Related: How To Choose Ski Touring Boots: Fit & Features

Pick Your Playground

Rule #1: Pick your playground. Where will you most often go ski touring? The answer will determine which binding is most applicable to your terrain type. Are you skiing lift-accessed powder right out of Whistler’s bounds? Or, are you completing a self-supported 9-day traverse from the Bugaboos to Rogers Pass?

In the former’s case, I’d recommend picking up a pair of hybrid or SHIFT bindings, perfect for both resort and sidecountry days. As for the latter, a pair of ultralight pin bindings would do the trick since you’ll be hauling those babies up and down mountains for more than a week. My best advice: choose ski touring bindings that make logical sense in the environment you’ll be skiing in most often.

Choose A Binding Category

There’s a ton of ski touring binding models available on the market. All of them can be brought under 5 umbrella categories: frame, pin, hybrid, SHIFT, and swappable.

Frame Binding: The frame binding has a standard alpine skiing toe and heel piece joined by shaped metal or polymer tubes. While this beefy setup is great for hucking cliffs and sending big pillow lines, it is rather heavy and better suited for short lift-assisted ski tours. The frame linking the toe and heel piece stiffens up the underfoot portion of the ski considerably: this alters the ski’s behaviour. Frame bindings are the only category that is compatible with standard ski boots (devoid of pin inserts). By now, this binding category is pretty much obsolete.

Pin Binding: the pin binding (also called “low-tech”) uses two sets of pins to secure the skier’s toe and heel welts. Being the lightest and oldest design, those bindings excel at high-mileage tours. Keep in mind that some models are known for poor reliability, inefficient power transfer on the downhill, and premature releases. Do your research before buying. Those bindings require a significant investment as they need special boots with embedded metal toe and heel inserts.

Hybrid Binding: The hybrid binding is a combination of the two options mentioned above: a light pin-style toe piece and an alpine heel piece. This arrangement provides an adequate blend of stiffness for hard-charging skiers, consistent heel release for those awkward yard sales, and low enough weight for long summit days. Like pin bindings, they require boots with pin inserts.

SHIFT Binding: the SHIFT binding, pioneered by renowned gear giant, Salomon, is a class of its own. In 2023, Salomon released the SHIFT 2.0, an updated version of the original design, fixing issues, such as the notorious pre-release problem. The binding consists of an alpine-inspired toe piece with embedded front pins. Through some clever mechanism, the toe piece morphs into its pinned counterpart. The heel piece is just your plain Jane alpine setup with a nifty retracting brake design. It’s light enough to bring on longer missions, fast enough during the transitions, and skis as well as an alpine setup. Like pin bindings, they require boots with pin inserts. Marker came out with their version of the shift binding, the Marker Duke PT, offering DIN values ranging from 11 to 16. I’ve personally never used those bindings, so I’ll leave it up to you to decide if you like the product.

Swappable Binding: the swappable binding was first seen in the CAST Freetour Upgrade Kit, with a fixed alpine heel piece and an interchangeable toe piece. On the uphill, you swap the alpine toe piece for its pinned counterpart. On the downhill, you replace the alpine toe piece. The CAST system provides an efficient option for touring up and a burly one for skiing down. The downside: it’s heavy and ices up frequently. You also have to toss the alternate toe piece in your pack and risk losing it. To me, it’s a little obsolete. I would always go for the SHIFT bindings first as they are much lighter, provide a faster transition, and perform as well on the downhill. Like pin bindings, they require boots with pin inserts.

My advice here is to go for the pinned binding categories (everything except the frame bindings) even if you’ve just started ski touring. To be honest, frame bindings will suck all the fun from the uphill part of the journey. You’ll end up hating ski touring. I’d usually recommend getting a pair of shift or hybrid bindings if you’re just getting into the sport.

Check The Boot Sole Compatibility

No one seems to agree on a standard sole design, making matters worse when it comes to binding compatibility. Sadly, some soles aren’t certified for use with certain bindings as they either wouldn’t provide a consistent release, or they simply won’t fit in the bindings. Binding manufacturers now advertise their products using a few keywords that can be cross-referenced with sole standards. Here’s the best way to navigate the systems.

1. Look up the keyword in the binding description online (GripWalk, MNC, WTR, Sole.ID). Ex: Salomon SHIFT Bindings MNC 13.
2. Look up the keyword in the touring boot description online (Alpine, Touring, GripWalk or WTR).
3. Cross-reference the binding sole standard with your touring boot’s sole standard using the table below to ensure compatibility.

Check The Maximum DIN Setting

You’ve seen the number scales located on both the toe and heel pieces of your bindings. This is the DIN setting (stands for Deutsches Institut für Normung). This setting is the industry-recognized scale for the release force of ski bindings. The setting makes the difference between a cushy fall and a torn ACL. By all means, please go to a professional ski technician if you’re not familiar with the system. Otherwise, there’s an online DIN calculator you can use to determine a safe DIN setting. This is only a starting point. Most skiers tweak the settings based on the binding’s model and personal experience. For instance, the calculator recommends a DIN setting of 8.5 for my weight, height, experience level, and boot length. I started with that value and increased it in increments of 0.5 until I was releasing out of my bindings at the desired pressure. I ended up with a DIN setting of 9.5 for my pin bindings and 10.5 for my SHIFT bindings.

Now that you’ve narrowed it down to a few models, take a moment to check the maximum DIN setting located on the manufacturer’s website. Ensure that the binding supports the setting that you usually run on your downhill ski setup. Honestly, most ski touring bindings run DINs up to at least 8. This is plenty enough for most backcountry skiers.

Go Skiing

You’ve managed to choose great ski touring bindings. Now, go skiing! There’s no better way to know if you’ve picked the right one than to test it out in the field. Remember to tweak your DIN settings. Don’t worry if you’re not feeling them at all: there’s a savvy used market for ski touring bindings.

Related Articles

– How To Choose Touring Skis: Shred On
– How To Choose Ski Touring Boots: Fit & Features
– How To Get Into Ski Touring (Backcountry Skiing)

The post How To Choose Ski Touring Bindings: Clip-In & Ski appeared first on The Uptrack.

Related: How To Choose Ski Touring Bindings: Clip-In & Ski

Pick Your Playground

Do you plan on skiing the powdery fields of Rogers Pass or the rock-hard snow of the Rockies? In the ever-expanding outdoor gear industry, manufacturers design skis to perform well in a narrow set of operating conditions. A ski that excels in powder snow will most likely perform poorly on ice. Likewise, a heavy “charger” ski designed for lift-accessed touring will be quite the burden when hauled up a 4000m peak. Here’s an example. A powder ski (such as the DPS Alchemist Lotus 124) has a specific set of design features that provide ample floatation and easy turn initiation in soft snow (i.e. wide waist, wide shovels, short effective edge, early rocker, and twin tips). Those features render the ski useless on packed snow or icy slopes.

Here’s a sad fact (for your wallet that is): there’s no single quiver-killer touring ski – the industry is getting damn close, but we’re not quite there yet. All skis have strengths and weaknesses. You have to pick one with which you can live with the drawbacks. You’ve got to ask yourself:

• Would I rather shell out the big bucks for an array of skis covering all snow conditions and burn a hole in my wallet?
• Would I rather choose jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none touring skis and save some money in the process?

That’s really up to you and your budget. If you decide on the former, the solution is simple: get a pair of skis designed for every snow condition or outing type you would see in the backcountry. If you decide on the latter, tailor your ski selection to the conditions you will most likely encounter in your local terrain. Being a die-hard backcountry skier, I went with three pairs of skis that are still tailored to the local terrain and mostly always powdery conditions of Rogers Pass:

• Ski-Mountaineering: Salomon MTN Explore 95 with pin bindings – light, fast, floppy
• Backcountry Powder Skiing: Atomic Backlands 109 with pin bindings – rather light, stiffer, directional, powder-charger
• Resort and Lift-Assisted Touring: Moment Wildcat 116 with SHIFT bindings – heavy, burly, playful-charger

For a description of binding types, see How To Choose Ski Touring Bindings: Clip In & Ski.

