ISPO 2014 | Part 2: Ski boots & ski bindings

Many improvements but little really new

While the ski boots and ski bindings sector has regularly seen the most interesting and innovative new products in recent years, in my opinion at least, this year hardly any manufacturer has come up with an incredible or even surprising innovation. However, with the high level of performance and the huge increase in performance that this sector has achieved in the last five years, this is not necessarily a disadvantage. Especially as most manufacturers are not remaining completely inactive, but are continuing to develop many of the now proven and popular products.

Following is a brief overview of the new products:

Bindings

There are two trends in bindings for the coming season. On the one hand, several manufacturers (Tyrolia and Salomon to be precise) are releasing bindings that do not have an ascent function, but are still suitable for boots with soles that comply with the ski touring standard. The Marker Lord, which is quite successful, especially in North America, is thus losing its unique selling point, even if it is not entirely clear to me why a binding is needed. On the other hand, there is a trend towards more stable pin bindings that are optimized for freeriding and release behavior.

The small Italian company ATK Race present an interesting innovation with the "Free Raider 14": The big sister of the "Raider 12" has identical options for adjusting the release resistance on the toe piece (and the identical position of the stopper on the toe piece, which takes some getting used to), a rear jaw with a maximum Z-value of 14, a widened drill pattern stopper in widths up to 117 mm. The complete pair weighs just under 700 grams, making it probably the lightest binding with such a high release value.

Fritschi will try to increase sales of the Vipec, which Trab also plans to do with the TR2. However, while the Swiss are offering a convincing product with the Vipec, the success of the TR2, which is interesting in principle, is probably in serious jeopardy due to its compatibility with only one shoe model.

Finally, it should be mentioned that G3 was not represented at ISPO, but has announced an interesting new product for the coming season with the "Ion"...

Boots

Many of the manufacturers are also updating their models here, but there were new models or notable changes in the following:

Scott is offering the "WTR130" next season, a ski boot with walk mode that is even higher than the Delirium, i.e. quite hard.

Fischer is launching two touring boots with different hardnesses, which are not only suitable for pin bindings, but can also be individually adjusted to the wearer's feet using the Vacuum system familiar from alpine boots and are called "Trans Alp".

Lange is launching the "XC" for the next season to complement the unchanged freeride top model "XT", which comes with a slightly wider fit and a rather rudimentary walking mode, but promises high downhill performance.

Meanwhile, there is good news for the ladies from K2, where the men's models are based on the unchanged "Pinnacle130" and "Spyne", the women's version of the Pinnacle, called the "Minaret100", is being relaunched.

The Italians from Tecnica are relaunching the "Cochise Pro 130". In addition to a new, more anatomical last (in other words, the front is now wider in relation to the rear), the shaft rotation has been improved and the weight reduced. In addition, the new "Mach 1 130" has won an ISPO award. The special feature of this high-performance boot is the Custom Adaptive Shape, which refers to an inner boot that is not only thermoformable, but can also be precisely adapted by the boot fitter through milling work.

The company Crispi, which is better known from the telemark sector, is launching the "Sinthesi", a rather hard touring boot that is of course also compatible with pin bindings.

At Dynafit, the boot line is complemented by the new "Radical CR", a more classic 4-lace boot with a good walking mode.

Finally, a change at Scarpa covering almost the entire line-up should also be mentioned: a new model is not presented, but the sometimes somewhat vulnerable walking mode of the popular boots has been heavily revised, actually completely redesigned and made very solid. The cries of "Crap, my boot just won't switch to ski mode" on various ski tour summits should therefore finally be a thing of the past.