Ski mountaineering race bindings trade features for lightness on the premise that speed is largely tied to weight. While that’s true, speed is also tied to efficiency. And many ski-mo racers view the few seconds it takes to swivel a multi-position binding riser to a higher platform as wasted time, regardless of the steepness of the climb ahead of them.
Slower to adjust perhaps, a higher riser does make it far easier (read: efficient) to skin up a steep skin track. Additional height risers definitely work for the recreational crowd, but what about for racers? When I look at the finish line times at Ski-mo races, there’s usually a gap of minutes between the first several finishers. There are also gaps of minutes between many other racers, and then a few may come down to the finish line neck and neck. My argument for ‘risers for race bindings’ would be that it takes mere seconds to bend down and twist a binding into a more efficient position. I suspect that the time taken would be far less than the amount that is saved by being several percent more efficient on each upward stride on steep sections.
The bane of many tech race bindings: not very much lift to the climbing position.
With a simple modification, it's easy to nearly double the amount of lift.
Since I’m not someone who has the ability to calculate the efficiency coefficient increase, I Continue reading ‘Modifying Tech Race Bindings with an Additional Riser’