Choose A Waist Width For Your Touring Skis

We use several width measurements to describe a ski, notably the waist, shovel, and tail width, with the first being the most important. The waist of the ski is located right under your boot. It’s the first measurement I look at when I choose touring skis. To simplify the process, let’s divide the waist width into three categories.

Narrow (75-95mm): The narrow waist width prioritizes performance on hard snow/ice, low weight, and edge-to-edge transition. It’s ideal for ski-mountaineering on wind-scoured faces, narrow couloirs, and days when you’ll be chasing some big vertical. They excel in areas with typically low snowfall, such as the Rockies and the East Coast. Be wary, skis with a narrow waist are usually designed with other features (i.e. low weight, minimal tip rocker, and low stiffness) that accentuate their drawbacks, such as terrible high-speed stability and low flotation in deep snow.

Medium (95-115mm): The medium waist width strikes the perfect balance between hard and soft snow performance. While still manageable on hardpack, they provide just enough float in the deep stuff. Being a bit heavier, the stable platform will be a dream on the downhill, but you’ll feel the legs at the end of a big day

Fat (115-130mm): The “fat” waist width is the king of powder skiing and bottomless snow. The wide waist provides more float than a 300-lb skier would ever need. However, those skis are absolutely terrible on anything other than soft snow. Don’t even think twice about taking those babies on icy slopes. On hardpack, the large width makes the ski cumbersome during the edge-to-edge transition and requires more effort to initiate a turn. This is probably the last category to complete your quiver, as it is very specific to those ultra-rare bottomless powder days.

The shovel and tail width can be considered only after you’ve targeted a waist width category. They work in tandem with the waist to balance flotation in soft snow, turn initiation, and edge-to-edge transition.

Target A Weight Range For Your Touring Skis

When it comes to weight, I have a short saying: “Go as light as possible, but not too light”. In an ideal scenario, you would have the lightest ski to haul uphill and the burliest ski on the downhill. I’ve got some bad news for you… Light often equals soft and floppy at speeds. And, a soft, floppy ski is your worst enemy when bombing down a sweet backcountry run at Mach 4. High speeds naturally require a stiffer setup to dampen the increased vibrations. Depending on what use your ski will see, it’s important to stay within the following weight ranges for different applications.

I’ve certainly climbed to the high alpine on skis that would otherwise be better for sidecountry touring. It’s best to follow the above guidelines without obsessing over it. After all, what’s the point of having the lightest ski if you’re fearing for your life on the way down? Personally, I won’t mind hauling a beefy ski on the uptrack if it grants me the descent of a lifetime.

Select A Profile

When you look sideways at a ski, you’ll notice all kinds of curves. This is called the profile of the ski, essentially a side cross-sectional view of the ski. The profile directly affects how the ski will behave on snow. I’ve outlined four main profiles found on current models, although you’ll find a lot more variety out there.

Full Rocker: The full rocker profile, otherwise known as the reverse-camber or “banana” profile, provides maximum float in deep powder. On the flip side, they have a shortened effective edge, which renders them useless on hardpack and at high speeds. Additionally, climbing skins hardly ever stay secured to rockered skis and provide little traction on the uptrack due to their minimal contact with the snow. This profile is very specific to powder skiing and nothing else. I wouldn’t recommend it for touring.

Full Camber: The full camber profile is typically used in racing skis. It provides the longest effective edge and the best edge hold on hardpack snow. The profile also allows the ski to flex more when carving, granting it a lot more “pop” or rebound energy when edging. The lack of an early rise rocker means the profile will perform poorly in powdery conditions, whereas your tips will simply dive below the snow’s surface – either that or you force yourself to be the world’s most backseat skier.

