Rainey Designs HammerHead

Our original review of the HammerHead, published in the Summer of 2001, began like this: "Beneath a full moon and alongside an Oregon meadow, the discussion at the end of the first day of testing the new Rainey Designs HammerHead continued: "When this gets out it's going to rock the tele world" said one tester quietly, almost reverently. And so it was, the general consensus of all on the mountain after the first day of putting Russell Rainey's new production version of the HammerHead binding through its paces." Now it is more than a year later and time to update our review. We are happy to report that our view remains unchanged.

And how did the prediction of the tester (from the now-it-can-be-told department: Dave Waag from OffPiste mag) quoted above pan out? He was dead on. The HammerHead buzz last season was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. Before Rainey could even get started shipping his new binding a near clone of the HammerHead beta version had already been announced. One especially enterprising Tt.com reader and contributor designed his own HammerHead-like modification. He wrote an article about it he titled "Hot Rod Rivas."

Design and Features: The HammerHead is a radical departure from any telemark binding that has come before. The riser actually sits on top of the plate rather than below it and they both screw directly to the ski. This innovation provides the strength of a double mount without the complication of a double mount design. With the cable stresses removed from the sides of the binding and the plastic riser plate spreading the load equally over the six screws, the HammerHead stays mounted to the ski come hell or high water.

While the binding plate design breaks new ground, it's the twin, movable underfoot pivots that are at the core of the HammerHead's excellent performance. These movable pivots allow the user to customize the feel of the binding according to personal preference and/or intended use. The pivots can be removed for a free-hinging AT binder-like feel for touring or positioned in any one of the 5 possible settings for increased forefoot retention as they are moved aft. By increasing forefoot retention the skier gains more control by getting the back ski boot to flex like it should, but there is more than that going on...we'll get back to this in a minute.

To make the pivots easier to move, Rainey used a single, spring loaded button design. They proved to be totally bomber last year. The one at right has a full season's use on it already and shows no sign of significant wear.

The six hole symmetrical screw pattern allows users to move the binding forward or back of chord center with the addition (and filling) of just two holes. In the picture at left the movable pivot points can be seen clearly. The HammerHead uses coated cables like those found on the later version of the SuperLoop. Thanks to the wide radius pivots there have been no cable wear issues.

There is a ton of spring travel with the HH, in fact it's often possible for the boot to back out of the binding (in a big crash, for instance) long before the spring "bottoms out," preventing both body and equipment damage. Getting in and out of the HamerHead is a snap, easier than other non step-in bindings, thanks to Rainey's unique "beaver tail" throw design. Lower your heel down onto the orange tail, reach down a pull the lever up. Often this can be done without even looking.

Performance: Why do so many tele skiers carve the lead ski and skid the rear ski in non-powder conditions? Technique and a too spread out stance certainly is a big part of it but even with parallel knees it can still be a serious challenge to start and maintain a strong carve on the back ski. The reason is simple and it gets back to something alpine skiers have known for years: initiating a carve and keeping the edges engaged during the first half of the turn is a whole lot easier if the skier can get significant forebody pressure on the skis. The firmer the snow the more important forebody pressure becomes. In alpine we were taught to get forward and push our shins into the tongues of our boots to crank on this ski forebody pressure. Shaped skis have made non powder carving easier, changing much of the focus from flexion and extension to lateral movements, but the need to pressure the forebody to engage the edges and to vary the turn radius remains. In the telemark turn most skiers have found it relatively easy to get forward and weight the forebody of the lead ski, but the rear ski is another matter. Even skiers who get a lot of weight on the rear ski are challenged to get more of that weight on the front half of the ski than on the rear half, it's in the nature of the stance. The answer to this dilemma is found in the use of what we have termed "active" tele bindings.

