Innovations in the CAST binding system

The Cast-Touring System

Two passionate skiers founded a company in the USA in 2012 to develop and sell a universal, safe and robust touring binding system. Until a few years ago, brothers Lars and Silas Chickering-Ayres were regularly on the podium in the Freeskiing World Tour and the Freeride World Tour. However, the boys don't just ski contests, they also go on tours. For some time, they had been looking for a solution that would allow them to ski their sporty style on more remote slopes that are only accessible with skins. Such an uncompromising piece of equipment was not available on the market, so they decided to do it themselves.
They dedicated their company name to the late company co-founder Ryan Hawks and his sense of freedom when skiing and touring: CAST.

Your main focus was always on the reliability of your system and was primarily geared towards downhill suitability. They needed full performance and suitability for competition. Their benchmark was the robust turntable binding system with its secure, vertical release function and the impact-resistant, elastic properties of the pivot toe piece.

The second goal of their development was to exploit the ascent-related advantages of a pin binding system. They did not want to do without the improved torsional rigidity and lower moving weight on the foot compared to a frame system.

The third component of such a system was, of course, the boot. At that time, there was no ski boot manufacturer that equipped racing or hard ski boots with a pin insert or a walking mechanism including a DIN sole. Cast offered to retrofit every ski boot with a pin insert in the toe area. There are now tougher freeride boots with interchangeable DIN soles and inserts from a number of other manufacturers too.

The brothers weren't the only athletes looking for something like this. Steep face skiers, freeriders and ski mountaineers, whose equipment had to function reliably at the limit, were also involved. Athletes such as Tof Henry, Sam Anthamatten, Drew Tabke and Jeremy Heitz, among many others, are also members of the development team. With their support and their test results, CAST was able to market its first product after several years of development.

Outlook CAST Pivot Freetour binding

The images released so far give an idea of the points that have been improved by the new design. The Look P14 or 18 toe piece modified by CAST is now clipped and locked with its modified plate onto a plate mounted under the modified binding screws. The resulting even flatter stand height and lighter construction of the front part, coupled with the now announced automatic locking of the ski stoppers and a second stage of the climbing aid, results in an even more uncompromising, touring-capable overall system.

There will be interchangeable pads for the pivot toe piece for use with WTR, DIN and also touring soles. Standard crampons can still be fitted.

It remains to be seen how the announced, self-developed pin toe piece will perform in practice. The original Dynafit Vertical part was a very satisfactory solution in terms of locking security and ease of entry. It also remains to be seen whether other Freetour versions of other bindings will be available alongside the P14 and P18.

The Pivot Freetour should be available from next season and can already be pre-ordered on the Cast homepage. PowderGuide is keeping its fingers crossed that this time they get a little bit closer to the egg-laying woolly pig of a freeride binding.