Do I really need Salomon Shifts or will a standard touring binding be fine?

Buy cast. It’s a system that lets you tour with pivots. Swaps out the toe for a tech one to climb and put the normal one back to descend. https://casttouring.com/products/freetour-2-0-upgrade-kit

BallClapperBuy cast. It’s a system that lets you tour with pivots. Swaps out the toe for a tech one to climb and put the normal one back to descend. https://casttouring.com/products/freetour-2-0-upgrade-kit

The problem with cast is it’s so heavy. If you are doing long tours you will appreciate pin bindings

mmccarthy81I plan to get into backcountry skiing this season in Utah and need to build a setup. Can somebody who is knowledgable about touring bindings explain them in comparison to a say Pivot 18? I can put some serious wear on my ski equipment... what kind of abuse can a normal touring binding handle? Not sure what to buy

Are you using a dedicated tour ski? If so there is no reason to be using shifts. You should be using a proper pin binding like the atk raider or the moment voyager.

if you’re using a non tour ski then there is no reason to use a shift. Especially if your main bindings are pivot 18’s. You should be using Cast.

sampliThe problem with cast is it’s so heavy. If you are doing long tours you will appreciate pin bindings

If you’re doing long tours you’re not using shifts. You’d be using proper pin bindings. For hybrid set ups there is no better system than cast. Especially if you’re already using pivots.

i agree pins are the way to go if you’re doing a proper tour set up with actual tour skis.

**This post was edited on Nov 10th 2024 at 5:29:30am

I like my shifts for the downhill performance but if you’re super hard on gear maybe not the best choice unless you can get a good deal on them

I have a pair of shift, they deff do the job but i wouldnt get a second pair unless its on sale. It have a tendancy to prerelease and I have to stick a tree branch or a lighter in the toe lever so it can stay locked in which annoys me a bit.

cast is 100% the move. biggest thing is the price, they’ll last tho

BallClapperBuy cast. It’s a system that lets you tour with pivots. Swaps out the toe for a tech one to climb and put the normal one back to descend. https://casttouring.com/products/freetour-2-0-upgrade-kit

From what I've seen Shifts can be really high maintenance. If you're getting rowdy go with CAST, if you're just skiing pow get pins.

The Shift2 is a bit more reliable than the OG shift, but they both need to be set up correctly. Most pre-releases I see with Shift is due to the AFD height not being properly set up. I'd say go with a tech binding if all you're going to do is tour, Shift2 or CAST if its 50-50 resort-touring.

marker duke is the way to go in my opinion for a hybrid setup. Cheaper than cast but just as reliable and they ski like a normal downhill binding

I am building a touring setup, already have resort skis

I have the free tour 2 conversion on pivot on my crjs

shifts on my prodigy 3.0

king pins on my jj(v… I like the graphic)

Marker alpinist on my blizzard rustlers


each binding has its pros and cons and I use each one differently.

Crjs are for sled access stuff. Generally pretty short climbs, but hard skiing. You can hit booters, drop cliffs, carve tracked out chutes, land switch in deep snow. Pivots are a double edged sword imo. Best feeling bindings, most durable (apart from cracking half moons), the cast system makes them very walkable. the heel piece twisting away when you take off your skis just pisses me off.

the prodigys are the closest thing I have to a park/resort ski. Short walks, low snow. Shifts can handle pretty aggressive skiing, but I can’t imagine for very long. Very good elasticity considering how well they walk. The brakes are very thin. Have gone through several sets. I have my dins cranked to 13 and the heel pre releases landing nose heavy switch or buttering. Causes the breaks to deploy while moving backwards. They just snap off. No hope to bend them back into shape. Nothing to do with afd adjustment, but that whole mechanism does not seem very durable. And it’s for sure not very stable.

jjs are for longer days with high snow. Anything 10km+. Very walkable binding. Love how easily you can deploy and retract heel risers. Ski pretty good too, very predictable releases, definitely better elasticity than a traditional pin. Love how quick transitions are. With a little bit of practice you can go from walk to ski without taking off the skis. My only complaint about king pins is the slide plate that holds the heel piece. Each year it’s seems to me as if it’s looser and has a little more play than before.

the blizzards are for really long days. Last year I only used them once. The alpinists are very light, no brakes just tethers. Paired up with a touring boot, it genuinely feels like I have nothing on my feet compared to all the other skis. Skiing aggressively on them always makes me nervous, very unpredictable release characteristics. You can lock them out for if you’re in a steep col and loosing a ski is not an option, but generally you don’t ski those kinds of lines that way. Even with an inreach, I don’t ski hard when I’m 25km away from a trailhead in potentially bad weather conditions. As for elasticity. There is none. You’re pretty much rigidly mounted to the ski. You get great control and feedback from the ski, but very very little shock absorption.