On one end of the active spectrum are bindings that transfer very little of the boot and boot bellows "resistance to forward flex" to the front of the ski in the form of forebody pressure. This would be best illustrated by a 3-pin binding, those of you who may have attempted a tele turn in an AT set-up would also be familiar with this feel. The HammerHead with the pivots removed is also at the lower end of the active spectrum. Forefoot retention and boot flex activity increase with the HammerHead as the pivots are moved back, culminating in the aft-most #5 position. This and the positioning of the pivots under the foot near the ski edge are the keys to what makes Rainey's binding so special from a performance standpoint. Few tele bindings approach or equal the activity level (and resulting forebody pressure potential) of the HammerHead in the #3 pivot position. Move the pivots back to #4 or 5 and your in a whole new world. A rocking tele-world of power and engaged edge control.

Big powder day? Want a more neutral feel? Move the pivots forward a bit before heading out. No matter where the pivots are positioned you have a binding with a smooth spring action, a tight fitting toe piece with outstanding geometry for enhanced control, and cable routing along the edges for exceptional feel and response.

Issues: Last season the HammerHead set a new standard in first year tele binding performance with no reoccurring parts failures and barely a handful of breakages. The unitized, one piece, no welds or rivets stainless steel toe piece (a Rainey innovation) proved to be indestructible out in the field and the rest of the binding stood up to the rigors of the telemark turn with big boots and skis. It passed its first year test with flying colors. The only issue of note: owing to variations in boot heel design, the heel throw does not fit in all boots as positively as it does in the Scarpa line. Some users have taken it upon themselves to enlarge and deepen the heel groove on Garmont and Crispi. Others (especially Garmont owners) have used the heel ledge rather than the groove, with good results. Rainey himself has recommended the use of nylon, around the ankle safety straps, especially for those with a narrow stance who have had problems with kicking the heel yoke off, though this is a problem we have not had ourselves and we have never used that type of strap. The only other issue is the heel lifter. A number of skiers have reported failures and trouble with collapsing bales. Some users have had success with reverse-mounting the heel piece, with the bale folding down towards the ski tip, others have simply replaced the heel lifters with one of the beefier after market models available.

Conclusion: Russell Rainey's HammerHead is a binding that every serious tele skier owes it to themselves to at least demo through a range of pivot positions. We believe that its basic construction represents a big breakthrough in freeheel binding design, allowing the skier to easily and efficiently adjust the activity level of the binding for the conditions as well as their own personal preferences. The HammerHead can be made to tour like an AT binding with very little resistance, or it can be set up to provide an active interface between boot and ski that helps stiff plastic tele boots flex properly, allowing the skier to get maximum performance from the rest of a modern tele rig. And with less effort.

This versatility, combined with the HammerHead's outstanding performance, continues to make Russell Rainey's creation a sort of touchstone, a binder by which all other telemark bindings are judged. It's that good.

The Linken Binding

Here is another newer binding that simply rocks on the slopes. Rumor has it that the boys from Narvik in Norway raised and spent the equivalent of nearly $900,000 designing, testing, redesigning and finally building the step-in Linken binding. This is an elegant and technically engineered binding from top to bottom.

Features: The idea of combining a fairly traditional, non-release toe plate with an alpine-like step-in heel piece must of hit these gentleman like a bolt of lightning a few years ago. It is a terrific concept, allowing a marriage of step-in convenience and non-releasable simplicity. The Linken is a binding that falls nicely in the space between what we had before and the more complex but ultimately failed, Skyhoy. The first time you click in without the head spinning, joint stretching, finger numbing process we have all "enjoyed" (/sarcasm) so much in the past, you will immediately come to appreciate the terrific step in feature of the Linken.

The Linkens mount to your skis very easily using the supplied template. Four screws hold the 26mm black riser plate to the ski. The yellow riser can be added for an additional 10mm without drilling more holes. Four machine screws hold the binding plate to the black riser with the yellow one sandwiched in between (if desired).

The heel tower is adjusted for boot size by turning the yellow lever, more clearly seen in the top photo. This rotates the little teeth (arrow, right) out of the indentations in the hinged part of the plate, allowing the tower assembly to slide back and forth. Linken now make this critical part out of brass, rather than the cast aluminum shown here, making it very strong.

