The Weak Link: BindingsLast season, the question that concerned many in theindustry was, “What’s the status of the New TelemarkNorm (NTN) binding system?” With more people un-derstanding what the fuss was about, the responsenow appears to be—yawn—“So what?”

Nearly everybody agrees that the 75 mm bindingsused by backcountry and telemark skiers today areRube Goldberg-esque contraptions based on a Nordicracing binding from 1971 that was never intendedfor heavy-duty usage. The current designs are the re-sult of throwing more material at the problem to in-crease control and solve breakage issues. This sledge-hammer school of design works but the result isinelegant, fickle gear and disgruntled customers.

The promise of a new boot/binding system designedfrom the ground up for modern telemark skiing stillappeals to everyone. Yet turf wars and poor commu-nication have all but killed the NTN concept—fornow. The impasse came when the leading bindingmanufacturer couldn’t convince the three boot com-panies to give it an exclusive; the boot companieswisely wanted other players in the game.

This closed-door infighting has gone on for severalyears but as more details of the NTN system trickledout, the reality sunk in that it brought almost nothingnew to the consumers except an opportunity to spendmore money. Sure, round toes are much better forwalking and climbing than the duckbill. But NTN hasno provision for a release system or locking the heelsdown—the two topmost items on any wish list. Vari-able modes for touring and turning, ease of entry and

mark skiing was once the exclusive do-

main of the lunatic fringe that spent more

time skinning up hills in the backcountry than rid-

ing lifts at resorts. Not that our skinny skis and

leather boots were ideal for much else.Today, telemark skiers are common at most ski areas and grow-

ing each season. More and more bored alpiners and snowboard-ers make the switch. Ask around and you’ll find many will admit,“Yeah, I wanna tele someday.” The current fat skis and plasticboots let almost anyone rip it up—and the flowing feeling of thetelemark turn is like no other. Addictive actually.

Though quite a few of the converts never make it off-piste, ex-cept to poach out-of-bounds freshies, the lure for many is thebackcountry. They may spend countless days riding lifts to refinetheir skills but the ultimate goal is to find the untracked quiet.

According to a study by Leisure Trends, the number of tele-mark skiers has jumped from 1.3 million in 1998 to 3.3 million in2002. More telling is the number of dedicated skiers (12 or moredays per season) grew from about 200,000 to 435,000 in the sametime period.

Telemark skiers as a group are among the most dedicated ofsnow-sport enthusiasts, skiing early and late season when mostalpiners and boarders have put their gear away. They’re alsoquite adept at the fine art of spending money. Between equipmentand clothing, modern telemark skiers waiting in the lift line typ-ically have each invested $2,000 to $3,000 in their fun. And lit-tle of that lasts more than a couple seasons, either because of styleor durability.

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turn ingeadsWith NTN dead in the water, what does the futurehold for a tele system that actually works? Plus,a look at other developments in the market.

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exit, and full testing before reaching con-sumers are all desirable features that shouldbe standard.

Why is release so important? That dependsupon the destination. For backcountry ski-ing, avalanches are the huge concern—at-tached skis are a potential death sentencethat pull the skier down and prevent swim-ming. For lift-served skiing, knee protectionjust makes sense; speeds are greater andmore vertical is skied per day. Along with re-lease come ski brakes to prevent windmillingskis whacking skiers in the head.

Of the releasable bindings that have beenoffered, the first (Voile) is a knock-off oflong-abandoned alpine technology, anoth-er (TRP) is a difficult-to-use plate seem-ingly made of lead, and a third (SkyHoy)was a mediocre design rushed to market.The most recent and best entry yet (7tm)forces skiers to weight the rear foot to pre-vent pulling out. The next release plate sys-tem (Telebry), which hasn’t reached pro-duction yet, appears only suitable forbackcountry, though, the bigger market iswith lift-served skiers. None of these offerheel lock as an option.

