There is little doubt that telemark bindings are going to go through a bit of turmoil for a few years. Keep in mind what I’m referring to is not the established technology for boots and bindings using the 75mm norm, but NTN, the new telemark norm.
The latest addition to the NTN family, Rottefella’s Freedom binding.
Backcountry favors a free-pivot
The Telemark Tech System practically disappears on the ascent.
NTN favors Convenience & Power
The NTN Freeride binding was revised last season to address issues with the baseplate cracking.
Hybrid options
The heart of Burnt Mountain Design’s Spike is the toe plate that offers true step-in convenience.
Unfortunately, at this stage in the game TTS is on the bleeding edge of development so it is not without a few flaws. Chief among them are springs without enough travel to allow for a full knee-to-ski telemark turn, especially with big boots. While it can be argued this isn’t necessary if you have good form, even good telemark skiers with a tall stance occasionally take a fall. As history has proven, when the springs limit out, bindings separate from skis or break.
Bend cable rods aren’t the end of the world…just the beginning of it. 😉
A DIY tele-tech binding using Axl springs.
Decisions, Decisions
For the average user, this means that telemark systems using NTN boots aren’t quite ready for prime time. On that I must concur, but it is close enough that those who are itching to get beyond the limits imposed by the 75mm norm the options that exist are acceptable, even superior with a few generic caveats.
There is the simple consideration that going NTN means replacing boots and bindings at a cost in the neighborhood of a C-note. You might get away with less, but not by much.
Is Bigger Better?
There are other considerations. Do you go with a NTN specific binding from Rottefella, either the Freedom or the Freeride, or a hybrid, TTS or NT Spike? The benefit of going with Rottefella is they are a big company (within the context of the telemark market) and have gone on record as being committed to the longevity and growth of the sport, and even making the point at their official introduction of the Freedom binding they have the resources and willpower to do so. The hybrid NTN bindings are from small guys.
Weighing the Features
However, beyond that it still boils down to features. If most of your days on snow are in-bounds, Rottefella’s options make sense. The more aggressively you ski, and the more time you spend in-bounds, the more the Freeride makes sense. The more you venture out-of-bounds, the more the Freedom makes sense. If you spend the majority of your time in the backcountry, the hybrids make more sense, either TTS or Spike NT Tour.
Consider the Turn
Then there is the matter of downhill technique. There will be some adjustment in technique required whether you are using a true NTN binding that grabs your boot at the second heel, or a hybrid NTN binding that latches at the heel, like TTS or Burnt Mountains NT Spike. Of the four options, the NT Spike and Rottefella’s Freedom will ski most like a 75mm binding, while TTS and Rottefella’s Freeride work best when you weight both skis simultaneously when transitioning between turns.
Weighing the Options
There are other considerations, but none insurmountable as long as there is enough interest to fund further development. For the manufacturers it may seem like I’m emphasizing the negative over the positive. Indeed I am, not to scare people aware but to be blunt honest about the status of the new telemark norm. There are plenty of positive reasons to make the switch now, but it is not yet a clearly superior system. The ability to get in and out of NTN bindings without bending over, or having a safety release are unquestionably superior. If all the positive features – “step-in” convenience, plenty of power (user defined), a frictionless free-pivot for touring and light weight could be combined in one binding with more boots to chose from, the switch from 75mm to NTN would be a done deal.
For the moment we must figure out our priorities and chose accordingly. If safety release, convenient entry and exit from the binding and excellent downhill control are at the top of your list, the Freeride is a good option with inferior but acceptable touring performance. If you don’t need turbo power for turns, with good touring, though not a true free-pivot, Rottefella’s Freedom is the way to go. If you want step-in convenience, don’t need safety release, with solid control and excellent touring, look at NT Spike. If you want Dynafit caliber touring performance and Hammerhead power with catastrophic release capability, TTS is your rig.
If you love your current 75mm boots stick with 75mm options like O1, Axl, Enzo, RT Spike, Switchback or the X2 version, and if you must have a safety release, 7tm Power Tour.
