We finally acquired one of those hard to find collector’s ski bindings from the early 1990s. This Emery Chrono has to be one of the most interesting grabbers of the last two decades. It’s super light, and has a crazy vertical release system that uses rubber bands!
Check out the museum display of Emery Chrono.
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain. For more about Lou, please see his personal website at https://www.loudawson.com/ (Blogger stats: 5 foot 10 inches (178 cm) tall, 160 lbs (72574.8 grams).
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lou.dawson.writer
28 comments
Thanks for the history lesson Lou. I remember seeing this in the old BD catalogs when I was just getting into touring. As a tele skier I was wondering how the heck those things worked. Did they come with extra rubber bands to keep in you pocket? If you released I imagine those bands would go flying into the powder, never to be seen again.
Very nice video too. The Dracula music is a great touch. Curious… are you using your Canon A640 to shoot that video?
Rando, luckily the rubber bands stay on, but yes, you had to carry a few extras so you could dial up the release tension if necessary.
I do shoot those videos with the A640. I have a digital video cam, but it shoots on to mini-DV tape and then I have to go through the tedious capture process to get the vid into my computer. With the A640 I just pop the SD card in my reader, copy the file, edit in Vegas Pro, and off we go. Shooting video with the A640 lacks many features in video mode that my real video camera has, such as manual focus and focus lock, and exposure lock, though it does allow custom white balance in video mode, which I find essential for shooting product indoors.
The music is “Night on Bald Mountain” composed by Mussorgsky, best known to boomers as the music base for “Night on Disco Mountain” that was a soundtrack song in the movie Saturday Night Fever. Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain” is actually titled “St. John’s Night on the Bare Mountain.”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076666/trivia
I have this binding on one of my skis (Stockli). It is really super-light and convenient for long backcountry tours. Not for hard extreme skiing.
Instead of Emery Chrono and Emery Chrono Light this company produced also another model with upper rotating point – Emery Energy. It would be nice to read about it too.
That’s a curious binding. Looks light for a plate binding.
We’re still looking for the Emery Energy for the collection…
Looking for parts for Emery A+LX Binding
The plastic heel peice
Did you have any luck finding the part? If so, can you guide me to the source? I have a pair that has a broken plastic screw type piece in the heel.
Thanks
Larry
Greetings from Torino, Italy
Here is a story involving an Emery Chrono binding.
Maybe two or three years ago my dad (now 78, still backcountry skiing) needed to clean up his garage.
He wisely kept his own set of old skis, a sort of little museum, but he wanted to get rid of another pair of skis which had been there for years but had never been used by the designate family member (not me). The strange assembly included old, heavy, alpine metal skis from the 70’s and an Emery Chrono binding; I thought that the binding deserved a second chance, so I took it and stored for later use.
Time passed but the Emery Chrono was not forgotten, and last summer I started working on it. The binding was in very good conditions and only needed
some cleaning and lubricating, except for the heelpiece rubberbands which were totally unusable; while searching the net, seeking some good idea for replacement, I got to these great binding museum pages, because you know what happens if you google for “Emery Chrono”; as for the rubberbands, I found a nice elastic string at the fishing shop and I think it will be OK.
More recently, someone donated me a suitable pair of used skis, good enogh for mounting the Emery Chrono on, so I started the final assembly.
Last sunday I finally finished the work; I am not completely satisfied with the alignment on one ski, but I will try not to care about this slight imperfection. Now, another pair of backcountry skis is avilable and, more important, the Emery Chrono is ready for a new life.
By the way, Lou, I have a few questions about the museum:
1) You mention that you miss the “CM Grande Randonee”; could you give some more info about this binding? I remember a CM binding being advertised on italian mountain magazines in the mid-late 70’s, I’m curious to know if it’s the same product.
2) Do you know of the “Zermatt” brand of backcountry bindings? They were produced here in Torino in the 70’s and 80’s and probably were diffused only
in northern Italy; at least four models exist (Artik, Nepal, Fur, Alp-in) featuring heavy weight and robust design; they would fit well in your collection.
Thanks and ciao, Lorenzo
Hey Lou,
I just aquired a brand new pair of, what I think are Emery Energy bindings. Please e-mail me so that I can add these to the museum.
Bill
Lou, I have a set of Emery “Altutude” bindings, circa 1990? They are in good
shape and you can have them for the museum. I’m out of space!
Ian
Ian, I’m traveling at the moment but back at HQ today, I’ll see what we’ve got now and get back to you. Thanks, Lou
Hey Lou, we have an Emery Energy at Funhogz, a sports consignment store in Cranbrook BC. We also have an old Dachstein Tour AS boot (dynafit compatible). Let me know if your interested.
I have 2 pair of these binding and still use them. One on a pair of 180 cm AT skis that I use as an approach ski with mountaineering plastic boots. The other I mounted on a pain of 130cm Hagen TS extreme -a firn glider type ski. Any pair of boots that will accept the front bail of a crampon will take this binding. I have used leather and plastic climbing boots in them. I have had a lot of fun on them and have skied them in Nepal, Xinjiang, Kyrgyzstan and Alaska (where I live most of the time). Nothing extreme of course but I cut some old skins down to fit them and bought a 130cm snowboard bag to travel around with them. The rubber bands of course deteriorated long ago but I wrap some electrical tape around them to keep them away from the elements. I think I got the last one from BD years ago. I’m not giving mine up yet!!!
