When it comes to telemark bindings, material fetishists and those who always look for excuses for their lack of riding skills in the material will get their money's worth. The questions and possibilities seem endless. Completely free heel with old 3-pin binding technology, better power transmission with cable pull, cable pull touring binding for easier ascents, safety release or not. The possibilities are as varied as a freerider could wish for. And then the New Telemark Norm - NTN for short - came along and brought a completely new variant onto the market.
Improved power transmission and control, especially when edging up, free rotation with little resistance around an axis in the toe area in touring mode, easy entry and exit, safety release and integrated brakes and, finally, a better feel for the ski on the ball of the toe are the plus points of the system. Weight, price and restrictions in mobility are the disadvantages. Some of these have now been eliminated with the new Freedom touring binding from Rotefella based on the NTN principle. Stefan Neuhauser tested them for PowderGuide.
Test conditions
I tested the new Freedom telemark binding on 3 ski tours with a total ascent and descent of over 3000 vertical meters. I also used the Freedom for a day of freeriding with routes on the piste. One of the ski tours (see pictures) was very blown out in the upper part, so there was a mix of powder, wind-broken snow and hard wind-broken slabs. An ideal test terrain for the performance of a telemark binding.
The binding was mounted on a K2 Sideshow. I skied and walked with a Scarpa TXT. I modified the boot a little on the plastic tongue: I use a softer tongue from another TXT model and have shortened it in the lower part so that the tongue has a little more play for climbing with 3 open buckles and gets softer to the front. I have already used this boot with the NTN Freeride.
The impression
The Freedom is definitely superior to the slightly older NTN Freeride in terms of walking function. The maximum opening angle is significantly greater and now reaches up to 60 degrees depending on the boot.
The Freedom allows you to make fine tracks and even manage a kick turn to some extent. So it has earned the name telemark touring binding.
The small climbing aid is really very well tuned. I didn't use the large climbing aid and I don't think it's absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, there is no suitable crampon for the Freedom at the moment. This is apparently in the works and should be on the market soon. Perhaps it will already be on display at Ispo.
In my opinion, it's up to the shoe manufacturers to improve the running performance of the Freedom. Scarpa, for example, unfortunately uses a very stiff plastic tongue. I only know Garmont from the classic telemark bindings. The running performance of the Garmont shoes was much better with classic high-end models in terms of tongue flexibility.
The NTN Freeride is known to have a very limited opening angle. I have done many telemark tours with it over 3 years. In certain types of snow, the too small opening angle was a hindrance when tracking, so that the ski often dipped into the snowpack and got stuck. Kick turns were not possible, so the hairpin turns were a bit clumsy. Nevertheless, it was a new feeling to be out and about with the NTN Freeride. The precision of the binding in poor snow conditions and good overall behavior when skiing parallel (which is simply necessary from time to time!) were features that immediately won me over to the NTN Freeride. There is a compatible crampon for the Freeride from a Canadian manufacturer, which is fixed to the ski independently of the binding.
In terms of downhill performance, the Freedom is in no way inferior to the NTN Freeride. I didn't notice any weaknesses in its skiing precision, neither on the hard piste nor in the wind. Thanks to the different angle of attack in the forefoot area and a different spring system, I have the impression that the foot rolls evenly and smoothly over the entire rolling path of the forefoot. With the NTN Freeride, you work against a noticeable resistance and the roll-off curve always took some getting used to.
I am curious about the icing behavior of the binding when changing between wet snow and cold temperatures. The lever and cable system is much more complex than with a classic cable binding and looks susceptible to icing. Very cold and dry snow conditions prevailed during the test ski tours. The changeover worked quite well. However, the snow solidifying in the binding system was a slight disruptive factor. With the NTN Freeride, I always had to use hot tea from the thermos flask or the Swiss Army knife to de-ice the binding and switch from touring to downhill, so it remains to be seen whether the Freedom works better here.
Not everything always runs smoothly:
On the third ski tour, the small climbing aid no longer wanted to stay in position, so I gave up after about 10 attempts to insert the small climbing aid. The climbing aid is fixed in place with a clamping mechanism that has too little resistance. The manufacturer should improve this.
On the second ski tour, the binding switched to touring on one foot during the ride. This effect needs to be observed further. I can't tell whether I made a sloppy adjustment or whether it was due to the binding. This only occurred once during the entire test phase.
On the first test ski tour (-10 degrees plus 50-60 km wind speeds), I forgot to remove a climbing aid at the turnaround point of the ski tour due to the stress of the cold. In the spinning drift, I didn't see that the climbing aid was still in place. So I didn't manage to switch the binding to downhill. After swallowing snow for a while and my fingers were freezing cold, I did a complete check of the binding again and found the mistake.
In this context, I would like to contradict other tests that claim the Freedom can be easily adjusted with gloves. With a little practice and thin finger gloves, it is possible. But certainly not with every glove.
Conclusion:
The Freedom is a really fine telemark touring binding with excellent running and riding characteristics. Despite this first impression, the binding still has to prove itself on further tours.
I am curious about the icing behavior of the binding when changing between wet snow and cold temperatures. The lever and cable system is much more complex than with a classic cable binding and looks susceptible to icing. Very cold and dry snow conditions prevailed during the test ski tours. The changeover worked quite well. However, the solidifying snow in the binding system was already noticeable as a slight disruptive factor.
With the NTN Freeride, I had to use hot tea from the thermos flask or the Swiss Army knife from time to time to de-ice the binding and switch from touring to downhill.
More pictures of the Rotefella Freedom in the gallery:
