Comments on: Silvretta 500 In the Museum — And Still Available

By: Peter

Peter — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 05:27:43 +0000

I have a pair of the 500s with brakes and crampons. They have some play in one of the toes, so I swapped then out because I ski them fairly hard. I’m not sure of the risk using them with the losseness around the front swivel shaft, but the rest of the bindings are OK, and the brakes and crampons are good to have. Not sure how you would contact me?

By: Forest

Forest — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 12:17:22 +0000

Also, @ Liron – the setup you are considering is very similar to mine and the skins will stick to the fishscales just fine as long as you catch at least a couple inches of smooth ptex in front of and behind them. The skin will actually form a smoothed out version of the scales. I was considering the BC 125′s as well but since I ski Maine/NH we don’t usually have enough real powder to need the extra width under foot. VERY happy with the Alpina X-Terrains.

Picked up a pair of lightly used Lowa Struktura GTX boots yesterday and hope to test them out with my setup tomorrow or Sunday; will let you know how they work.

By: Forest

Forest — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 13:26:28 +0000

Bought 2 new pairs of the 500′s about 3 months ago, 1 “small” for my girlfriend and 1 “large” for myself. We originally mounted them on some ~25 yr. old Rossi downhill (not shaped!) skis and climbed with BD kicker skins. We are using our climbing boots, Koflachs and Scarpa Invernos, and are extremely happy with the setup. Last week I remounted the Silvrettas on 2 new pairs of Alpina X-Terrains and we are thrilled with the new setup! Still use the kicker skins when the going gets steep but the Alpinas climb the lower level stuff great on their own. Obviously the climbing boots are the weak link here but the bindings seem very tough and work flawlessly. (I am 6′, 220 lbs). We may pick up some lighter AT boots at some point for the days when we will be mostly skiing. Does anyone know of any weak point in the Silvrettas that would be a problem for someone of my weight skiing a stiffer boot?

By: BenK

BenK — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 00:50:07 +0000

Thanks Phil. I found the same tech bulletin yesterday, and mounted the bindings today. It turns out that aligning the binding pivot point at the marked pin line puts the boot center mark (size 29.5 boots) at exactly the right spot as specified by Karhu. The pivot point is about 10mm behind the front screws. So, I simply aligned the binding pivot point with the marking line, and attached.

My back yard currently has 12″ of powder, so I did a few laps around, and everything felt good. I’ll do a few miles tomorrow on properly varied terrain, and get a better idea.

By: Phil

Phil — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 18:22:05 +0000

The Mountaineer mounted mine and they put the front screws of the binding in line with the marks on the ski. I have followed suit and done this with a pair of 500s and 10th Mountains for a buddy and both of us find they they ski great that way.

HOWEVER, I just found this, and it’s probably the best way to go. I’ll be sure to measure mine to see how far off they are, although I can’t imagine I’ll bother re-mounting them if they are off.

http://www.newtelemarkguide.com/w/images/8/8f/Karhu_techbulletin_0910.pdf