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Dynafit pin bindings and using at the resorts
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So this season I bought a touring setup and put a pair of Dynafit ST 12 rotations with the idea in case of another shut down from covid, I could lap the resort.
Turns out I really like touring. I've been using my touring setup for almost every day I've been riding which consists a skin lap in morning at the resort and riding for a few hours, and the few full days of powder skiing we had. Pretty much a lot of resort skins/skiing due to a shitty snowpack and lack of ski partners.
Fast forward to a couple days ago when I was having some boot work done, talking to the bootfitter he warned me about skiing hard icy conditions with my pin bindings. I mentioned I was rocking Dyna ST 12 Rotations which I thought was the one of the best options for touring/resort pin binding I could get.
But he said to still take caution as it was his preference (he made that clear as he pointed out he is in lighter pin setup) that he will always switch out of any pin to a regular binding when at the resort on shitty/subpar conditions.
I'm still fairly new and learning about pin bindings so my question is this just one skiers fear from a light weight pin binding or should I be concerned and check my gap?
And while we are on the subject of checking gear, what pin bindings do you have? What maintenance do you do or problems you check for?
Thanks for any responses.
**This thread was edited on Mar 8th 2021 at 1:25:33pm
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He's right.
ST 12's will be more fragile, and less safe than an alpine binding. That's just how it goes. Can you get away with riding them inbounds without hurting yourself or breaking the binding? Maybe, that depends on your skiing style and how lucky you are.
What you're talking about is commonly referred to as a "50/50" binding. That used to mean a frame binding, now it could be Shift, Cast, or the new Duke, some folks also use the Kingpin as a 50/50 binding as well. All of those options offer a more consistent release and a more burly ride than your Dynafits. They compromise on uphill useability and weight, out of bounds, but ski much more like an alpine binding.
Personally, I rock Moment's Voyager 14 on all my tours, and I have no problem with spinning a few resort laps on it as well, but I don't make a habit of it.
Plenty of folks ski lightweight pins like yours inbounds all season long with no issues. For me, touring bindings are expensive, I'd feel stupid breaking them doing something they weren't designed to do, and I'd feel even stupider breaking myself because I was pushing a lightweight binding further than it's meant to go.
And to his "any pin" comment, I agree, nobody has figured out how to make a pin toe that's quite as consistent and reliable as a good alpine toe when it comes to releasing. Heck, your toes don't even have an adjustable release value. So of course you can't trust them to stay on when you need them to, and come off before you hurt yourself every time.
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I sometimes ride my touring (pin) setup in resort because I like the way these skis ride and they typically have better edges than my all-mountain/occasional old man park ski setup. I got used to riding my touring setup all the time and didn't have much issue with prematurely ejecting. But I also wasn't skiing anything crazy hard or I would have likely gotten my alpine setup. After a while, I switched to my all mountain skis with alpine bindings to do some park jumps and cruise around. I forgot how nice it was to have super solid power transfer from alpine bindings. Maybe it was placebo, but I had way more confidence in skiing.
If you have the flexibility to do so, you should consider pairing the appropriate binding to get you the desired level of release security, but also consider performance! "Dynafit" bindings are specialty pieces of equipment designed for touring or uphill and they aren't really putting much thought into aggressive riding or variable conditions in the downhill resort environment. Crossover bindings are different. You won't get as much performance on either side, but you get convenience and affordability.
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yeah I dont mind taking a few laps in my touring gear inbounds as Ill almost never be touring if the snow isnt soft out. sometimes Ive even gone out to do some sidecountry and taken a warmup lap only to find that the conditions were suboptimal to tour with, and called it a day...
i wouldnt really want to ski all day on frozen shit with my normal skis, much less with my touring setup, nor would I expect my touring gear to withstand such abuse.
even if its a good day, but the runs are bumped out, I generally turn it down a notch if im on touring skis... the bindings dont have the same elacticity in them and so youre inherantly more prone to prereleasing if youre in really sketchy conditions.
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