Welcome to Louis (Lou) Dawson's backcountry skiing information & opinion website. Lou's passion for the past 50 years has been alpinism, climbing, mountaineering and skiing -- along with all manner of outdoor recreation. He has authored numerous books and articles about
ski touring 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 ski touring news and information here.
All material on this website is copyrighted, the name WildSnow is trademarked, permission required for reproduction (electronic or otherwise) and display on other websites. PLEASE SEE OUR COPYRIGHT and TRADEMARK INFORMATION.
We include "affiliate sales" links with most of our blog posts. This means we receive a percentage of a sale if you click over from our site (at no cost to you). None of our affiliate commission links are direct relationships with specific gear companies or shopping carts, instead we remain removed by using a third party who manages all our affiliate sales and relationships. We also sell display "banner" advertising, in this case our relationships are closer to the companies who advertise, but our display advertising income is carefully separated financially and editorially from our blog content, over which we always maintain 100% editorial control -- we make this clear during every advertising deal we work out. Please also notice we do the occasional "sponsored" post, these are under similar financial arrangements as our banner advertising, only the banner or other type of reference to a company are included in the blog post, simply to show they provided financial support to WildSnow.com and provide them with advertising in return. Unlike most other "sponsored content" you find on the internet, our sponsored posts are entirely under our editorial control and created by WildSnow specific writers.See our full disclosures here.
Backcountry skiing is dangerous. You may be killed or severely injured if you do any form of ski mountaineering, skimo randonnee and randonnée skiing. The information and news on this website is intended only as general information. Due to human error and passing time, the information, text and images contained within this website may be inaccurate, false, or out-of-date.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 templates at your own risk, and waive Wild Snow owners and contributors of liability for use of said items for ski touring or any other use.
Very cool; far more descriptive than the usual “first looks” you get from traditional blogging. Thank you! :).
Ha Duckman is certainly NOT traditional!
looks like with the rental unit you get to change boot center without redrilling the ski, wonder how much extra that weighs/costs ?
Reupping this after some months… any idea of how much will it cost? Looks nice!
Anyone know what the boot sole length adjustment range will be without any of the optional guide plates? Or is the Guiding plate 25 the stock mounting range?
hello,
Anyone has the paper template of the vipec? i bought it on line and there was’nt…
So, I’m the human Googlebot?
https://www.wildsnow.com/12587/fritschi-vipec-mount-template-jig/
yes, you are,
Thanks a lot Lou!
Well, just for future reference, please note the search box at top of all WildSnow.com pages, at left. In your case you could have keyed in something like “vipec template” and had what you needed. This same search would have been successful in the regular Google as well. I don’t mind helping out but my allotted minutes on the planet are fast being used up (grin). ‘best, Lou
Is there a place where I can find this paper jig? My bindings didn’t come with one. Thanks!
Travis
Travis, are you joking? Read the comment thread above. Lou
mounted with the paper template, perfect.
skied and very impressive sensations.
nice, nice. very simple to insert the boot, no problem. you have only to sign your pins on the boot and the play is done…
very good unit…
I’m running through the mount and got everything on a scrap board first to practice. When I throw it into walk mode the brake drops back down. Is there a way to keep it engaged? Did I miss something or do something wrong? Thanks!
Never mind. I just wasn’t pushing the walk mode down enough.
Great post! looking forward to getting out on these.
Any comments on putting a Vipec binding on a Rossignol BC 125
Hi Shlichter, I can’t think of anything in particular, what’s your main concern? Lou
I was wondering if I would mount binding with boot centered on ski or set back like a nnn binding . It seems that the template puts the binding a bit forward on this ski . Thanks for getting back to me on this ?
Does the ski have a boot location mark that’s supposed to correspond to the middle of the boot sole length? Lou
Ok the ski has a middle of the ski mark and balance point . That is all , This ski is more a xc ski , maybe more for nnn or free heel
Oh! I that case I have no idea where you’d best mount a ski touring AT binding such as Vipec. Lou
OK Thanks
Hi Lou. Followed your site for some years but never posted any questions before because I can usually find the answers already !! I’m sure I’ve seen the answer to this somewhere but I can’t find it. How much adjustment in length is there in the Fritschi Vipec heel binding ? My wife currently skis with Scarpe Freedom SLs but is looking at the Atomic Backland as a touring boot and we’re wondering if the much shorter boot length will be a problem. Unfortunately our skis are in the Aosta Valley were we spend the winter so we can’t easily check from the UK !
Great site with excellent information.
Sorry Lou. Typo in the previous email
Hi!
I have seen the template in the other post but it doesnt show where on the ski im supposed to mount it. I would like a tenplate like the one on your pictures on this post.
Thanks alot for the great guide otherwise!
Make sure to check the jig before you drill! The one we have is 15mm off!
A video showing how to build a jig from this paper template:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMfwLVUpFPo
Thanks for checking it out!
feel free to subscribe 🙂
Nice video and I’m honored to have our work used, but I’m not sure it’s necessary to make a template from a template — yet doing a practice mount on a 2×4 or chunk of plywood is always a good idea. Lou
Great instructions. I copied the sticker template from above, scaled it and printed it at the correct size (assuming the sole length scale is in cm). With this it seems the drill holes match the holes in my binding nicely. Aligning the sole length marker with my ski center, it also seems the boot comes to sit where it should, the center of the boot right over the center line of my skis when clipped into the toe unit. Only the heel unit seems to end up way to far to the front. Is this what Josh meant, when he said the jig is 15mm off? 15mm may be about it, actually. So the sticker template is 15 mm off for the toe piece?
Sorry … 15 mm off for the heel piece I meant.
Hi,
I’m hoping these rental tracks will save a newish ski for me(hole conflict, miss drill). Will the rental track work for the new vipec evo? Are the rental tracks add ons to existing vipecs or are there rental toe/heel pieces required for rental tracks? Any idea on price(if it works for vipec evo, my search isn’t turning up much on rental tracks other than Lou’s bc bible). Much obliged for any beta