Black Diamond for everything climbing and skiing.    Dynafit -- Speed Up!    Tracker beacons, Stash packs, shovels, more more more.    Terrific deals on randonnee AT rando backcountry skiing gear.    K2 has the skis that stay true to earning your turns.    Garmont boots -- excellent choice for backcountry skiing.

Dynafit Gear and Down the Backtrail

Bookmark and Share            By Lou

You guys are right, weather in Bellingham was beautiful this morning. A crisp moon shined in the dawn, with only a few scuds of mist keeping it scrappy. Sadly, the most we saw of big mountains today was a glimpse of Rainier as we passed through Seattle, after an early start on the drive back to Colorado. Our NW visit has to be short due to work obligations, along with making a clean break from the college guy we left behind. It’s tempting to be helicopter parents, but I’d rather save the heli time for on-snow activities somewhere north of Bellingham (smile).

Everything was looking good when we left. Guest blogger Jason has joined Louie for a season at Western. Those two guys together are an outdoor powerhouse, with Jason returning from a summer in AK as a kayak and fishing guide. Of course, we kept mentioning how cool Baker and Shuksan looked for WEEKENDS after STUDY. We’ll see how well those words sunk in.

In all, it’s a fine feeling leaving the young men at such a world renowned mountain town and such a good school. We expect a few more guest blogs from both, and to respect their privacy we’ll let them choose how much detail to share about what they’re up to. Though I’ll drop a few hints now and then.

On to some winter gear stoke:
As most of you blogsters know, Dynafit Manaslu skis started last winter with a useful insert system specifically configured for mounting Dynafit bindings without a jig or drill. I just heard from Salewa NA and they’ve improved explication of this system with the following stickers. The main thing to remember about the Dynafit “pre drilled” skis is you DO NOT need to drill the inserts, you just fire a screw in and make sure you don’t over-torque. Indeed, you make SURE. Also, it’s important to note these inserts are not designed for constant swapping of bindings, as the type of screws used for mounting eventually eat up any threads they make in the holes (unlike machine screws and threaded metal inserts.)

This doesn’t mean you can’t use the insert holes numerous times, it just means that with lots of screw removal/replacement you’ll eventually need to get some epoxy in there, and have to be extra extra careful not to strip holes while placing the screws.

Dynafit backcountry skiing.
Manaslu binding insert stickers above.

Verbiage from Dynafit:

Manaslu insert system increases binding holding strength by 25% and allows simple and quick mounting of Dynafit bindings. Again, it’s a Nylon plug inserted into the Pawlonia and Synthetic stringers in the ski’s core. The plug is larger diameter than the pre cut holes in the Titanal top plate. The Nylon holds the binding screws 25% better than wood or synthetic core would…..and allows the bindings to be simply screwed onto the ski…with the Titanal top plate and hole selection….serving in place of a JIG. This is NOT an insert system like K2 and Voile that you can use over and over to change bindings daily.

More regarding WildSnow.com. It appears we’re playing with the big boys over a Backcountry Mag. Turns out they’ve got a sticker going on the Manaslu that says it’s a Backcountry Mag editor’s choice, and, a WildSnow.com top choice! We love it. Only I’d hope anyone looking at Manaslus has already surfed WildSnow and learned about the ski here — but if not, the sticker will remind them where to head for the best info on the web.

Posted by Lou on September 23, 2008 | Filed Under Misc Gear Reviews, Trip Reports 

previous post: Mount Baker Hiking
next post: Backcountry Skiing News Roundup

Comments

14 Responses to “Dynafit Gear and Down the Backtrail”

  1. Nathan Bryant September 23rd, 2008 3:39 pm

    Thanks for this, Lou. My Manaslu’s are due to arrive via Fedex tomorrow, and I was anticipating having to bug Tim at Salewa about how to mount. Do you know if the screws that come with the Comfort can be used without modification?

  2. Lou September 23rd, 2008 4:12 pm

    Hi Nathan, yeah, the screws should work fine. Just be VERY careful not to over-torque, and perhaps check torque every so often through the winter. I wonder if we should have a torque spec for doing this, rather than just by feel? Would be interesting, perhaps I’ll figure out a way to do that, probably with a small torque wrench, but it would have to be a good quality one and those are expensive. But then, there are ways to set torque without a torque wrench…

  3. Nathan Bryant September 23rd, 2008 7:28 pm

    Great, thanks! I’ll try to just get them a hair tighter than finger tight.

  4. Piotr September 24th, 2008 2:04 am

    I wonder if ‘Only for Dynafit Vertical ST/FT/Comfort’ statement mean Manaslu can’t be driled at all (i.e. you can’t fix other bindings to it)? If, so, the fun part of this is if you have BSL above 323mm you are not allowed to ski 169cm Manaslu. Also, I love ‘Screw with care’ aphorism. ;)

    Loosely related: there was a line of Dynafit skis a while back that had ‘Use only with Dynafit bindings’ print on the topsheet. Do you happen to know what was the reason? Markieting or technical resasons (e.g. size of some reinforcement plate)?

  5. Lou September 24th, 2008 7:08 am

    Piotr, I’m pretty sure the statement about required bindings is just marketing speak, as so long that the binding has the same hole pattern as that of the pre-drilled holes in the ski, in my experience they work fine. Let’s see what Dynafit has to say. Perhaps there is a screw length issue, or perhaps it just has to do with the size range of the bindings as opposed to what’s printed on the sticker.