My alpine friends are always quick to point out that if we would just fix the heel we could fix the problems, but telemark is not about fixing the heel but freeing it and therein lies both the rub and the appeal.
© 2012
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more blah blah blah than you can shake a lurk at…
still no reason for me to change from 75mm yet
Re release with 75mm bindings, there are also the Telebry Safeouts that are reliable and DIN-rated. Yes, they add weight but give some peace of mind as well as brakes.
You can have a mount plate on each ski in the quiver and move your fave binding from one to the other via the release plate (assuming all are either standard or narrow size).
He he. For most folks that is what I would expect. Thought it worth detailing more of the blah, blah now that there are some choices in the realm of NTN. Bootwise 75mm still gives the most options, and I’m quite happy with the binding choices as well. But the ability to add more features is limited in 75mm, so it is good to see the development continue. Slow adopters will be rewarded – and we can thank the early adopters for flushing out the flaws. 😉
nicely balanced article..as a skier who has both NT Spike and NTN Freeride (and soon Freedoms mounted up) I agree the NT Spike “skis” closest to the 75mm setup , 7TM Powers I had before. But the NT Spike offers free pivot, and much more edge control on hard snow than the 7TMs ever did.
When I wore out my 75mm Ener-G boots, I made the move to the NTN Scarpa TX. The NTN boots are generally lighter, you have the option of using a Dynafit binding, they walk better, and are much easier to kick steps in, too.
Agree.
But if you want to keep your old duckbill boots and want all the fruit salad, then 7TM offers it all (one caveat below): step-in (kind of), crampons, brakes, tour-mode, releaseability, active option (Power model).
Caveat: the 7TM release really only works with lateral twist. I have a snapped ACL to prove it.
And I guess the whole kit if you went for it just means more complexity and weight. Though I’ve not kept up with user posts reliability still seems to be good.
It’s all a matter of what trade-offs you can live with.
There are certainly some positive TTS developments on the horizon. This year Crispi Rando boots are coming into full production, bringing the total number of tech toe tele boots to five (six if you include the defunct F3).
Speaking of DIY TTS, the set up pictured above with the Axl springs is one of two sets I built and skied last season, which along with a set of TTS Hammerheads, are ready to rock another season. These binding were well worth the effort for those looking to go big with TTS.
The “next telemark norm” is looking better than ever 🙂
7TM is pretty lackluster in the “power” category and the touring version has a lot of stack height and packs a pretty solid weight penalty. I agree there’s no reason to upgrade if your bindings and boots are “fresh”, but there’s also no reason to throw good money at old tech neither. Keep an eye on TTS, it’s just now starting to show it’s colors, pretty soon you’ll be able to have your cake and eat it too, all without ever having to play the NTN game.
Yeah, I’m watching and waiting.
Re the power of the 7TM Power binding, I’d rate it at about 2.5-3 of a HH.
@LW,
First off – my apologies for not approving your comment in a timely fashion. Your embedded link prevented automatic approval and I don’t check that part of my site’s back end very often (obviously). You probably thought I was censoring you. Not on purpose. 😉
Now, to address your points.
re: #1, the number of NTN tele boots.
Apparently I wasn’t clear enough when I qualified the number five with “for those who chose to migrate to the NTN norm along the Dynafit style path illustrated by the Telemark Tech System (TTS)”. I can see how you thought I was selling NTN short. My perspective is and always has been backcountry focused and it appears that maybe I’m taking too strong of a stance on promoting the mountaineering aspect.
Limiting the boots to 5 was intentional, but only because I wanted to be able to compare apples with apples, i.e., the same boot on any combination of those bindings. TTS does limit things there because of
the tech inserts. I’m on record that is the future for tele. Without requiring tech inserts, there are plenty of good NTN telemark boots
and thank you for providing all the details.
re: #2 – TTS being a demonstrator binding, i.e., not ready for prime time.
