 Poster: A snowHead
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Rental Horror: Look Xpress toe wings rotated 90° and stuck after release. Is this mechanical negligence or caused by falling?
Hi everyone,
I need HELP/technical opinion on a rental incident that happened to me in Val Thorens. I’m trying to determine if this was bad luck or gross negligence by the shop, as it cost me a €350 taxi ride (missed the last connection back to Italy due to this skis failure).
The Gear: Rental skis (Dynastar E Lite 05) with Look Xpress 11 bindings.
The Incidents:
Fall #1 (Non-release): Earlier in the day, I fell. The bindings did not release despite extreme torque on my legs. I felt a tearing sensation in my thighs (luckily no bone fracture), but the ski stayed locked on. This makes me suspect the DIN was set too high or the mechanism was seized.
Fall #2 (The Failure): Later, I hit a pile of crud/slush. This time the ski released, BUT the front toe wings (the toe cup) rotated 90 degrees to the left and locked in that position (see attached photo  ).
The wings were completely stuck. I could not step back in. (At the time, both passing skiers and I thought the right toe wing had completely broken off (or sheared off), because that’s exactly what it looked like.）
Crucial Detail: When I finally managed to rush to the station, I discovered the gondola back to the other valley was already closed—I was eight minutes late. I begged the operator to reopen it, explaining that I was late because I had taken a fall and my skis were damaged and unusable. The operator took one look at it and was able to manually "snap" the wings back into position by hand. He didn't use tools, just force.
My Question:
Has anyone seen this happen on a healthy binding? Is this a clear sign of a faulty rental setup, or is it caused by falling?
Any technical insights would be appreciated so maybe I can argue my case for a refund. Or at least, I want to ensure the rental shop is informed that these bindings pose a significant safety risk. They need to be inspected immediately to prevent other skiers from facing the same dangerous situation I did.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@apli_limone, looks like you've double-posted (this thread) in an attempt to add in a photo. But for info that shows up as "content not viewable in your region" for me.
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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?
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Yep, seen it before and it's part of how ski bindings work in specific types of fall. Just like the lifty did you just grab them and snap them back into the normal position.
Your fall would have involved your leg rolling to it looks like the left relative to the longditudinal axif of the ski. Normally that action would result in the ski rolling onto the left edge but something clearly prevented that. At some point the force reached the DIN setting and so the toe piece rotated and releasing your boot. If the toe hadn't done that the forces would have found somewhere else to go, in that situation probably your knee and resulting in a blood wagon or helicopter and stay in hospital, rather than posting about it on SHs.
Now this isn't the most common type of ejection so why you've not seen/experienced it before (the 'forward roll' is probably most common, which leads to the heal pulling out/rear binding staying down) but it's one of the things they are designed to do. And I'd imagine they are also designed to 'stick' at either 45° or 90° after being triggered to avoid them releasing, then re-grabbing the boot and clipping you back in.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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And people laugh at me when I want to be back on the other side of the mountain with an hour to spare.
Sounds normal I’m afraid. Skis don’t always come off, bindings aren’t intelligent.
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