Sebastian Siep

Since my discovery of booster straps and the Castsystem, I haven't had any gadgets for skiing that could revolutionize my skiing days. Even with these newly discovered energy storage devices, it was only the feedback from my ski buddies and the realization of their season-independent usability that was a revelation.

The Booster Strap was invented by Ray Fougere in 1999 and park and pipe skiers quickly realized that the strap stopped ski watch bruising. Nowadays, almost every ski boot manufacturer has its own strap technology, but nothing beats the original.

The Upper Bavarian equipment manufacturer is upgrading with a new ascent-oriented binding for ski tourers of all kinds. The Straubing-based company has expanded the horizons of its binding world: in addition to the Duke for big mountain and the KingPIN for all downhill-oriented "freeski mountaineers", the ALPINist is now a fully equipped Pintech binding that is available from just 300 euros and weighs just 245g (without suspension line and without ski topper).

A few years ago, the brothers Lars and Silas Chikering-Ayres developed a binding system due to a lack of alternatives, which makes it possible to ascend with a pin toe piece and descend with an alpine binding and boots. What is the background to the Cast system, why is the original system no longer being sold and what is coming next?

PowderGuide reporter Basti is a material fetishist and always on the lookout for interesting new developments. He recently discovered something exciting on the feet of his gondola neighbor: Self-made ski boots from a 3D printer. He did some research and paid a visit to the Swiss company Tailored Fits.

As in previous years, this winter's finale of the very varied Freeride World Tour was an exciting high-caliber event at the legendary Bec des Rosses in Verbier in the Valais Alps. Due to the difficult snow conditions on the extremely steep northern slope of the Bec des Rosses and last-minute changes to the starting line-up, early speculation about the distribution of titles and the day's winners was completely inappropriate. The Verbier Xtreme 2014 freeride competition was correspondingly exciting for spectators and participants alike.

"ALL WINNERS IN VERBIER ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS" could already be read in the news on the Freeride Worldtour homepage on Sunday afternoon. On Saturday, March 24th, in front of 1000 spectators sizzling in the sun and another 25,000 cheering live via the internet, the top riders were allowed to draw their signatures into the steep north face of the Bec des Rosses. The 16th edition of the Verbier Xtreme and the Freeride World Tour have now come to an end.