the kids jumping off an on, not big or fast just a playful blue (first run after lunch) then wham both skis eject and instead of rolling down the slope I body slam into the ground. Now I was in no state to investigate as I got flown home direct from Schallanches hospital but my friend did go back for a look and seen nothing untoward, then he looked at my bindings and for some reason they were set at 6!, now I am 103kg and normally quite fast piste skier so right or wrong I have them set at 10 normally, so how did they end up at 6 & would that have caused my issue, ie would I have just skied through the roller if on 10 & not ejected?
The only thing I can think of is I got them serviced few weeks before but since then I have had a dads weekend on them so have skied fairly hard with no issues. do you normally check your din settings before each day or do they just fail for some reason and go to what ever setting they failed at?
Not looking to blame anyone just avoid a repeat
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Jonny996 wrote:
do you normally check your din settings before each day or do they just fail for some reason and go to what ever setting they failed at?
Not looking to blame anyone just avoid a repeat


Bad luck, get well soon.

No I check my DIN settings once when I set them, so like you, if someone fiddled with them I probably wouldn't notice.

For 80kgs approx I set them at 6.5.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
I hope things improve quickly.

While you recuperate it might be worthwhile doing a bit of reading to establish your correct DIN range. Look at a DIN table (eg Salomon), know your BSL (boot sole length mine is 305 on 26 boot), your weight, and know how to set forward pressure on your specific bindings. Then you are in control of your release charactetistics.
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Ouch, Very sorry for your injury. BUT and overly lightly set binding is ALWAYS preferable to an overly tight binding!

95% (or more) of all lower leg injuries (ski accident) ending up in physio in Chamonix can be traced to incorrectly set and or used (locking the toe on a tech binding) bindings.

- This is from me doing a but of asking around when going through ACL rehab in Chamonix from cycling accident - I was the only non ski ACL and ALL had binding issues! (unfortunately most people in Chamonix ride at DIN way above the calculated level)

A hard but balanced landing on almost 0 din would not result in a fall. A hard but unbalanced landing on to high a din will result in tearing or breaking something!
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
@Jonny996, are they definitely your skis? Could they have been swapped with an pair of the same size/model but different din setting in the restaurant?

Sorry to hear about your accident and hope your recovery goes smoothly.
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@Jonny996, cannot see how they’d change. They are just big bolts on springs. No self setting likely.

Can’t see a shop changing them themselves either. 10 is not at all unreasonable. And if you skied on 20 you’d be on very obviously serious bindings and skis, well, probably!

How weird, and how unfortunate. Get better soon!
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Gämsbock wrote:
@Jonny996, are they definitely your skis? Could they have been swapped with an pair of the same size/model but different din setting in the restaurant?

Sorry to hear about your accident and hope your recovery goes smoothly.


Hubby had his (hired) skis taken from the ski room. We knew the numbers on ours (and they’ve were set for a completely different base sole length) but were the same make model and length. We took them to the shop to get them adjusted explains what had happened. I did wonder how high the other person got before realising.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
@Jonny996,

That's very bad luck. I'd say there were very few who would be looking for a DIN of 10-safely.
I can't remember when i last saw an injury from bindings set too low. I do see a lot of knee injuries.
There is a DIN guide called AFNOR that takes into account various inputs like boot size, gender, ski level.
I'm not convinced that 1/10 X your body weight is safe for everyone.
Happy to send out my copy of the AFNOR to anyone who pm's me.

Jonathan Bell
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Thats v bad luck. I suffered a similar injury 14 months ago, left 4 parts head of humerus fracture which was put back together same day in austria. I skied into some rocks my fault! Also broke my rifht wrist. The good news is that back skiing and kitesurfing. Rehab key, get it moving as soon as allowed, pendulums etc
Good luck
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I can relate to this. I hurt my shoulder a couple of years ago skating along the flat when one ski popped off unexpectedly and I slammed into the ground. The skis weren't mine, and I thought they'd been set up correctly, but closer inspection afterwards showed that they were only set to DIN 4 (I use 5.5 to 6 normally). There may have been other issues with the adjustment of the binding and it may not have been only the DIN that was wrong (I set the whole thing up again myself whilst having a coffee, as I was still able to ski), but the result was that the ski was too loose and came off far too easily.

@Jonny996, Good luck with the recovery.
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I’d say same thing - are they definitely yours ? I’ve never seen DINS change
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Ouch, well your usual setting doesn't sound unreasonable for your weight, I'm 78kg and at @spyderjon's suggestion run my bindings at 8, but equally if I borrow skis from the hire desk in a fridge they tend to set them to between 5 and 6 and I don't have a problem. My guess is you've been skiing these for quite a while on the wrong DIN. Have you lent your skis to anyone in the past who might have tweaked them as I can't see how they would change without the help of a screwdriver?


Last edited by And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports. on Sun 24-02-19 10:14; edited 1 time in total
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I think it’s reasonable to reinforce that I cannot see how a binding can, by itself, change setting.

Not something to worry about. Or be warned about...
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
This is strange. I can’t imagine how they changed unless the shop did them and you happened not to notice (as they didn’t come off) during the Dad’s weekend.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Idris wrote:


A hard but balanced landing on almost 0 din would not result in a fall. A hard but unbalanced landing on to high a din will result in tearing or breaking something!


