While there weren’t any official announcements of new ski specific products at the recent Outdoor Retailer summer show, the rumor mill wasn’t exactly silent either. There wasn’t a peep about anything from the locked heel crowd, but I wasn’t seeking it out that much either. Once you lock the heel there’s little to discuss or distinguish performance differences except with regard to weight and that can be measured with a scale. Hardly worth a discussion except for the conversationally challenged.

On the tele side however there was talk of at least three new bindings for next season. One might argue that these are just version updates to existing products but the degree of change is dramatic enough that they practically qualify as new bindings. Who are they coming from?

One you can guess pretty easy, the other is only known by regular readers of this site (all three of you), and the third I’m sworn to silence about except to tease you. The details are still fuzzy as my sources won’t really say much other than general things like lighter weight, less icing, better touring, adjustable power. However, those generalizations should be clue enough to let you figure out who is coming to the table with new hardware to consider.

© 2011