Adjustment for different boot sizes is a piece of cake thanks to the clearly marked scale on the hinged plate. Taking the towers off the plate for transporting skis up to the mountains and installing them back on takes about twenty seconds, slide them on the plate, line them up to the correct mark and flip the lever to lock them, that's it. The Linken comes in 3 sizes with different hinged-plate lengths but the largest will work for boots from 4 to 14. If you have a smaller foot though you may want to order a shorter version to eliminate a lot of extra plate extending beyond the heel piece.

There is an adjustment for spring pre-load and boot heel lock/ groove height (top arrow). Nearly everyone runs the Linkens with the spring pre-load tension in the max position for best performance. I adjusted the heel tower as far forward as I could and still step-in, that seems to be standard for most users as well. The heel lock/groove adjustment was all the way up up for both my T-1's and T-2's (yes I skied this binding with T-2s, more on that below).

Performance: The step-in feature functions perfectly. This is no small achievement given the history of some of the other attempts to incorporate this feature into a tele binding. These are easy bindings to get into in any and all conditions.

The Linkens are generally an advanced skier's binding. Make no mistake, these rigid, masterfully crafted bindings are designed for aggressively railing down the mountain, and they do that very, very well. They have earned many fans in the past two seasons since their introduction, especially among the more agro crowd. You won't find that the Linken pulls your foot down onto the ski, they are not one of the more active bindings, but get your skis on edge and the Linkens will keep them there. Skiers moving up in the telemark progression might find the Linkens easier to ski with a more flexible boot, transitioning to stiffer boots later on.

Parallel performance is outstanding and the Linkens tour surprisingly well due to their very freehinging feel. This lower amount of heel resistance saves a considerable amount of energy when doing the "skinning shuffle', actually reducing the effect of the Linken's considerable heft.

Issues: Since Linken redesigned the riser plate and sent out replacements at the beginning of the 01/02 season, there have been no reports of problems with snow buildup. The brass toothed segments in the boot size adjustment assembly took care of an early problem there and the Linken folks have been extremely responsive to customer service. This is a binding that has held up very well.

Conclusion: If extreme rigidity and railing down the mountain are your thing, the Linken is a binding you absolutely have to try out. And if step-in convenience in a modern looking package is attractive to you, look no further. Linken has succeeded in delivering a high performance freeheel binding that is at once both unique and progressive. Bravo!

Voile's Hardwire

 

Voile's new Hardwire combines some of the best of the tried and true telemark bindings from the past and updates them with modern materials as well as the latest in compression spring technology. Weighing in at a claimed 30 ounces per pair (our test pair weighed 37 oz. w/screws), Voile's new Hardwire just may offer the most control-per-ounce of any telemark binding in history.

The Hardwire comes with a standard 20mm double-mount shim (that means the shim mounts to the ski and the binding plate mounts to the shim separately). Although the plate follows the usual 3 screw pattern, the shim does not. While mounting the Hardwire with the supplied template is a very straight forward exercise, if you have used Voile's cable bindings before and you don't read the Hardwire instructions, you have a big surprise in store. The hooks for the rod "cables" hook onto the plate from the bottom, not from the top like other Voile bindings.

Obviously one cannot bend the rods like one bends a flexible cable to get the hooks in from above, but you have to wonder how many Hardwire rods will get bent and torqued by skiers trying to force then into the pivot points from the top like in previous Voile bindings. It is a little thing, but sometimes the little things can end up being big problems for a manufacturer. I suspect that this could be one of those little things over time.

The binding itself looks strong and appears to have benefited from Voile's years of experience building just this kind of binding plate. The compression springs are quite large and although the rods must be removed from the binding plate to adjust for boot size (you can't just spin the spring tube like on the G3's), the adjustment is not that hard to accomplish.

