Pointe du Tsaté and broken bindings (10th Jan. 2008)
16th January 2008
I was especially interested in doing this route as from the Pointe du Tsaté you get views into the Val de Moiry, in fact it’s the next peak to the Sasseniere and I’ve hiked and skied in Val de Moiry many times from Zinal and Grimentz. The day started in an interesting way, we took the bus to Les Haudères and another to La Forclaz, on the second bus we’d expected to get off the bus at the drag lift and ride the first 500m up. But, the lift wasn’t running as we got there so the bus driver got on his phone and called the lift guy up who arrived in a couple of minutes and turned the lift on for us. As the last person got off the lift it stopped and we had the place to ourselves, in fact, I’m not even sure the station was really operating, there was no sign of piste preparation at all.
Google Earth Track File
Above left, looking back at Palanche de la Cretta from the other day.
Unfortunately I never got my view in the Val de Moiry as nearing the top Ben lost the heel piece of his Dynafit binding. To my thinking there had been something wrong with these bindings all along, on the first day I saw Ben before starting to ski down lean down and engage the touring mode lock down which effectively locks the binding and is really for uphill mode. I mentioned this to him and he said it seemed to work and the ski was releasing on a fall, but really this isn’t really going be possible on a properly functioning binding so it was indicating a problem with the fitting I think or possibly ice and snow building up in the inserts meaning he wasn’t in the binding properly.
Above, the ingenious fix made by Ben and the guide. A good reminder that it’s worth carrying some sort of repair kit on a tour otherwise it would have been a long, long way down on a broken ski.
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January 21st, 2008 at Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:16:41 +0100
Interesting problem, did you diagnose what had happened exactly? The heel will come off the post if you undo the rear DIN setting screw (I think - from memory)… if this screw was not tightened to the correct value no-wonder he was releasing.
January 21st, 2008 at Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:29:08 +0100
No I didn’t diagnose it, I was going to ask you actually
My dynafits don’t have stoppers and I’ve never really looked at any with stoppers on them, in touring mode the stopper seemed to lock down which places an upwards stress onto the heel piece, I don’t know if that’s normal or not or just on this pair. Like I said, if these were releasing with the toe locked out then, eliminating ice etc. in the toe insert, then there was something pretty wrong, a totally released rear DIN would explain how Ben got them to release. If Ben’s reading this (I don’t have his email address) he might check the other (surviving) ski and see what it’s set at.
A bad advert for dynafit, probably just caused by the store who fitted them not being quite on the ball, and I doubt you could persuade anyone who was there to use them now. For the record though I’m perfectly happy with mine and I’ll probably switch to dyanfits on my BD voodoos sometime soon.
March 11th, 2008 at Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:11:07 +0100
Ciao Tutti,
Actually, the heel piece may pop up if the spring loaded retaining bushing is worn out. The whole heel piece is secured through the DIN spring pushing on a bushing captured in the heel piece axis. The Dynafit TLT speed have not been developed to work with stoppers and the solution offered by Dynafit accelereate the wear on the bushing: the stopper assembly keeps pushing the heel piece upward when the heel piece is turned in the ascent position. Indeed Dynafit warns users of the TLT Speed, that the stoppers may impair function.
Dynafit are reliable bindings and probably the most reliable of all, but require some attention and regular care, as any gear for mountaineering. I recommend to use the TLT Vertical, developed for freeride, with the appropriate stopper assembly. The same weight as TLT Speed + stoppers with an improved and safer design.
Have a good day,
Emmanuel.