Why is heel lockdown desirable? Well toparaphrase the T-shirt: “If telemarking waseasy, it would be called alpine skiing.” Nomatter how fat the skis and burly the boots,tele will always be a thigh-burning activity.Most consumers simply can’t manage a fullday on the slopes. But if they had the optionof making tele turns in the morning whenthe powder is good and easily switching tofixed heel when the snow gloms up or isskied off, a LOT more people would be at-tracted. And, no, paralleling with freeheelsis not even close to the same thing.

Despite all the infighting, some decentproduct is coming out in the next year—albeit nowhere near as good as it could beif everyone would just get together and fig-ure out a better system. Sigh.

• The Rainey HammerHead proved the vi-ability of a binding that can be adjustedfor better touring performance or greaterdownhill control; the system is effectivebut can be a nuisance. New for this sea-son is a heel elevator that actually works,unlike the previous version. The Inter-net-only sales model has expanded to in-clude seven stores in protected regions;dealers must pre-pay for 100 bindings.

• The new G3 Targa Two features a leverthat switches the binding from an activedownhill mode to a looser touring mode.There are some other refinements to makethe binding more active as well. It’s animportant step since the one-time indus-try leader was getting long in the tooth.

• There will also be a new version of the re-

leasable 7tm that has a free pivot to allowbetter touring performance at the flick ofa switch. The 7tm Tour gives freeheelbackcountry skiers the best option yet forsafe travel. An adaptor for the K2 insertsis already available.

• The Rottefella Cobra line of bindings hasyet another upgrade so that all are com-patible with both 3-hole patterns andK2 inserts. Also, the R6 and R8 have anew riser plate.

• Bomber is also introducing an adaptorplate for K2. It also has plans for a tita-nium version of its Bishop binding thatshould appeal to techies.

• New to the U.S. market, the SilvrettaTelemark Adaptor is essentially astripped-down alpine touring bindingthat acts as a hinged platform for heavy-duty tele bindings so they can tour moreeffectively (it has no release function).

• Linken remains the only step-in telemarkbinding on the market and offers max-imum edge power. No major changesare planned, though the binding wastweaked this season for even greaterstrength.

• Voile claims to have some new productscoming but despite numerous requestsno one from the company bothered toreturn calls. Rumor has it the companywill produce the Telebry, so perhaps theCRB will finally go away.

Tele Next With NTN essentially dead in the water,the immediate future of telemark bindingsand boots hinges on tightening the currentstandards. An attempt to incorporate tele-mark specs into the DIN alpine touringnorm was quashed. Some cynics have sug-gested the alpine world sabotaged the pro-ceedings due to telemark’s perceived threaton market share.

Most of the boot/binding compatibilityproblems rest squarely on the shoulders ofthe boot companies—Scarpa, Garmont andCrispi. At present, binding designers don’thave a prayer of fitting all the variationsin toe thickness, heel widths, heel groovedepths and walking lever shapes. The re-sult is boots that twist out of bindings, heellevers that pop open unexpectedly, andbindings that chew up expensive boots.

Meanwhile, the binding manufacturershave to stop pointing fingers and solve theirown problems. It’s absurd that skiers stillcannot trust their bindings to stay attachedand not break. Both the Linken and 7tm(with brake) require an ankle strap for se-curity though, in theory, this should be un-necessary. Other bindings still have reports

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of exploding heel levers, breaking cablesand cracking parts.

A look at the new Atomic Neox EBMalpine binding gives an example of how farbehind the freeheel world remains. The EBM(Electronic Binding Management) took 11years to develop, with the last three used fortesting, before it reached consumers. It hasonboard diagnostics, rather like cars, to en-sure optimal performance and batteries thatlast 80 ski days and can download informa-tion to a computer. Sure, it costs Euros 1,000(approximately USD $1,220 as of mid-De-cember), but it sold 2,000 units the first sea-son just in Europe, and it won’t reach NorthAmerica until next season.

Not that the tele world needs an electronicbinding but everyone wants better thought-out and tested products. Consumer testingprograms can no longer be the norm.

