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Tech binding foolishness

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
On my recent few days of touring I had a couple of incidents losing skis while skinning. This is merely a PITA when you have leashes on but is potentially serious when you don't.

I was using dynafit beast 14s with brakes on one pair of skis and marker alpinists with leashes on the other.
What happened in both cases (I'm pretty sure) is that I knocked the toes out of full lock to half lock and then got clumsy.
I say this because after the second time I started watching the bindings like hawks and found a few times that the toes were in "half lock" position.
With two different bindings I can only conclude that the common factor was user idiocy.

Anyway, any tips for avoiding the problem beyond the obvious "get less clutzy with kick turns so you don't bash the toes"?
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I think you've answered your own question!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
one for that ski touring for ejets thread I think.
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jedster wrote:

Anyway, any tips for avoiding the problem beyond the obvious "get less clutzy with kick turns so you don't bash the toes"?


I wouldn't worry too much - with a skin attached the ski is going nowhere fast!
Where you need paranoia is during transitions.

FWIW : I suspect ice (either below the toe piece or in the boot itself) is the most likely cause of unwanted pre-release?
Its quite hard to accidentally unlock a tech binding.
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Haggis_Trap wrote:
jedster wrote:

Anyway, any tips for avoiding the problem beyond the obvious "get less clutzy with kick turns so you don't bash the toes"?


I wouldn't worry too much - with a skin attached the ski is going nowhere fast!
Where you need paranoia is during transitions.

FWIW : I suspect ice (either below the toe piece or in the boot itself) is the most likely cause of unwanted pre-release?
Its quite hard to accidentally unlock a tech binding.


well one of them went unpleasantly far down a couloir I had just floundered up!

Good point on ice/snow under the toe springs though - I'll pay a bit more attention.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
@jedster, I’ve made most mistakes one could imagine with tech bindings but not suffered from this one. The only advice I can offer is to try ATK bindings on your next touring skis as they seem better in every way (except price) from the various other tech bindings I have
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I think knocking full lock to not full lock is rare when skinning. So we don’t know what ski boot you are using but not all boots seat the pin equally and my tuppence worth is to do the pin test each time you start the ascent ie really swivel the ski to check you are fully “in” before starting the ascent.

There is also some binding related stuff that can go wrong so would be good to know if it’s dynafits or something else.
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jedster wrote:
Anyway, any tips for avoiding the problem beyond the obvious "get less clutzy with kick turns so you don't bash the toes"?

One option is to get different binding Laughing While it's not realistic you will change bindings because of this, it might be factor when getting new ones in future. It was happening relatively regular to me on Dynafit, but on ATK it's simply not possible (at least with current boots) to do this. So after I switched to ATK, it never happened again. It's a bit different construction and with that a bit different position of "toe lever" and with ATK it's so low, you can't get to it with boot, while with Dynafit I could actually pretty easy bump it if I went a bit too far forward with boot (quite normal thing on kick turns).
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chrisJersey wrote:
I think knocking full lock to not full lock is rare when skinning. So we don’t know what ski boot you are using but not all boots seat the pin equally and my tuppence worth is to do the pin test each time you start the ascent ie really swivel the ski to check you are fully “in” before starting the ascent.

There is also some binding related stuff that can go wrong so would be good to know if it’s dynafits or something else.


Thanks I was in dalbello lupos, Bindings I did mention at the top (dynafit beast 14 and market alpinist). Both of them have similar lever position to primoz's point
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jedster wrote:

Thanks I was in dalbello lupos


The ones with removable tongue?

The metal "knob" (for lack of better word!) might conceivably interfer with tech binding lock mode on a kick turn? Though you would need to be far forward
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
yep - it's a thought...
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When I was on a non-detachable chairlift in Kitzbuhel a few weeks ago, a stranger inadvertently placed their ski base on the toe release of one of my Dynafit bindings. I was fortunate to notice before the ski fell to the snow below. A bit of waving of the ski in the air * to warn the chairlift operator at top station thankfully slowed the chair down and saved me a full-speed dismount on just one ski, but it was still an interesting landing hopping and sliding simultaneously while keeping the ski I was carrying out of mischief from the others.

* Anyone that doesn't know Dynafit bindings will not appreciate the impossibility of 'clipping in' while on a chairlift !
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