Mustache Rocker: The mustache rocker profile, otherwise known as the rocker/camber/rocker profile, is the holy grail of shapes when it comes to ski touring. It strikes the perfect balance between a rockered and cambered ski. The tip and tail have an early-rise rocker profile for some float in powder, while the waist has a cambered profile for good traction and “pop” on hardpack. In this case, you get the best of both worlds. Most skis are designed in this way for good reasons. This is the profile I look for when I choose touring skis.

Neutral Camber: The neutral camber profile, otherwise known as flat profile, is hardly ever seen on the market. It’s not great or bad at anything. To be honest, I’m not sure why designers would target this profile.

A note on early rise rocker: watch out for floppy shovels (where the ski curls up). In an effort to reduce the ski’s swing weight, some manufacturers cut meat out of the shovels to a point where they vibrate excessively at speed. This turns your favourite super-G ski run into a horrifying experience.

Review The Laminate Construction

You should also choose touring skis based on how they are built. Originally, making a ski was a simple matter. Thin sheets of wood were cut to size, stacked, glued, and cured using a combination of hydraulic press and moulds. The process creates an arrangement of varying wood layers called the core laminate. In the last 15 years, advancements in laminate construction have resulted in the use of composites, namely carbon fibre and fibreglass. The end goal was and still is to reduce weight while maintaining performance at a low manufacturing cost. Nowadays, all skis are built with some form of carbon or fibreglass. I’ve summarized below the different types of core laminates found in 2024.

Pure Composite: The pure composite laminate uses composites such as carbon, aramid, or flax fibres exclusively to achieve the desired characteristics. Those skis are ultra-expensive and usually designed for the niche sport of “skimo” racing and professional ski-mountaineering competitions. They suck at anything other than climbing mountains on skis.

Hybrid: The hybrid laminate is where it’s at today. It involves metals, plastics, composites, and wood. It also provides the best balance between price tag, weight, and performance. It’s pretty rare not to find carbon stringers or honeycomb inserts laminated somewhere along the length of the ski.

Pure Wood: The pure wood laminate has one ingredient: wood. A favourite amongst old-schoolers, the feel of a wood-cored ski is simply unrivalled (according to them). The price tag is also usually much lower than its hybrid counterpart, but the ski’s weight may suffer.

A note on metal: manufacturers use an optimized blend of aluminum, zinc, magnesium, and copper called Titanal. A ski containing Titanal will most likely be damp, stiff, and heavy. Personally, I avoid Titanal skis for touring as they are simply way too heavy for my taste.

A note on foam skis: foam core skis are dominant amongst low-end models. Cheap, so so cheap. They will lose whatever little stiffness and rebound energy they have within a week. Avoid at all costs!

Verify The Tip and Tail Design Of Your Climbing Skins

The shape of the tip and tail of the ski is also important when choosing a pair of touring skis. You must double-check that the ski’s tip or tail will be compatible with the tip and tail hardware on your climbing skins. Some touring-specific ski models have a built-in notch at the tip and tail to secure the climbing skin.

Related: How To Choose Climbing Skins: Stick And Glide

Pick A Length For Your Touring Skis

All touring skis are offered in a variety of lengths. This is a hard one. Shorter skis, although lighter, provide less float and stability than longer ones. Since I’m not willing to compromise on downhill performance, I tend to size my touring skis like I size my resort skis. The increased confidence when skiing big lines is more than enough to justify the minor increase in weight. Shorter skis are more agile in a tight spot, such as when executing a kick-turn in bushy forest or navigating down a narrow chute.

It’s All About How It Feels On Snow

While you can obsess all you want about the numbers (as I do), it all boils down to choosing the touring skis that feel good. There’s no substitute for visiting your local gear store and renting demos for the day. I recommend trying out several pairs on the same day to get a comparative idea of how they perform in identical snow conditions. Ski resorts commonly host demo days where manufacturers lend their skis for free. Give it a shot! This is a golden opportunity to try out your dream skis.

Related Articles

– How To Choose Ski Touring Boots: Fit & Features
– How To Choose Ski Touring Bindings: Clip In & Ski
– How To Get Into Ski Touring (Backcountry Skiing)

The post How To Choose Touring Skis: Shred On appeared first on The Uptrack.