Alpine Touring Bindings

Alpsport is your Sydney specialist for alpine touring, with a full range of bindings to suit all ranges of needs. Alpine touring requires a very specific binding. This binding must be matched to your ability, skis, boots and your overall goal in alpine touring. There are many things that you need to consider when purchasing an alpine touring binding, this includes; weight, ease of use from downhill to touring, and the boots that can be accepted (see our boot page for more detail on the boot options available).

Alpine/Alpine Touring

Marker makes an alpine touring binding which is based off their Royal Family series of alpine bindings (Griffon and Jester). This series has been modified and has resulted in the Baron and Duke alpine touring bindings. These bindings resemble the alpine bindings very closely, in both form and function but with the ability to release the heel and tour. The disadvantage with these bindings is that they are heavier than many of the specialised bindings and also requires that you to get out of the bindings to change the function from climbing to descending.

New this year from Marker is the F10 Tour which is based off the new binding from Marker, the Squire. The Squire retains the disadvantage of having to exit the binding to change function. The progress is this binding is due to the weight, the Tour weight significantly less that the the Baron whilst still having DIN heels and toe. The F10 Tour weights a mere 1690 grams, this is less than a Diamir Freeride 

Alpine Touring

When using alpine touring boots with a rubber sole you will need to use a specific binding designed for this function.  This will also be a much lighter binding than a standard alpine binding (or even the alpine touring binding from Marker). Many of these bindings have heel risers for climbing the steeper slopes.

The Diamir Freeride binding is the most popular option that we stock and for good reason, as it provides a good balance between strength, weight and compatibility. Other brands of alpine touring bindings that we stock include Marker, Dynafit, Silvretta and Naxo.

Mounting alpine touring bindings is a very important step in getting your setup right. We have the mounting jigs to make sure that the binding is centred on the ski and is mounted at the appropriate balance point so the ski will tour correctly. We will also use the recommended drill bit which ensures that the ski is not drilled too shallow or deep, for more information please look at the workshop and tuning page.