The mother of innovation is discontent. It鈥檚 as true with ski bindings as with other gear. Discontent is what inspired Lars and Silas Chickering-Ayers, brothers from Vermont, both young, pro skiers and members of the Green Mountain Freeride Team, to develop the binding.
The name for the binding comes from the collective noun for a group of hawks鈥攖he brothers were developing the new ski hardware with their best friend and fellow Green Mountain Freerider , who died in competition during the . The trio was dissatisfied with available options for skiers who wanted top-notch skiing ability and touring ability from the same ski binding. Uphill-optimized tech bindings are light but can鈥檛 handle hard charging descents that involve dropping pillow lines or cliff jumps鈥攖hey pop out and they鈥檙e not DIN certified. Alpine bindings restrict a skier to boot packing uphill. Framed touring bindings that fil an alpine boot sole are heavy and deaden the center of the ski.
CAST鈥檚 solution: a binding system that actually lets you swap the toe piece out on the hill, from touring to alpine. It鈥檚 a simple solution, and separates the ascent and descent components of the system. Plates mounted to your skis let you swap out tech for alpine tow pieces when you鈥檙e transitioning from climbing to descending. There is no binding frame, which lets the ski flex naturally and eliminates any additional weight on your foot. It鈥檚 a system that lets skiers use any hard soled alpine boots and some touring boots to ski where and how they want to.
鈥淐AST鈥檚 product line stemmed from a desire for better equipment and the fact that none of the current touring bindings on the market met our needs,鈥 says CAST co-founder Lars Chickering-Ayers 鈥淭his is a sentiment shared by many top skiers looking to spend more time in the backcountry but who are unwilling to give up the performance of their alpine bindings.鈥
They鈥檙e on the right track. Silas Chickering-Ayers stop at Snowbird on the SI&I system. Then he completed a 10,000 vertical foot day tour to the summit of Mount Rainier on the same gear to prove the versatility and ruggedness of the system. Compared to an alpine setup, the system is lighter on the up and down (five to nine ounces)鈥攁nd it combines the best features of all binding currently on the market: no lifted weight when you鈥檙e touring鈥攍ike a tech binding, and all the performance of any alpine system you like.
CAST has launched a by the end of April so that they can move from garage production to factory production. They鈥檙e going up against some well established manufacturers, including Dynafit and Fritchi, which are both launching bindings in Fall 2013 that aim to achieve the same goal: no compromise touring and skiing. But they鈥檙e building support from the ground up, and so far all reports are positive.
Available Fall 2013, price TBD