Getting into the new Voile is a bit easier than the standard cable rear throws of the past due to the fact that the throw is held rigidly in the center by the rods. It is much easier than the old side-throw cables of Voile's previous bindings which were, by almost all accounts, a royal pain in the neck.

The Hardwire binding is a step up in performance from all of the cable bindings we have tested to date, with the exception of the HammerHead, which is in a class by itself. Voile's new binding skis like a significantly stiffer Super-Loop with stronger lateral control but a more neutral feel. The Hardwire, with its rigid rods and well designed, tight fitting binding plate, imparts a strong feeling of being "locked in" but with a natural, traditional cable feel.

The Voile Hardwire does not have the strong fore-foot retention on the rear ski that we have experienced with the HammerHead or even as much as the SuperLoop (in the rear cable guide setting).

One concern that come to mind about these new rod rigged bindings (like the new Rottefella Cobra as well) is long term durability. As with all of the new binding designs, we just don't know for sure how they are going to work out. In sailing, a downside to rod rigging over stranded cable has been that impending failure is almost impossible to detect with rod and easy to see in cable. When cable strands start to break it is very obvious, not so stress cracks in rod. But perhaps in binding applications rod failure will be as or even more rare than it is in the bluewater ocean racing world.

Conclusion: The Hardwire would be an excellent choice for tele skiers looking for a performance upgrade from traditional cables to a stiffer binding. Its lightweight and familiar, traditional feel should make it popular with tele skiers who put a premium on those features. This is not an earthshaking new design by any means but rather a solid step up from Voile's (and other manufacturers) cable bindings.

The 7tm

The 7tm has intrigued us from the first time we heard about last season. A flexible plate binding combined with a DIN release function. Is there a tele skier out there who would not want to know more about this new binding concept?

The spring came and went. We heard a few things, saw a drawing, speculated about the future of telemark bindings and the role of flexible plates. Then summer came and at Mt. Hood we saw the prototype. It looked really cool. And when we skied the 7tm we discovered a binding that has a "disappearing" feel through much of its action but then clamps on a bit of ski forebody pressure as the heel is raised to near maximum.

So we anxiously waited to get a pair and put the 7tm through its paces. And now we have. We have skied the 7tm on hardpack, scraped off groomers, soft packed groomed runs, a little crud, and powder too. Four testers have added their input. Our 7tm has been skied in the trees, through narrow shots, wide open runs and it has even seen a little time in a mini early-season terrain park.

The 7tm binding is a winner. It utilizes the inherent rigidity in the big telemark boots of today to full advantage. The boot is allowed to flex naturally through most of the range of motion in the tele turn but then the binding kicks in and gives the boot a little help in flexing at the forefoot. The result is a binding that does not have the dramatic forefoot retention of the new HammerHead but one that does share some of that bindings good qualities. Virtues they get from their shared under the forefoot pivot design. While not the ultimate railing machine that the Linken is, the 7tm does an excellent job of holding the boot secure in the toe piece so as to milk every bit of torsional rigidity out of the boot itself.

The 7tm offers outstanding control and feel, beyond that found in the previous generation of tele bindings such as the SuperLoop. It has a positive feel, with a solid connection between boot and ski. The action is oh so smooth, but progressive in forefoot retention with very little "heel retention." This give the 7tm a sweet "no tip dive" feel in powder.

The phenomenon known as "rocker launch" was not noticed in the 7tm by our testers, one of whom barely tips the scale at 150 pounds and skis T-2's. When a boot was placed in the binding on our test bench it looked like "rocker launch" might be noticeable--the heel ended up quite a ways off the ski--but it takes little force to weight the heel down.

The release mechanism worked very well in our tests with no reports of even a single unwanted release. But we did have a successful release during a fall in our first 4 days of skiing the 7tm. It occurred when a tester was poking around off the opening day groomers and caught a ski tip in the branches of a small pine tree sticking out through the snow. The 7tm released smoothly in a sideways release. Our tester, who had received no instruction whatsoever in how to get the binding reassembled (oops!) reports that it took him just seconds to get back in and on his way.

