Comments on: KneeBinding Takes Ski Safety Beyond Helmets

By: Jonathan Shefftz

Jonathan Shefftz — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 13:21:04 +0000

Lots of initial buzz when first announced, much of it doubtful, but Rick Howell’s posts on various internet forums addressed the doubters very effectively.
A couple years later, when it finally arrived, seems to be a generally disappointing reaction b/c:
- With Rick Howell out, no more responses on internet forums.
- The binding’s appearance is not very reassuring. I’m not saying this has any practical importance, but when you actually inspect a pair in the store, the plastic housing looks like a very low-end beginner binding.
- No detailed field reports from anyone who switched back & forth between the Knee Binding and some all-metal race stock binding. I suspect something like that would win over many skiers. (The skiing in the video on the website could have been done with a rental binding set at 4.)
- Although everyone agrees that ski bindings to date do almost nothing to prevent knee joint soft tissue injuries, unclear if asymmetrical heel unit horizontal release is really the solution.
- Most alpine downhill skis are now sold with “hostage” plates so the market for a stand-alone a la carte independent binding is far more limited than it used to be. (And most “flat” skis are wider models more oriented to the powder or “freeride” market, and hence exactly the kind of skiers who are going to balk at an all-plastic max-12 binding.)

“At the summit he endured a considerable struggle to change from crampons to skis a crampon strap had broken. The skis, 210 centimeter K2 Elites, were mounted with Spademan bindings that gripped the sides of his fiberglass Rosemont boots with the power of a spring, a far cry from today’s step-in bindings.”
“At the summit, he removed his crampons and clicked his Rosemount boots into Spademan bindings mounted on 210-cm K2 skis and started his solo descent of this mountain deemed unskiable.”
- That makes his feat even more amazing! I mean, even with the release setting at their max, the binding released in so many different angles, with totally messed-up ratios among the different angles (including a totally pointless release directly forward) that prereleases were almost inevitable.

By: John Niem

John Niem — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 03:12:22 +0000

Jonathan,

Thanks.

Any ‘general consensus’ among skiers on this binding as to its real advantage over others?

By: Jonathan Shefftz

Jonathan Shefftz — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 02:14:34 +0000

John, right, the binding is indeed asymmetrical, in that each pair has a dedicated Left & Right binding, so that heel unit releases horizontally only to the inside, i.e., medially. If a skier were to inadvertently swap Left/Right skis, then any safety advantage would be eliminated, plus the binding might very well be highly prone to prerelease.

By: John Niem

John Niem — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 00:35:15 +0000

Jonathan,

You said,” The KneeBinding is truly unique in that it is the first-ever asymmetrical alpine downhill or alpine touring binding: the heel unit’s horizontal release functions only medially. I suspect that despite all the various claims about “filtering” etc that the potential problem of the heel unit’s horizontal prerelease is solved simply by blocking it from releasing to the outside.”

1. Unless the pair of bindings for each ski is different. Otherwise one will block from releasing to the outside while the other to the inside.

By: Lou

Lou — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 16:31:24 +0000

Bill Briggs skied the Grand Teton with Spademan bindings, cranked down no doubt! Fritz Stammberger used Marker TRs for his first descent of North Maroon Peak that same spring.