While
in the long run I agree that TTS as it currently exists is still in beta form, call it beta-ii, it is commercially available. Not in great quantities, and neither is Spike. I consider them valid because there is a small cadre of pinners who have used ’em and they DO work. Regarding the safety release of TTS, I agree it is not reliable; thought I have made that clear on several occasions. But it IS there and it is possible. Furthermore, it might be made to be more consistent and reliable for release in the future. I can dream, okay?
#3, Freedom’s touring mode being much less resistive than the Freeride.
We just disagree on this one. I’ll grant you the Freeride “might” provide a little bit less resistance than the Freeride, but it’s in the same range and is still significantly more than the Switchback brothers, O1, Enzo, Axl, or 7tm’s Tour let alone Dynafit, La Sportiva, Plum, Silvretta or Fritschi.
#4, NTN being “simply the best” tele binding available.
What part of “excellent downhill control” do you disagree with? To you it is simply the best and your point on “rewarding precise technique” is spot on. To me it is a valid option with excellent skiing performance, has a form of safety release that works well even though it isn’t certified, is easy to get in and out of, but falls short in the uphill efficiency department. A frictionless pivot matters a lot to me since I do a lot of skinning. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. 😉
re: AT Apostle (Andrew McLean) being right that Dynafit is THE way to go if you want light weight and NTN is THE way if you want to tele.
I’m half with you. If you really want to enjoy skiing, tele. Power is always fun to wield, so get a tele binding that helps deliver the goods. NTN is a great choice – but there are others and that’s part of the beauty of tele is that not everyone likes the same level of power. The Freedom offers a moderate power choice for those who are looking at new boots, and as you pointed out, there are a lot of them out there. In fact, there aren’t many more boot models available in the 75mm realm anymore either. If you’re going NTN, my advice is to get boots with Tech fittings so you can take advantage of what that has to offer down the road; either Dynafit with training heels or TTS, or both.
I skied NTN bindings for a number of years, still have a set kicking around, but after breaking numerous versions from years one, two, and three, and having mediocre performance to boot, it’s a stretch to call them the best telemark binding.
NTN skis okay, not as good as Axls, maybe as good as BD 01’s, but with unresolved issues including fragility, icing, excessive weight, non free pivot, and marginal power transfer, they are a long ways from perfect.
NTN is essentially an underfoot cable/cartridge telemark binding with a midfoot retention point, nothing novel, the design is not going anywhere fast.
On the other hand, TTS, though still in it’s infancy, promises lighter weight, the seperation of release from retention, and when it is fully fleshed out, a simple, durable, and powerful telemark binding.
Granted, waiting is a hard thing to do, but it’s not like NTN is going anywhere fast, so you might as well keep an eye on TTS, it has the promise that NTN hasn’t kept.
Some big calls here.
Midfoot retention *was* new.
Issues:
Excessive weight: shoot, Axls weigh near on 1 kg each.
Fragility: at the start, yes with boots. But you must ski like Godzilla to trash the bindings.
Pivot: there is now a good-enough pivot version.
Marginal power transfer?: you gotta be kidding.
I don’t hear anyone saying they’re perfect.
anyone know if the Freeride slides on the same mounting plate as the 1st gen NTN binding?
It does not. The plate had to be dropped to save weight. And the mounting plate for the Freeride is now pink plastic. Not sure who Rottefella consulted on their color scheme, but it certainly is at odds with the neon green trend.
Good article, but there are a couple points not made. one- The NTN seems to be a lot heavier than lighter 75mm bindings. The Switchback is whole pound lighter than the Freeride. Using big heavy tele boots with big heavy skis it probably doesn’t matter, but I just got some cool carbon Megawatts that weigh less than my Scarpa boots! I hope Scarpa will put some carbon into a “next gen” tele boot and get few pounds out.
The other point is crampons. I do envy AT gear for being about to use crampons that don’t “drag” on the slide. If NTN setups can accommodate AT type crampons that’d be a big plus for NTN.
[…] heel post so it is less likely to become unhooked when touring. At this point my preference is for TTS over NTN in-bounds or out. What’s next? Next gen Mantis TTS with steel reinforcement.Since the original […]