Toby
I owned a pair of Emery bindings back in the early 90’s. Bought them at a BD sale when they were a the US distributor. Combined with my quite lite Salomon SX91’s I called them the Frankenteles as it felt like Frankenstein hiking in them as I was used to hiking in Tele gear. Ended up selling them at a swap as it seamed so to extreme to me at the time. I was hoping to find a photo of the type I owned (mine had a Look heel) . I googled and found an Emery web site (French only). Interestingly it looks like there is a current Emery offering.
http://www.evasion.ch/emery/energy/image1/page1.htm
Lou, I still have that pair of Emery “Altitude” bindings you can have. Gotta clean out
the gear room!
Ian
Ian, we’ve got a pair and just hung them on the wall in the ‘museum.’ So, thanks anyway but you’ll probably have to dumpsterize those, or perhaps they’re worth something on Ebay?
Hey Ian.
I will take them off you hands. I will put them to use. Not sure what they are worth but am willing to discuss it. Let me know if you want to send them my way and we can go from there. Plenty of snow across the bay here in Homer that is worth sking this summer….. toby :biggrin:
Toby,
Sure you can have them. Give me a ship-to address.
Ian
Hi Ian, I am at pob 2289, Homer, AK 99603 if you want to send them my way. I would be happy to pay you something for them, and postage. Just let me know how you want to do it. thanks toby
Toby. Bindings are ready to ship. Sorry for the delay. Postage about $17. Still
want them?
Ian
Hey Ian, No problem. I havent quite gotten into the ski mindset yet as I am down at Red Rocks enjoying the heat and sunshine… Would love them. Go ahead and send them with your address and I will mail you a check. Thanks, Toby
Toby,
Bindings on the way. Postage $19.90 USPS. Happy turns!
Ian Cruickshank
Box 1701
North Conway, NH
03860
I have a set of emery altitude bindings with a broken heel piece, the parts list shows it as either # ALT-951 or ALT-95C; these are old friends, so I hope someone out there has a set or parts to sell.
I’ve used a pair of these bindings for years. Skied the red banks on Shasta with double boots on these things. I’ve moved on but now they are shortened for my 6 year old, he’s been out for a couple of 500′ runs. They are the best for modifying to fit children, and they are incredibly light
HOLA AMIGOS COMO ESTAN…
DESDE AQUI DE ARGENTINA DESDE MENDOZA UNA HERMOSA PROVINCIA DEL OESTE Y AL PIE DE LA CORDILLERA DE LOS ANDES LES ESCRIBO.
TENGO UNAS EMERY CHONO OBSEQUIO DE UN SUIZO AMIGAZO.
CON ELLAS EL, UN FRANCES, Y UN ARGENTINO. HICIERON EL PRIMER CRUCE DE LA CORDILLERA DE LOS ANDES.
ESTE CRUCE ESTA DOCUMENTADO EN UN LIBRO QUE SE LLAMA “PACHAMAMA”.
ASI ES QUE ESTAS FIJACIONES…SON UN TESORO… ESTAN EN INMEJORABLE ESTADO Y EN POCO TIEMPO LAS MONTO EN UN ESQUI VIEJITO, Y SALDRE A DAR UNAS VUELTAS…..
SALUDOS CORDIALES
MIGUEL ESCOBAR
Que Tal!
MUY BIEN…..
SABES QUE LLEGUE A ESTE POST BUSCANDO UNA PLNTILLA PARA COLOCAR UNAS DIAMIR TITANAL 2 YA QUE APARECEN ALGUNAS QUE NO COINCIDEN LOS AGUJEROS CON LOS DE LAS FIJACIONES.
ASI SI ME PUEDES AYUDAR CON ESO ESTARIA MUY AGRADECIDO.
Y ADEMAS TE PREGUNTO SI ES QUE EXISTE ALGUNA PLANTILLA PARA COLOCAR LAS EMERY?
The Emery Chrono was indeed incredible: very lightweight, adaptable to all ski boots and even mountaineering boots as well. It got quite popular in France for guys who wanted to ski light but with beefy boots such as the first Scarpa Denali: a mountain guide friend of mine used them every day of the season ski touring and skiing Vallee Blanche, and the bindings resisted several years despite the guy being 190 cm tall and 85 Kg…
Nowadays, they are quite sought on the used market, as they are possibly the best binding available for kids, as the lowtech boots starts only at size 36 (mondopoint 23 I think ): with the emery chrono, you can use regular kid’s ski boots (especially the rear entry kind) even in very small sizes, for a low weight.
I have seen some go on ebay for 80 to 100 euros lately, quite a sum considering they were about 140 when new in the mid nineties.;-)
I also had a pair of Emery Energy, that did not impress me after the Emery Altitude I owned then. They were more complex and squeaked more on uphill ! Good thing was that the plastic quality of the plastic plate was greatly improved, and did not break in cold weather as in the Altitude LX (I used to pack a replacement plate at every trip …). But finally the Energy broke in a couple seasons, the front screw securing the toe piece gave way…
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