There have been some concerns raised about durability issues that might be encountered with the 7tm. There has been speculation both in the media and on discussion boards about possible weak points. At Telemarktips.com we have learned that this kind of speculation is often pointless and even unfair, that the real weak points reveal themselves over time and use rather than through static analysis. We can report that after 4 days of hard use, including some big Tim torture testing, the 7tm is no worse for wear. The plastics used in the heel pieces appear to be very strong. In visually assessing the strength of the 7tm one must keep in mind that it is a release binding. In theory, important parts such as the toe piece can be plenty strong with far less beef since the binding should release rather than break. We will know more after 4 months of testing rather than 4 days.

Things we would like to see from the 7tm team in the future: brakes (due next season), climbing bales, but most of all, an adjustable pivot point for the flexible plate.

Conclusion: We believe that over time the 7tm with its flexible plate will prove to be a landmark design in telemark binding evolution. While not the ultimate in control, the 7tm does offer a multi-dimensional tele skiing experience, combining some of the best features in other binding designs with a DIN release function. This is no one trick pony. It tours well with its low heel retention, it skis well with a fair amount of forefoot retention courtesy of its under the ball of the foot pivot point, and it connects solidly to the ski despite the release function. At 54 oz. (1,540g), with optional risers, it weighs only a little more than some of the non-releaseables. We welcome the 7tm into the fold of advanced telemark bindings now available and feel that it will take its place among the handful of the best of the new crop while delivering DIN release for those who will not consider a non- releasable telemark binding.

Update: 7tm has delivered on its promise to make both climbing bales and brakes available. The bales are sturdy and functional, the brakes come in size that include a model that will work on the widest skis out there today. Some 7tm users reported problems with the flex plate breaking at the toe piece pivot point. A new flex plate that should eliminate the cutting action that was the cause of the failures (especially among those running the spring preload extra tight) appears to have solved the problem, at least this this point. Expect to see a further updat to this review as the season progresses. Other changes for the 2002/03 season include an added toe bar and improved visibility of the DIN setting in the little window on the front of the binding.

As predicted above, the 7tm has indeed assumed a position in freeheel skiing as the preeminent binding choice for skiers desiring a combination of performance and DIN release.

Black Diamond's O-2

A collection of existing binding design concepts repackaged

O-2 Stats: Weight: 2 lbs. 5.6 oz. (1,066gr) per pair Price: $155 3 Spring Cartridge Stiffness Options Extra Cartridges: $40/pair

Black Diamond's new O-2 telemark binding has been called by its designer "a collection of some of the best existing concepts in a nice, neat package." And so it is. Let's get right to it: the O-2 skis like what it looks like: a clone of the essentials of the Rainey Designs HammerHead, beta version.

From the dual underfoot cables to the unitized, no welds or rivets toe plate, the O-2 takes the best features of Rainey's beta HammerHead, ditches the complications that came with that test binding's approach to adjustable pivots, replaces the HammerHead's single spring with Targa-like cartridges, resulting in a binding that skis...not surprisingly...like a HammerHead beta version with the cables permanently affixed in the number two position.

That makes the O-2 an excellent performing telemark binding.

Curiously, despite some early comments by the designer of the O-2, made prior to Black Diamond's acquisition of Skye Alpine, this binding skis nothing at all like his previous effort, G3's Targa. While the Targa was one of the least "active" bindings in our bench tests this summer, by contrast the O-2 was one of the most active. In actual use the underfoot cable pivots help break the boot at the bellows, reducing the "tip-toe effect" while transferring more forebody pressure to the rear ski during the first half of the turn. One always knows the O-2 is there, by contrast the Targa tends to disappear. Some will prefer one or the other but there is no mistaking the fact that they ski very, very differently.