I didn’t know that about an almost 0 DIN setting. I thought they’d be popping off even when skiing if you were used to say 6 or higher.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
@Jonathan Bell, AFNOR is the French national standards body, it is their equivalent of DIN. Standards do get copied around between standards bodies but there is usually something in the introduction that describes the history of the document.

There used to be a version of the DIN binding release standard that used tibia head width as one of the parameters which would deal with gender better.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
@Jonny996, sorry to hear about your accident. However, as others have said, unless you are a downhill racer there is no way you need a DIN setting of 10. I weight 86Kg and always have mine set to max 6.5. I have never had an unwaranted release, and I do ski fast in all kinds of terrain. 10 would just be asking to break something IMO!
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
@Steilhang, Doesn't have to be downhill, 10 is low for a male racer in any discipline, I agree that it is high for a recreational skier.
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@Steilhang, I weigh 60kgs and use DIN 8... but I am a reasonably strong skier...
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@Jonny996, oh no. I can't join in the conversations on DIN or the like but did just want to say, what a complete bummer! How did the kids and your wife get home? Had you all flown or driven? Broken ribs and the shoulder in 4 places is quite a feat. Wonder if you might have caught the edge of a rock/tree stump with your shoulder? Sending lots of sympathy. Sallanches hospital is nice and clean isn't it? The ladies on A&E reception and the lady who deals with the insurance is particularly nice. Hope that you start to feel more comfortable soon.


Last edited by Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do. on Sun 24-02-19 12:18; edited 2 times in total
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Sorry to hear this, debate about din settings seem somewhat irrelevant when the poster thinks his accident happened because the din was too low and he is querying how/when this could have happened. Wise after the event? I doubt many (if any) reacreational skiers check their din settings during the course of a holiday and if the skis have been set up by a shop we would generally not recheck them after leaving the shop. There is quite a lot of "trust" involved in the skiing environment and for many of this it starts at the ski shop! Unwise of us? Maybe or perhaps just a little bit silly as a check is so easy but also so easy to miss.
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Jeez Shocked DIN 10! Really sorry for you pain I destroyed my shoulder 20 odd years ago . . . Doc told me it was a Rugby type injury and the fix as "cosmetic" so no NHS repair . . . he wuz an asshole given how much it hurts these days Evil or Very Mad Anyway that wuz on a snowboard at very high speed. However . . . I severed an Achilles tendon on skis set to DIN 10 . . .now 'THAT' surgery taught me a lesson . . .

Set your DIN to the lower mark for your weight, read the hill, and learn to ski in balance and harmony with the terrain. I weigh 115Kg, I ski aggressively and only and RARELY eject when I really screw up . . . at DIN 5.
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under a new name wrote:
@Steilhang, I weigh 60kgs and use DIN 8... but I am a reasonably strong skier...
Do you have problems with the ski releasing at times when it shouldn't? Seems too high to me, and I (not wanting to boast) am also a strong skier.
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@Steilhang, not problems as such... does happen.

Am pretty careless re snow under boot. Shouldn’t be, last time I recall a notable pre-release I broke my hand quite badly...
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under a new name wrote:
@Steilhang, not problems as such... does happen.

Am pretty careless re snow under boot. Shouldn’t be, last time I recall a notable pre-release I broke my hand quite badly...
Oh I have broken and dislocated plenty of stuff, but never due to an unwarranted release!
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@Jonny996, Where did you get them serviced ?

If I take skis into Snow & Rock the service slip has enough information for them to be able to be able to calculate the correct DIN setting for a customer. You can also tick a box labelled essentially "don't change the bindings".
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Hmmm ... the ‘set at 10 and hope’ in the OP really should be questioned.

To cut through some of the fog ... know your DINs and check your DINs

Know your DINs = DIN table + Weight + necessary formal adjustment + forward pressure

The adjustment is a question of judgement and that should be done by a tech - eg for injury, age, skiing ability. If you don’t know how to set DINs and forward pressure then the judgement behind adjustment to the table DIN is likely well beyond your knowledge.

Check your DINs and bindings regularly. Some bindings can easily move forward and backwards. Some get clogged with ice easily (regrettably some Salomon kids’ bindings). There are plenty of moments in queues etc to give them a quick visual check. But...DIN screws certainly don’t change by themselves.
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I'd agree to err on the low side for DIN settings but then increase by 0.5 if you get too many pre-releases. I'm only 75kg but do a lot of off piste, drops and small jumps and if my fatter ski settings are below 9 they pop off all over the place. Especially in steeper rocky areas that can be pretty risky. SL and GS skis are set slightly higher, probaby about 0.5 - 1 higher than ideal but I've lost a ski a couple of times at high speed and that is scary.

Last week I clipped the top of a buried road sign off piste at slow speed and my right ski ejected immediately then the left came off as I came down in slightly heavy warm snow. Not a tweak felt in my legs and they were set to 9. They have also popped off a few times this season off piste so I would say that this level is right for me.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
I think it’s safe to say that they didn’t change themselves. Even if one did somehow get altered surely they wouldn’t both coincidently go down to 6!?

As said above, only 2 options really, either someone changed them or they aren’t your skis.

(Actually the third possibility is that your mate didn’t read the DIN properly, perhaps that’s more likely?)
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