Lou Dawson's Backcountry Skiing Blog & Website -- Content Pages

Backcountry Skiing Bindings

Virtual Museum (museum index)

Silvretta 300 Backcountry Skiing Alpine Touring Binding

Silvretta 300 is what became known as an "approach" binding, in that it had limited safety release (no lateral release), worked well for touring with welted mountaineering boots instead of ski boots, and was relatively light weight. Length is easily adjusted with a brass wingnut on a threaded rod. Heel latch is simple and could possibly be activated with a ski pole, though most people either bent down and worked it by hand, or removed their skis while changing modes.

(The Silvretta 400 model was essentially a 300 with added lateral release. We will add the 400 to the museum in the next few weeks. Once we have most of the bindings added to the museum, we'll include more references and hyperlinks between the different binding pages, as the history and development of these things is fascinating, but requires having all the bindings on display before we can really get into the details.)

We're having trouble getting the dates for these bindings (they were available for many years), if anyone knows when the 300 was first on the market, and when manufacturing ceased, please contact us by using the contact option in the menu to left.

Silvretta 300 is quite possibly the most elegant randonnee binding ever made. Click image to enlarge.

Multiple views of Silvretta 300, click image for massive enlargement.

Heel latch and lift mechanism.

Length adjustment detail. You simply rotate the wingnut on the threaded rod. Notice how the heel unit has no side (lateral) release such as that of most Silvretta backcountry skiing bindings.

Weight: 28.6 oz, 810 g (one binding, no screws)

Thanks goes to Mark Worley for providing these bindings.