  6. Marcin September 24th, 2008 7:39 am

    I am waiting for my Manaslu as they should arrive to me next week. This issue with inserts makes me a littlebit suspicious as this type of the mounting is against the usual habbits. Lou do you think that adding the epoxy to wholes from the very beginning. I am agree that the phrase screw with care is a little bit ambiguous

  7. Tony September 24th, 2008 7:45 am

    Lou,

    More questions on mounting the Manaslus:

    1) In your Dynafit binding mounting instructions, I think you mention lining up the boot in the binding before tightening the screws for a final time. (Its been a while since I read those instruactions, and I never have mounted bindings myself.) Do you need to follow this stem with the Manaslu, or are the inserts accurately enough placed not to need this step?

    2) How should the procedure for screwing in the screws be different than the procedure for a standard mount? Again, I have not done this other than reading your previously published mounting instructions so any details would help. I know you need to worry about over torqueing scews for a standard mount as well as with the inserts.

  8. RandoSwede September 24th, 2008 7:58 am

    Lou-
    How about using a little blue loc-tite on the threads to ensure that they stay put during the season? The screws that come with K2 tele insert skis have loc-tite on them.

  9. Tony September 24th, 2008 8:18 am

    RS, I don’t think lock-tite is desinged to work with materials other than metal. I know it degrades some plastics, not sure about nylon.

  10. Lou September 24th, 2008 9:59 am

    Yeah, you don’t want to be using Loctite with plastic, 5-min epoxy works fine, and reverses pretty easily though I’d warm the screws with a soldering iron before backing out. Remember I’m not advocating using epoxy when only running screws in and out of the Dynafit ski fittings a few times, I’m talking about after the fittings get reamed out by taking the screws in/out many times. Or if a screw seems to be getting stripped.

  11. Mike S October 19th, 2008 2:18 pm

    Interesting that there is no overlap stated in the sole lengths between the two mounting options. For example, the length of the 27 and 27.5 shell for the BD Method boot is 318mm* – exactly the max for the inner mounting position on the 178 and 187 Manaslus.

    Does this mean I’m out of luck if my other pair of boots is a few mm longer – say 328? Splitting it right on the most common (?) mens foot sizes (27 – 28) seems a dubious choice. Or do the ranges given leave some spare adjustment room?

    * http://www.bdel.com/pdf/BD%20boot%20sizing_print.pdf

  12. Jonathan S. Shefftz December 29th, 2008 8:12 pm

    “Interesting that there is no overlap stated in the sole lengths between the two mounting options.”
    – My understanding is that the binding fore/aft adjustment range solves any fit problems. But the more interesting interesting issue is finding the right fore/aft balance point. I’m a 296mm bsl in the 169cm, so the sticker recommends the fore heel position and aft toe position. However, using my Dynafit jig to measure, to be in the center of the binding adjustment range I should actually be either fore on both toe & heel or aft on both toe & heel.
    – My solution would usually be to measure the boot’s Ball-of-Foot against the ski’s running length, but with the tip rocker, hmm… so instead I measured against a 170cm BD Verdict (which BoF had me mount 0.5cm fore of boot center mark) and 168cm Atomic Kongur (which BoF had me mount 3cm fore of boot center mark), and roughly adjusted for the slight length differences from the 169cm Manaslu. The fore position (i.e., recommended for boots 3mm longer than mine) would puts me 3cm aft of those other skis that were mounted to Bof, so I’m going to try that first (instead of the even further aft position for my boot size).

  13. Lou December 30th, 2008 7:26 am

    All, the Manaslu in my experience is forgiving of mounting position, but still worth experimenting with by using the two different positions provided by the inserts. Remember that the big long tip makes it look like you’re farther back on the running surface than you really are.

  14. se ak skier June 5th, 2009 10:31 pm

    Hi-I have no experience w/ inserts. I have a boot sole length of 279mm but want to try the Manaslu in 178cm. I have been told that the inserts won’t fit this sole length. Can I drill the skis anyway? How will this effect the ski? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Got something to say?





Anti-Spam Quiz:

:alien: :angel: :angry: :blink: :blush: :cheerful: :cool: :cwy: :devil: :dizzy: :ermm: :face: :getlost: :biggrin: :happy: :heart: :kissing: :lol: :ninja: :pinch: :pouty: :sad: :shocked: :sick: :sideways: :silly: :sleeping: :smile: :tongue: :unsure: :w00t: :wassat: :whistle: :wink: :wub:

Due to comment spam we moderate most comments. Please do not submit your comment twice -- it will appear shortly after we approve it. Once you've had one comment published, your comments will be pre-approved and appear immediately if you're using the same computer and not blocking browser cookies. NOTE however that ALL comments with one or more links in the text will be held for moderation no matter what, again for spam prevention.
Welcome to Louis (Lou) Dawson's backcountry skiing information and opinion website. Lou's passion for the past forty years has been alpinism, climbing, mountaineering and skiing -- along with all manner of outdoor recreation. He has authored numerous books and articles about backcountry skiing and is well known as the first person to ski down all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks, otherwise known as the Fourteeners! Books and free back country information here, and tons of Randonnee rando telemark info.

All material on this website is copyrighted. Permission required for reproduction, electronic or otherwise. That includes publication and display on other websites by whatever means. PLEASE SEE OUR COPYRIGHT INFORMATION.

Backcountry skiing is a dangerous sport. You may be killed or severely injured if you do any form of randone, randonnee and randonnée skiing. The information on this website is intended only as general information. While the authors and editors of the information on this website make every effort to present useful information, due to human error the information, text and images contained within this website may be inaccurate, false, or out-of-date. By using, reading or viewing the information provided on this website, you agree to absolve the owners of Wild Snow as well as content contributors of any liability for injuries or losses incurred while using such information. Furthermore, you agree to use any of this website's information, maps, photos, or binding mounting instructions or templates at your own risk, and waive Wild Snow its owners and contributors of any liability for use of said items for backcountry skiing or any other use.