Category: Gear

Thule’s One-Minute Chains revisited

The problem with chains is they’re a pain in the ass to put on and take off. For common chains, by the time you cave and admit you need them, putting them on usually requires crawling on your belly in slushy snow while the wind howls. It’s a miserable, time consuming process. There are alternatives. …

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Scarpa & Scott drop heel inserts on NTN boots

Good tele skiers know there’s a time and a place for parallel turns and if it doesn’t add much extra weight, why not add that ability? Unfortunately it looks like lawyers are about to put the big kabosh on the final pieces of the “pink pony,” the Holy Grail of telemark systems with a binding …

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Binding notes from BC Mag’s 2017 Gear Test

After a week in the trenches wrenching bindings at Backcountry Magazine’s annual Family Camp, also known as their annual Gear Party, er, Test at Powder Mountain, Utah I can tell you a few things about what Alpine Touring bindings were liked, and what were not. Bindings at the test included G3’s Ion, the Dynafit Radical …

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Technique: Keeping Meidjo’s tour mode locked

One of the annoying flaws with Meidjo is the occasional tendency for the red function stub to pop over the bumper that it rests against when touring. This causes the entire spring-box assembly to be put into turn mode and will inevitably allow it to hook onto the 2nd heel of the boot. The net …

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1st Look: Lange’s XT Free Tour AT Boot

Ever since Lange first entered the Alpine Touring market with the XT I’ve only had one question. Not how well it skied, or how well it fit but when would it come with tech inserts? When parent Rossignol inked a deal last year to put a Look label on a Dynafit Radical the writing was …

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First Look: Meidjo’s Low Tech Heel option

  This year Meidjo offers the option to quickly lock the heel via a low-tech heel. Key to this working in harmony with a telemark binding is the ability for the locking tangs of the heel to retract so they do not interfere with free heel functions. With Meidjo this is achieved by allowing the …

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1st Look: Carbon Sender for Hucksters

If you make a habit of skiing hard and landing big airs Look’s Pivot binding is back from retirement for a reason; no other binding offers as much elasticity in the heel to absorb landing forces as it does. Period. For backcountry huckers there’s a new adapter plate that fits in Pivot bindings for touring. …

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