Tldr my ratings

freetour pivots
Walking: 8/10
Transition: 3/10
Skiing hard: 10/10
Skiing carefully: 10/10
Weight: 5/10

Shifts:
walking: 8/10
Transition: 5/10
skiing hard: 5/10
skiing carefully: 9/10
weight: 7/10

kingpins
walking: 10/10
transition: 8/10
skiing hard: 8/10
skiing carefully: 8/10
weight: 8/10

pins
walking: 10/10
Transition: 10/10
skiing hard: 3/10
skiing carefully: 6/10
weight: 10/10

point is, what’s best really depends on what your trying to do.

ajbskiI have the free tour 2 conversion on pivot on my crjs

shifts on my prodigy 3.0

king pins on my jj(v… I like the graphic)

Marker alpinist on my blizzard rustlers


each binding has its pros and cons and I use each one differently.

Crjs are for sled access stuff. Generally pretty short climbs, but hard skiing. You can hit booters, drop cliffs, carve tracked out chutes, land switch in deep snow. Pivots are a double edged sword imo. Best feeling bindings, most durable (apart from cracking half moons), the cast system makes them very walkable. the heel piece twisting away when you take off your skis just pisses me off.

the prodigys are the closest thing I have to a park/resort ski. Short walks, low snow. Shifts can handle pretty aggressive skiing, but I can’t imagine for very long. Very good elasticity considering how well they walk. The brakes are very thin. Have gone through several sets. I have my dins cranked to 13 and the heel pre releases landing nose heavy switch or buttering. Causes the breaks to deploy while moving backwards. They just snap off. No hope to bend them back into shape. Nothing to do with afd adjustment, but that whole mechanism does not seem very durable. And it’s for sure not very stable.

jjs are for longer days with high snow. Anything 10km+. Very walkable binding. Love how easily you can deploy and retract heel risers. Ski pretty good too, very predictable releases, definitely better elasticity than a traditional pin. Love how quick transitions are. With a little bit of practice you can go from walk to ski without taking off the skis. My only complaint about king pins is the slide plate that holds the heel piece. Each year it’s seems to me as if it’s looser and has a little more play than before.

the blizzards are for really long days. Last year I only used them once. The alpinists are very light, no brakes just tethers. Paired up with a touring boot, it genuinely feels like I have nothing on my feet compared to all the other skis. Skiing aggressively on them always makes me nervous, very unpredictable release characteristics. You can lock them out for if you’re in a steep col and loosing a ski is not an option, but generally you don’t ski those kinds of lines that way. Even with an inreach, I don’t ski hard when I’m 25km away from a trailhead in potentially bad weather conditions. As for elasticity. There is none. You’re pretty much rigidly mounted to the ski. You get great control and feedback from the ski, but very very little shock absorption.

Thanks! This is super helpful. I think I’m going to go for kingpins. I don’t want to deal with swapping toe pieces and carrying binding pieces in my pack or pockets, so not interested in CAST. I want something that won’t suck to skin all day with that can also be skied hard. Not planning on hitting road gaps or massive cliffs so I think kingpins should be good

mmccarthy81Thanks! This is super helpful. I think I’m going to go for kingpins. I don’t want to deal with swapping toe pieces and carrying binding pieces in my pack or pockets, so not interested in CAST. I want something that won’t suck to skin all day with that can also be skied hard. Not planning on hitting road gaps or massive cliffs so I think kingpins should be good

No problem.

The kingpins are great as long as you are not expecting to ski park in them. They feel pretty much like griffons or squires depending on which din you get.

Once again, that’s my opinion. I haven’t skied the shift 2. They might be much better on that hard skiing rating I gave. I could never really fully 100% trust mine.

I do have a question: there is a difference in releasability of the bindings, I believe that this makes a bit of a difference. How much of a difference would those of you that have skied MNC bindings like the duke/shift/cast vs like a kingpin/atk freerider etc?

>buying shits in the year of our lord 2024

I bought Kingpin 13s