Selling the wonders of backcountry ski-ing while turning a blind eye to the dan-ger of non-releasable bindings is a poten-tial liability for manufacturers and stores.It makes little sense to offer avalanche safe-ty products yet at the same time greatly in-creasing the skiers (and snowboarders) riskof death. Putting a big warning sticker onnearly all the telemark bindings that reads“Not For Use In The Backcountry” is not anoption, even if warranted.

Duckbill BootsWith all the uncertainty over NTN, it’s un-derstandable that telemark boot compa-nies haven’t tinkered much with their prod-uct lines for next season. Getting their acttogether over some common, and real, stan-dards needs to be the biggest priority. Theexisting poor tolerances are intolerable!

Aside from the necessity for the compa-nies to tweak their molds a bit, the currentcrop of boots is pretty darned good. Nowthat all of the companies have gone to cus-tom molded liners on most of their models,a good fit is achievable for nearly anyone.

• The only change for the Garmont line is theintroduction of the high-performancewomen’s Venus boot (formerly the Vixenbut the Germans thought that soundedtoo much like “wanken,” which in Ger-man means to stagger or totter). Whilesimilar to the Syner-G Women’s that itreplaces, the flex is about 20 percent soft-er while torsional rigidity is increased—all good things for lighter skiers. And, ofcourse, the color is more stylish.

• Crispi is giving its top-of-the-line CXU anupgrade, though it’s still working out thedetails as well as the name. While thisbrand has been a distant third in this three-way race, it is starting to gain on the pack.

• Scarpa is maintaining the status quo for

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the 2004/05 season. It’s still the leadingbrand but had better not rest too longon its laurels.

Demise, Controversy and InsertsThe demise of Tua this summer had a biggerimpact than many of its competitors origi-nally anticipated. Shops around the coun-try that were perhaps sitting on inventoryscrambled to order more models or add newlines. Several ski brands were reporting inNovember that they were already sold outfor the season. That would be a good thing—oversupply is the bane of the ski world.

Perhaps the biggest controversy this sea-son is whether K2’s binding inserts are astep in the right direction. Obviously, K2believes so since all models of telemarkskis will sport them next season. At thispoint, roughly 90 percent of the telemarkbindings sold are either directly or indi-rectly (using shims) compatible: the onlyhold-outs are Linken, Rainey and Ultimate.

The naysayers are primarily the otherski manufacturers, most of whom are tak-ing a wait-and-see approach (most mod-els are not changing next season). Theyargue that there isn’t enough flexibility onmounting position—an issue that only af-fects a small percentage of skiers with verylarge boots and some tech-weenies (an ad-justable shim could solve that). Some alsostate that their skis are suited for both tele-mark and alpine touring bindings and theydon’t want to rule out the latter from in-serts getting in the way. While valid, onlyone or two models in their lines would eversee an AT binding and the binding can bemoved slightly if needed.

For stores and consumers, inserts meanmuch easier mounting—no more measur-ing, drilling, tapping or gluing. (Bindingsripping out are a thing of the past now thatthey have sufficient spring travel.) Skiersalso gain the huge benefit of easily beingable to swap bindings if they want to trysomething different.

A telemark insert norm also becomes anincentive for freeheel skiers to purchasetele skis instead of alpine skis, which in-creasingly have their own plates and othersystems. Most skiers still believe a telemarkski is just an alpine ski with different graph-ics because all companies do an absolute-ly terrible job of elucidating the differences.At least with tele inserts, they are some-thing people can see.

More than likely, we’ll see inserts on mosttele skis by 2005/06 when the current skigraphics and designs need updating. As inthe snowboard world, it’s probable somecompanies will adopt a 4-x-2 pattern (dou-bling the number of inserts for moremounting options), while others will stickwith the existing K2 pattern. At least thereis no Burton equivalent to screw things upwith a proprietary pattern!

Backcountry Betties Just one season ago, there was a single fe-male-specific telemark ski on the market:the flower-power K2 She’s Piste. At its

launch, there was more than a bit of skep-ticism—and some outright derision—fromthose with XY genes. Not anymore.

