New Gear Alert! Salomon to Reinvent BC

Salomon Shift – Shaking Up Backcountry Bindings

For a long time now, backcountry skiers had a fundamental choice to make: the lightest, most efficient binding design for going uphill, or the best performing, safest for going downhill.

Tech bindings, pioneered by Dynafit, are light and efficient, using toe pins to rotate with each stride in the skin track. Frame bindings, like Marker’s venerable Duke, skied like a real alpine binding but are heavy, and stay attached to your foot while in walk mode, meaning you lift the binding with each stride.

Salomon’s new S/Lab Shift binding, available at Start Haus next fall, promises to deliver the best of both worlds for the first time. Sure, the Marker Kingpin gave the touring function of a tech toe and the skiing prowess of a alpine heal, but the S/Lab takes it a step farther, giving alpine toe piece performance to complete the package.

Basically, a new mechanism lets you seamlessly swap between a tech toe and an alpine toe while on the hill. It’s easier to see than to explain:

What does this mean? It means you get the most efficient binding while touring, and the safest, highest performance setup on the descent. Beyond the backcountry, this becomes a serious option for those who want one ski/binding setup for both the resort and out of bounds.

The details:

• DIN: 6-13
• Elastic travel: 47mm (same as the gold standard alpine binding STH2)
• Weight: 1.7 kg per pair (3.74 lbs)
• Brakes: 90-120mm in 10mm increments
• Climbing aids: 2 and 10 degrees

We anticipate these flying off the shelves this fall, so sign up for our email list to be the first to know when they arrive!