Pre Season Checklist — Ski Touring Gear Upkeep

“I was just skiing along and. . .” disaster. A morning full of excitement of the much anticipated earning of turns is thwarted by a faulty piece of equipment that leaves you cursing at the trailhead or sends you home early.

Ski touring gear is expensive and much is built to be so minimalist and lightweight that we are asking for problems if we don’t treat it with some tender love and care. You wouldn’t drive a brand new car off the lot and expect it to perform flawlessly over the years without some oil changes, part replacement and attention to detail. Hopefully, by paying attention to your gear and performing simple checks a few times a season, you can catch malfunctions before smoke begins billowing from under the hood.

While working at Cripple Creek Backcountry (I’m co-owner) I have seen hundreds of sudden failures, on customers’ gear and even my own. The problems often seem to come out of nowhere, when just the day before your gear looked shiny and eager to propel you up and down the mountains. But this stuff doesn’t really come out of the great mysteries of the universe. Most often, there are warning signs. To that end, how about a checklist? (Please note, below is oriented to tech bindings, but the concepts apply to frame binding systems as well.)

Bindings

As my ski bindings have dipped under 200 grams and still firmly holds me to a ski going up to 50 mph through every possible snow condition, it frankly surprises me every time these things don’t blow up.

Check all binding mounting screws. If screws are loose, back them all the way out and add wood glue or epoxy to the hole and tighten back down. In Lou’s opinion epoxy is better in this situation, but wood glue does work.

Make sure binding is completely flat to ski, not “screw jacked.” This is a common problem and leads to all sorts of failures.

Check for cracks especially in the heel piece of binding, but examine the metallic toe plate as well (use a magnifying glass or 2x reading glasses). This check is important for your personal safety, as are most others we list here.

Check all machine screws for tightness. If a screw has backed out add Loctite and tighten down. These screw heads can be easy to strip so pay attention and go easy when retightening. If you’ve never done this and feel uncomfortable with it, seek the services of a professional binding technician.

Click both boots into bindings and check heel spacing

Skis
Skis vary immensely in strength and durability. Yet common to all, the stress they endure is amazing — and breakage isn’t exactly rare.

Examine skis for delaminations in top sheet and sidewalls. If cracks are found add epoxy and clamp with medium tightness.

Examine bases for dimples or core shots. Fill core shots with P-tex. If core shots are large (over a cm wide) you may want to visit a shop for a more serious repair.

Check bases for wax. If the base looks white or dry it is time for wax. This is essential for backcountry skiers to avoid dry bases pulling off skin glue.

Skins
Does the state of your climbing skins reflect your personality, or just how busy you are? If you can tell the color of your dog’s hair from looking at your skins, or they’ve been cursed at so much they seem to curl up on their own, time to look at how they’re treated.

Check skin glue for balling and general stickiness. Once it is balling up it is time to consider new skins, but adding a little glue can help you scrape through a season and prevent you from wallowing in the backcountry.

Check tip and tail attachment on skins. Make sure all parts and pieces are there and in good condition.

As alluded to above, check how contaminated your skin glue is with effluvium such as pine needles and ski wax. Some brands (Contour) can be cleaned fairly effectively. Others do better if the glue is removed and new stickum applied. In the later case, DIY is possible but it might be best to just pay a shop employee to suffer.

Organize skins. If you use multiple setups and find yourself pawing through a pile of skins in the morning before a trip, perhaps it’s time to figure out a storage system. A simple approach is to have a dedicated bag for each set of skins, with the ski designation written on it.

Poles

Check pole baskets to make sure they are firmly secure

Inspect shaft for cracks.

If you’ve got pole straps that are hard to adjust or broken, now is the time for a swap.

Boots

Sometimes, ski boots just seem to charge along for years with nary a problem. But. Especially when it comes to the boot being a key part of the binding due to tech fittings, attention to detail is vital for performance and safety.

Add a small coat of white lithium grease to the ski/walk mechanism to prevent it from sticking in one mode or the other.

Overly worn cuff pivot rivet: check by manipulating cuff to see if there is excess play. Tips for rivet repair here. And don’t forget the Ultimate Cuff Pivot for your Dynafits. These are not exactly the easiest DIY projects but can be done at home. Any fairly active and reputable ski touring shop has probably installed a few.

Check tech heel fitting to make sure it’s firmly fixed to boot. Tighten screws, remove and bed in JB weld if needed. If you are a large and-or aggressive skier, consider “beef” boots that mold the heel fittings into the shoe plastic rather than attaching with a screw.

Check boot function in several different new tech bindings, especially by doing a hand check of lateral release. If boot behaves poorly in a variety of new bindings, it’s possible the tech fittings are worn.

Readers: Give us more for the checklist!

(Editor’s note from Lou: This post is produced as part of a modest partnership between Cripple Creek Backcountry and WildSnow.com. It’s actually co-authored by myself and Lisa along with Doug, but since our software only allows one author, we put Doug on there — he started it.)