The votes are in and the girls had theirsay—they want performance and style. Bythis time next year, there will be at leastsix models of women’s tele skis from fourdifferent companies.

• K2 is rounding out the women’s line withthe new Dawn Patrol, a powder ski whichit calls an “extra fat” (122-89-112), thoughthat terminology may not go over well(full-figured, perhaps?). The originalShe’s Piste is revamped with a stiffer flexand deeper sidecut (107-68-97) for rippin’on the firm. The InStinx (117-78-105)remains the same as a great all-rounder.

• The Atomic Femme Fatale (106-72-98) hasa great name, Beta construction, and ex-tensive testing by the Austrian hard Bet-ties. Compared to the all-mountain men’sTM:22, flex in the tip and waist is thesame, while the tail is 10 percent softerfor less acceleration coming out of turns.

• Black Diamond has developed its ownMystic (112-79-102) which is made byAtomic but has its own construction.Designed as a no-compromise per-formance ski, it is a lighter, softer versionof the new Ethic.

Boys Ski, TooThough girls are getting most of the newtoys next season, there are a few new mod-els for the boys. Both Atomic and Rossig-nol are carrying over their current linessince they are still relatively fresh.

• In addition to the women’s Mystic, BlackDiamond is adding the slightly stiffer andheavier Ethic (112-79-102). It has thesame dimensions and basic construc-

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tion of the discontinued Mira but hasthe addition of a three-dimensional topcap for better torsional rigidity plusbrighter graphics.

• Fischer has decided to get back into thetelemark game—something it’s strug-gled with for ages. This season, it didn’teven make an effort and just sold theBig Stix alpine skis into backcountryshops. Next season, Fischer will offertwo T-Stix: the Stingray (115-76-100, atele flex, lighter Big Stix 7.6) and Mus-tang (120-86-107, a modified Big Stix8.6). These will give telemark skiers alot of technology and performance with

a more palatable price tag.

• Leaving no nose untweaked, K2 introducedthe Hippy Stinx (125-95-118) mid-seasonthis year. A telemark version of the twin-tipped Seth Pistol is also being introducedthat will compete with the Atomic TeleDaddy and Karhu Jak for the big moun-tain freeheel crowd. For next season, theever-popular World Piste (114-78-105) isgetting better damping, inserts and newgraphics. Both the Piste Stinx and Total-ly Piste are going into retirement.

• The big boards that put Karhu back onthe map—Jak (127-97-117) and Jil (129-90-110), as well as the lighter Jak BC—aregetting cool new graphics but otherwiseremain the same. However, the Rox willbe replaced by two wider all-mountainskis with a unique die-cut aluminum in-ternal cap over the wood core: the Griz-zly with a 75 mm waist and the Kodiakwith an 80 mm waist. The Agent (110-80-102) replaces the Ruckit as the agro skifor ski parks and half pipes; it’s now widerand has a full tail. Continuing its effort tobring kids into the freeheel world, Karhuwill also offer the Special Agent in lengthsof 143, 133, and 123 cm. (Garmont still of-fers the Teledactyl boot for the tykes.)

• It appears that Völkl is starting to pay at-tention to the telemark world and is po-sitioning the Outback (104-70-92) asmore than an alpine touring ski. It’s evenbrought onboard some sales reps whoknow the outdoor market since every-one knows an alpine ski rep would neversink to that level. For the discriminatingskier, Völkl is rumored to be planning atelemark version of the 7 24 AX4 (118-83-106, hopefully with a normal name).However, nobody at headquartersdeigned to return calls by our deadline.

t e l e m a r k s k i

The immediate future of telemark bindings and boots hinges »

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• A new entry for next season is a twin-tippedtelemark ski built by Donek, makers of high-end snowboards. This will feature an ashcore and a double set of binding insertsand has been designed by the guys atBomber—should be interesting.

