Salomon Guardian vs Marker Duke

They both have their pro and cons, I prefer the Guardian (or atomic tracker, same binding) The guardian sits a little lower to the ski and is a little torsional stiffer. It sits lower because the heel release is behind the heel, this also makes it a tad bit heavier. Also you can free your heel with out having to click out of the binding, Marker is assuming that every time you switch modes you are either putting on or taking off skins. If you do a lot of parallel traversing and flat cat-track return skiing (see Alpental) this can make a huge difference if you want to free the heel and "walk" a traverse line without removing the ski and are not skinning. But in all reality there is very few places where you would need or want to do that. It just happens to work for where I ski.

Adrenalins are better than both IMO. Lighter than both and more reliable, although they do have a high stack height similar to Dukes.

Guardians are the heaviest and also tend to break a lot - I've lost count of the number of friends who have had catastrophic failure (ie binding in two pieces). They also have no flat tour mode. I had lots of issues with an older pair of Dukes, especially with pre-release, not sure if newer models are better.

Daymakers! They're the best touring investment you can make. You get to keep using the downhill bindings and boots that your used to and that you love. You also don't have to sacrifice weight as well as the risk of moving parts that could possibly break when on the descent. The weight is also a lot less then most touring bindings. And the company is owned by two ski addicts just like us. Which I would totally rather support instead. And best of all they work awesome!!

minihefAdrenalins are better than both IMO. Lighter than both and more reliable, although they do have a high stack height similar to Dukes.

Guardians are the heaviest and also tend to break a lot - I've lost count of the number of friends who have had catastrophic failure (ie binding in two pieces). They also have no flat tour mode. I had lots of issues with an older pair of Dukes, especially with pre-release, not sure if newer models are better.

seconded

minihefAdrenalins are better than both IMO. Lighter than both and more reliable, although they do have a high stack height similar to Dukes.

Guardians are the heaviest and also tend to break a lot - I've lost count of the number of friends who have had catastrophic failure (ie binding in two pieces). They also have no flat tour mode. I had lots of issues with an older pair of Dukes, especially with pre-release, not sure if newer models are better.

the stack height is just soooo high... too high for me I didn't even like the older dukes I was on

.lenconthe stack height is just soooo high... too high for me I didn't even like the older dukes I was on

Yeah it's not ideal but the risk of complete failure with Guardians plus the extra weight far outweighs an annoyance like stack height for me. Planning to upgrade my Adrenalins to Kingpins though - heard very good things from everyone I know who has skied hard on them in resort.

So it seems that the adrenalin is the way to go for a side country entry binding, who has rode the adrenalins? Do you like them? Do your friends have them, do they like em?