New Binding Black Diamond Releases Telemarkers Into New Era On Slopes

The latest ski bindings for telemarkers are relegating the term “pinhead” to the same archival status as the term sailor is to a modern navy.

Among the most extreme of the new products is the Skyhoy, a Swiss device marketed by Black Diamond.

The Skyhoy is a step-in releasable telemark binding that, at first glance, looks much like a binding for alpine skis.

Even the $340 price tag is something you’d expect from alpine gear.

The binding is comfortable, flexing at two points under the toe. But it’s heavy and pretty much a beast for the alpine slopes.

The convenience of step-in nordic bindings allows the telemarker to arrive at the lift with alpine buddies and beat them onto the first chair.

I tested bindings mounted on Black Diamond Arc Demons from Mountain Gear, which didn’t want to adjust the release mechanism for me because of liability.

I brought the skis into my living room, clamped on a pair of Scarpa T2s and stepped into the bindings. I loosened the DIN setting at the back of the bindings until, with a powerful twist of my hips, I could release the heels. Then I tightened the screw one full turn for a starting position.

On-slope fine-tuning is simple with the screwdriver on a Swiss Army Knife or Leatherman tool.

Adjusting the binding to different boot sizes requires no tool or cable adjustments, but rather a simple flip of a lever.

I felt a bit bionic on my first run, clamped into all that rigid plastic and elevated higher on the ski than I’m accustomed.

A really good skier may not have the constitution to take these bindings to their limits, since the ultimate test essentially requires a crash of Hermanator proportions.

But I was up to the challenge.

The slopes were a smorgasbord ranging from groomed to bottomless powder. The Arc Demons were unaffected by all the conditions, bulling through the ruts previous skiers had plowed through the deep powder as well as the occasional patch of underlying crud.

But they stalled on the rock or stump I scratched in the transition from deep powder to hard-packed groomed surface on the main run. I thumped hard enough to splatter like squab plunging from a church tower.

The bindings released beautifully, in perhaps the first crash this conservative skier needed a releaseable binding for in 20 years.

“I didn’t think I needed a releaseable binding either until I broke my leg,” said Russ Oakley, a Spokane orthopedist who was on the slopes that weekend.

The virtues of the skis and bindings were fully realized after I got my breath back several minutes later and faced a somewhat tortuous retreat down the mountain with a cracked rib.

In survival mode, the skis required little more than my imagination to turn. The edges were mercifully solid in the slope. The bindings were rock-solid and positive.

Let’s just say it hurt going down, but it hurt good.

I came from a background of leather, which is not better or worse than plastic, just different.

Lighter boots and bindings have their own virtues, although they don’t translate into better performance for people who don skis for the sole purpose of plunging downhill.

New plastics boots and beefy bindings are remarkably low maintenance and efficient. They provide unequaled control, although in certain powder conditions, I would still long for the sensation of light bindings and leather boots with the same abandon one might feel for unprotected sex.

For better or worse, the Skyhoy definitely puts you in another league.