Light Backcountry A category once on its last legs, light back-country touring continues to make a resur-gence. This is largely due to the emergenceof shorter, fatter waxless skis that put thefun back into day trips—Fischer gets muchof the credit here. No longer having to

struggle with long, skinny metal-edged skisand the perceived hassle of waxing con-tinues to bring more customers back fromthe clutches of snowshoeing.

Of course, another contributing factoris that a modern heavy-duty telemark pack-age weighs 16 to 20 pounds! While alpinetouring gear can be lighter, it still feelsclunky compared to the new light BC rigs.We’re betting that even the hard-core skierswill be tempted to try light and fast.

• For next season, the Alpina, Atomic, Fischerand Karhu backcountry skis will largelystay the same (new graphics on some).

• Rossignol is putting its entire line onsteroids by widening all three modelsand rounding the tips. Thus, the Back-country 61 becomes a 65; the 68 will be70; and the 83 fattens to 90. The Back-country 90 (90-70-80) will also have acap/ABS construction and a waxablebase option for better downhill per-formance, making it a good yo-yo ski(making laps by skinning up slopes).

• The light plastic boots that have sparkedthis category—Crispi CXT, Garmont Ex-cursion and Scarpa T4—remain un-changed for next season. Both the Gar-mont and Scarpa are available forwomen but only the Excursion has theoption of thermo-formed liners (in-creases comfort and decreases weight).

• Just as it pumped up the skis, Rossignolis beefing up its boots. The BC X 9should nearly equal the plastic bootswhen used with new 75 mm cable bind-ing. And both the BC X 7 and BC X 3will be available in women’s modelscalled Sapphires.

• Alpina plans to offer two new models ofmen’s and one model of women’s entry-

level backcountry boots; however, de-tails are not yet finalized.

• The Rottefella NNN-BC Manual bindingis getting an overhaul with a new hous-ing and wider platform. Increasing thewidth to 67 mm will enhance turningperformance and make this more com-petitive with 3-pin bindings.

• Skiers demanding the ultimate conven-ience now have the option of a step-in 3-pin binding. The Telebulldog is ruggedand easy to use, but the $225 price tagwill discourage many.

AT WorldAccording to Peter Metcalf, CEO of BlackDiamond, “Telemark gear sales are threetimes that of the randonnée stuff. But ran-donnée is growing twice as fast.” Consid-ering that the skis are now essentially thesame and the boots offer the same level ofcontrol, it’s the more sophisticated alpinetouring (AT) binding systems that accountfor the difference.

Alpine touring bindings offer locked heelsfor better control and energy savings, re-lease for reduced risk in an avalanche, andeasier touring due to the free pivot. Mostfeature step-in convenience and enough re-tention that the hard-core skiers won’t pre-release. Until tele bindings catch up, expectcontinued growth in this category.

• Perhaps the most interesting new AT prod-uct for next season is the Garmont Adren-alin which has interchangeable outsoles.This high-end boot has the flex of analpine freeride model and allows the skierto use an alpine-norm sole with conven-tional alpine bindings. For backcountrytours, just swap out for the lugged, rock-ered sole that fits into AT bindings.

• The Scarpa Matrix improves on the Laserwith a stiffer tongue, more durable heat-molded liner and a variable-angle (in-stead of one or two) forward lock—though at the cost of more weight (200grams heavier). The new Scarpa Avantis a three-buckle AT boot with a thermoliner that should be a great value at $400.

• A new entry into the AT market comesfrom Crispi, a brand previously only knownfor telemark boots. Given its technology,this should be competitive with the rest.

• Though details were unavailable, Dy-nafit plans to introduce a “burly boot

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on tightening the current standards.

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that will attempt to push Garmont offthe top of its newfound position at thetop of the snow pile.”

• Naxo, the newest company with an ATbinding, is off to a strong start this sea-son with the NX01 binding, which is dis-tributed by Backcountry Access. Thisoffers superior touring performance withgood downhill features.