The O-2's cable configuration is clean and simple, resulting in a heel assembly that is almost impossible to kick off. In testing last year no issues of ice or snow buildup around the spring cartridges or toe piece were noted. One of the skiers who rode the O-2 in a variety of conditions last year, Scott Schield, reported that it performed well in a variety of winter conditions and his observations were backed up by our own on-snow testing. Scott also spent quite a bit of time on the O-2 in terrain parks, with no failures or breakage.

By loosening the boot clamp-in pressure we were able to get the O-2 to tour fairly well with somewhat reduced heel retention. Though this is a type of a work-around, and does not offer the kind of easy uphill touring one can get with movable pivots, it does help. The heel lifters were easy to get up and down, and so far have proven to be durable.

A concern last season, were several reports of swages that pulled off the end of the cable where it enters the spring cartridges. Apparently some of the early, pre-Black Diamond models were not manufactured correctly, and failed. With BD's vast experience installing swaged fittings on rock climbing gear that absolutely cannot be allowed to fail, we fully expect that this will not be an issue in the future.

Although we generally avoid trying to forecast possible problem areas in new tele bindings, mostly because attempts at that kind of prognostication almost always prove to miss the mark when problems do occur (witness such speculation about the connection from flex plate to heel assembly tube on the 7tm that appeared elsewhere last summer!), there are two areas of concern that we would be remiss if they went unmentioned. The first is the use of aluminum in the O-2 toe piece. Most of the top selling modern tele binding designs have moved away from aluminum, trading a little more weight for the enhanced durability of steel. In the past aluminum binding plates have often proven to have trouble standing up to sharp, hardened steel ski edges. A lot of us have, laying around in our garages, beat up old Rivas that bear witness to this. Another reason steel, especially stainless steel, became more popular is that it seems to be more resistant to ice buildup than aluminum. Anodize can help but it is also not always real durable. Only time will tell if the O-2 toe piece overcomes these problems, but given the history of the use of aluminum in tele bindings, it will be something to keep an eye on.

The other concern we have is the amount of spring travel provided by the O-2's underfoot cartridges. With the stiffest springs (called "ridiculously stiff" by the manufacturer) we were able to fully compress the springs while simulating a low telemark turn style (photo at left). We have in the past seen the effects on binding components when springs with too little travel are combined with big boots, low style skiers or big crashes. We suspect that this has all been worked out and that the various springs have been optimized to allow for enough travel in real-world conditions, but again, it's a concern we will be monitoring during ongoing testing this year.

Conclusion: Both BT and I enjoyed skiing the O-2 last year and over the summer. Durability reports from other testers who have more time on them are, so far, very encouraging. Although the O-2 lacks the adjustable pivot points of the HammerHead, it does ski very well and appears to offer a solid, lighter-weight (though less versatile) alternative. A certain amount of uphill and downhill adjustability can be had by spinning the cartridges, making the binding tighter for the downhill or freeing up the heel some for the climb (markings on the cable in front of the spring cartridges would make it easier to get the adjustment back to the optimum position for the different modes though). All in all the O-2 does indeed appear to deliver on its designer's promise of bringing us a collection of some of the best existing concepts and tying them all together in a nice neat package. We are looking forward to getting more time on the 0-2 and updating this review as the 2002/03 season progresses.

Rottefella's Cobra

Rottefella's new Cobra binding is built around the familiar Chile toe piece but incorporates two important new features, updating that popular binding. For years the Chile has limped along using troublesome tension springs that were easily over-stretched and prone to icing. On the new Cobra that problem is solved with the addition of two very large compression spring cartridges. These springs will eliminate the ruinous over-stretching and should also provide plenty of "travel", perhaps even for the stiffest boots with narrowest of forefoot bellows designs, though this remains to be seen.

