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The cold world of skimo & alpine climbing

The cold world of skimo & alpine climbing

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

It is about time! Tech fitting on a Spantik!


A Dynafit tech binding toe piece added to a Spantik at home!

Bravo!  Looking forward to the field reports!  The info is much appreciated.  Hopefully others will be able to follow shortly.  Including La Sportiva :)















"I live and climb in Alaska which typically requires longish approaches and the use of skis. I have been using the standard silvretta bindings on a set of Atomic Climber skis (pretty light). I have wanted to use dynafit toe pieces on my Atomic skis for a while now and after my DPS Wailer 112 came in lighter than my "approach setup" I decided I had to try something.

 Long story short I have bolted/glued the tech fitting plate I cut out of a pair of old Garmont Megarides into my well broken in pair of Spantiks. I'm working on mounting dynafit tlt speed toe pieces and a custom heel throw system (using a crampon wire heel latch). I haven't had time yet to  build/test this system, but I will as soon as I get home in a week and a half.

Have you heard of anyone doing this before? Do you/they have any tips or suggestions? I'm realize not everyone would utilize tech fittings on climbing boots, but the crowd I run with in Alaska are surprised no climbing boot manufacture has thought of this yet. Thoughts?

Just wanted to say thanks for being an inspiration to build and try new things.
 I appreciate your time and the sharing of your knowledge."

"I'm reluctant to take them on a long trip right away until they prove there reliability, so I'll start with a couple of short (4+ mile) approaches in variable snow conditions most involving trail breaking.
I don't have the heal piece assembled/made yet but I think I have an idea of what I'm going to do. I'll start on that when I get home next week also.

My most recent climbing trip(that turned into a ski trip) was into the Eastern Alaska Range involving 78 miles on snowmobile and 15+ miles on skis pulling sleds to where we setup a base camp. From there we toured around the West Fork of the Susitna glacier logging 60+ miles. It would have been really nice to have a lighter weight setup than the silvretta 404's I had for that trip though I was unwilling to trust this system having not put it through the wringer. Time will tell."

14 comments:

Wilson Alpine said...

BRAVO!

Dear LaSportiva...

Inspired.

Anonymous said...

Finally!

Though if i had spantiks and tech inserts lying around, i'd do it earlier.
--
Ukrainian

fulton said...

Whoa...the head spins at where this could lead. I wonder how this could be fitted to a splitboard binding? Mmmm

Anonymous said...

I sawed off the sole of some old ski boots and drilled holes for crampon wire bails to it. This way, I have a dynafit compatable system, but I didn't have to alter my climbing boots, as they clip into the "bindings" just like a crampon.

Tim Rogers said...

I had the idea for a similar system, plus trying to use some cable guides and a telemark cable heal throw. I'm sure you could mount a hell throw in the heel piece area for a similar effect. good stuff

Anonymous said...

This setting looks great.
I am looking at doing the same with a different pair of shoes (an old pair of millet quite similar to the everest).

Can you provide more details on how you did it?
What type of glue did you use? Does it hold well?

And also, from what i understand you put the plate holding the 2 thread inside the shoe. Did it change anything in the feeling inside the shoe?
Wasn't setting the plate inside the shoe too difficult?

Thanks for the great idea.

Best

Joel

Matt said...

Any updates on this? Long-term durability? What kind of glue did you use to set the sole back in place? Has anyone else tried this since? Thanks!

Dane said...

Been wondering all that myself..

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know where to get TNuts, screws, and tech fittings to do this?

Kakiko said...

Crazy idea! Any updates?

Dane said...

saw the idea kicked around several times in the industry and skied some of them. But haven't seen anything usable yet.

Juha said...

My solution to the problem:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153180236914936&set=pcb.10153180239334936&type=1&theater

Anonymous said...

Hi Juha,

It looks great, any info on how you did it?

Tx

Joel

Nick J said...

Anyone looking for more specific instructions on this procedure and/or a report on the results, check out my recent blog post at
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