• The oldest brand in the AT world, Silvretta,has changed distributors from Climb Highto Garmont North America. Interesting-ly, Silvretta is owned by Salewa, whichpurchased Dynafit last year. The new Pureis the lightest step-in binding on the mar-ket (1.2 kg versus 1.8 kg or more for oth-ers) and goes up to DIN 10.

• The favorite binding of the big air gonzos,Fritschi Freeride, will be an insignificant30 grams lighter (2.1 kg) next season. Thebinding maintains its claim to fame ofhaving the highest DIN settings (12).

Avalanche ThreatsAfter the publicity of the two accidents inCanada that killed 14 people, avalancheawareness is increasing, albeit not fastenough. Last season’s tally of 58 recre-ational fatalities in North America set anall-time record, far surpassing the previ-ous record of 35 the year before. In addi-tion to the Canada deaths, 10 other skiersdied, as did 23 snowmobilers, five snow-boarders, five climbers and one snowshoer.

With more people heading into the back-country every year, the need and marketfor avalanche beacons, shovels and probescontinues to rise. Yet some of the productssold are not suitable for the task—some-thing you hope you don’t discover in anemergency—and stores that carry themmay want to think again.

Shockingly, nearly every first-generationavalanche beacon in the past decade hassuffered from one defect or another, somethat could be fatal. While no deaths haveyet been attributed to a defective beacon,it may just be a matter of time. One skierdied last season partly due to the impacthis beacon received from a rock that brokethe ferrite antennae. The current standardfor impact resistance is frightfully mini-mal yet few retailers or consumers knowthat beacons are indeed rather fragile.

Although single-antennae analog bea-cons (ARVA 9000, Ortovox F1 and M2,Peips 457, SOS) still work well in the handsof well-practiced users, it is hard to justi-fy the cost savings. The new breed of multi-antennae digital models are so much fasterand easier to use that most people are bet-ter off spending a bit more.

Some plastic shovels, such as the Life-Link and Ortovox polycarbonate models,have blades that cannot penetrate ava-lanche debris. These are fine for diggingout a car but stores selling them for ava-lanche rescue could be asking for trouble.The “economy” avalanche probes are oftentoo short (8 feet should be a minimum),too flexible (they can be deflected insteadof going straight down), and too slow toassemble—talk about false economy!

• Finally Peips has re-entered the marketwith a new digital beacon, the DSP,which could rival the two front-runners(BCA Tracker and Mammut Barryvox).This model features three antennae toprocess signals and tells how many bea-cons are buried. An advanced model hasa lot of gizmos (altimeter, compass, etc.)but functions the same.

• Although the Ortovox X1 digital beacon gotoff to a rocky start, its popularity is grow-ing. This season, the company introducesthe Heli F1, which is a receive-only modelwith an external antennae made for heli-copter pilots, and the D1 Doggy Xmitter,which is a transmit-only beacon with ashorter range and only costs $85.

• The original digital beacon that revolu-tionized the industry, Backcountry Access’Tracker DTS, hasn’t changed much since1997. Next season, the Tracker will sportan easier to use harness and a sleekercase; plus the warranty is extended fromthree to five years.

• G3 will offer a new snow saw that has aunique handle that can attach to a skipole, shovel handle or ice axe for cuttingRutschblocks, cornices and even wood.

• The new Indigo Snow Logic shovel’sunique design makes it very stiff and thehandle is possibly the best on the mar-ket since it stays attached to the blade.

• The new Life-Link Ice Pro shovel is de-signed to be stiffer and chop hard snowbetter than polycarbonate models.

• While avalanche packs with inflatable airbags are a good idea to float victims onthe surface, these still have many obstaclesto overcome for wider acceptance. To easethe sting of low margins, Life-Link (theU.S. distributor) allows dealers to pur-chase a display pack for in-store inflationand will drop-ship a working model tocustomers. Still, they are expensive ($650to $675), heavy (6 pounds), and probablycannot travel on passenger airlines. (TheIATA rules permit them but each airlinegets to decide if it wants to carry a 200 mgcompressed gas cylinder attached to a 250mg pyrotechnic charge.)

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