Splittie of the week | Skistraps

On the Descent

Anyone or everyone with many days on the board or with older equipment is bound to have experienced this: You make an aggressive turn on the toe-side edge or brake very hard on this edge and suddenly your boot slips out of the binding because the rear strap of the binding has broken. Totally annoying and usually the end of a day's riding - it has happened to me several times. Standard ski straps or, for people with large feet, the longest version of the Voile straps (63 cm) are a lifesaver. Thread these through the struts of the highback, step into the binding with your boot and tighten. It should be clear that with this construction the stiffness of the binding is not comparable to the normal state, but for a bit of sliding around in the ski resort or, more importantly, for getting back to the starting point on tour, it's definitely enough.

And otherwise

However, the skistrap has by no means reached its limits. It is probably only our ingenuity that limits its possible uses. Originally from the heliskiing sector, ski straps offer important advantages over other fasteners: made from one piece, can be used with one hand, no knot required, can't get caught anywhere as there are no loops, can be extended as required by tying them together and so on.

The elasticated strap with aluminium buckle quickly found its way into normal skiing and outdoor sports. It starts with transporting the equipment, ski poles are attached to the skis with the straps and the skis are also held together with them. If you are travelling by bike to the start of the ski tour, the whole package can also be easily attached to the frame with ski straps. If you then realise that you have only packed one skin in the bag when you start out, this problem can also be solved by wrapping several ski straps around the skis. During the ascent, a buckle on the ski boot falls off because a screw has come loose. This problem on the descent can also be solved with the ski strap. The touring partner with the splitboard is the first to ski down, but has left her poles and even the bag with the skins behind and the backpack is already full. With the straps, everything is simply lashed to the outside of the backpack. And I'm sure you can think of even more uses for our ski straps! Feel free to write something in the comments.