The other big improvement over the Chile is the addition of solid steel rods in place of the cables. The steel rods add lateral stability to the boot and binding interface and also eliminate the Chile's problematic cable connection points at the toe piece. This cable wear wear point on the Chile was known to fray and break unexpectedly. On the Cobra, it is gone. The Rottefella Cobra has a 2mm thick stainless steel toe bar riveted to the toe piece. This stainless steel bail continues to the rear to form the attachment points for the steel rods. The entire assembly looks strong and solid. Entry into the Cobra is done in the usual way, with it now being a bit easier to locate the heel throw due to the rigid steel rods. A "beaver tail" tab on the heel throw like that found on the new HammerHead would make fitting the throw into the boot heel groove much easier. We suspect that this feature will find its way into all throws of this type in the near future. Performance: The Cobra skis very well. It feels like what it is: a more rigid version of the Chile with a very nice progressively stiffer compression spring setup. My boots fit into the Cobra with a tight, no slop fit. It skis and feels very similar to the Voile Hardwire, to which it shares a strong resemblance in appearance. Like the Hardwire, it is not a revolutionary new design but rather a solid updating of an old favorite. I noticed a little more heel retention in the Cobra than in its predecessor, giving it a less neutral feel. The Cobra's ability to deal with boot rocker, and neutralize it, was average for the older designs, about the same as a Chile or SuperLoop. At this point, the only two bindings we have tried that successfully deal boot rocker out of the equation are the HammerHead and the Voile VP-II. Conclusion: If you like the Chile, you'll love the Cobra. These improvements to the classic Chile binding make a marked difference in performance and should, in the long run, improve durability as well. The Cobra, while not really offering anything all that ground breaking, does add more control, a tighter fit and a sweeter progressive spring action to an already popular basic design.

The Peak Rigs

Josh Weltman of Peak Rigs has jumped into the telemark binding biz with a creative design that will be very attractive to a lot of tele skiers looking for a free-heel binding that combines innovative touring features with light weight and downhill performance.

New features found on the Peak Rigs include the unique toe stop, a top-entry pin system that allows 3-pin touring performance without ripped pin holes, and a specially designed heel plate that has a groove in the back for latching the cable down while touring in pin mode.

Like the Voile 3-pin Cable, the pin system is good to have in case of a broken cable, unlike the Voile, you don't have to mess with the pins every time. Getting into the Peak Rigs can be as simple as getting into the pin-less Voile binding but you can count on pin back-up if you need it.

In the close-up view of the Peak Rigs plate on the right, you can clearly see the toe stop and the holes for the top entry pin system. The pin design requires the skier to drill holes in the toe piece of the boot. Into the holes go small lengths of tubing. The tube lined holes become the new pin holes for the the clip attachment that holds the boot in when the cable is not being used.

Installation of the Peak Rigs is simple and very straight forward. The riser screws onto the ski with four posi-drive screws and the plate bolts to the riser with machine screws. It is very simple to remove the plate with the machine screws so I suppose a skier on a budget could get extra risers and just move the binding from ski to ski, like some have done in the past with the Voile releasable. The Peak Rigs riser has a section behind the plate that has been carved out in a kind of ramp shape to give snow a place to go as it builds up under the boot and gets squeezed out. I have had zero problem with snow and ice build up so far.

The Peak Rigs model that I skied came with a pair of Voile cables. Not this skier's favorite cables, but we hear that Peak Rigs is developing a cable of their own. For testing purposes the Voile cable did an adequate job of holding the boot in the plate and what I really wanted to do was to check the binding's downhill performance.

First, I have to say that they have done a great job with the geometry of the plate. It holds the boot very securely and with minimal play. The toe stop does, in fact, serve to reduce boot slop in the binding and increase control while adding minimal weight. The stop also serves to create a consistent, third surface for the boot toe to rest on, increasing power transfer and also making it easy to line up the pinholes each time the boot is inserted. It also will help keep the holes from getting torqued by movement of the boot in the plate.

The Peak Rigs binding is a solid design, executed well. Downhill performance was better than expected from a fairly straight forward traditional design. The toe stop really does work to add control and power. Josh and the Peak Rigs crew deserve a lot of credit for bringing us a sweet and innovative new backcountry oriented binding at a time when many free-heel bindings are getting bigger, and more alpine like.

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