Early adopter shopping for G3 ION — be the first on your ski hill!
Fun was had this weekend. Fasteners were twisted. Gleaming IONs were locked to shiny Fischer Hannibals. ION observation: They have strong springs, watch your fingers. Hannibal observation: The super-strong binding mount plate does exist. Drill with the 4.1 mm ski bit and tap for sure. I had some trouble of my own doing, got lazy with the hole sizes and found myself twisting too hard on the screws. You have been warned.
My DIY ION paper template works with a center line drawn on the ski.
Weight (our scale) of the complete retail ION with 95 mm brakes: 22 ounces, 623 grams. That’s not particularly lightweight in the tech binding universe, but pretty good for a binding that’s purported to support freeride skiing. While this is much a copy of the trad tech binding design, everything is beefed. You know that experientially when the spring loaded parts bite your finger like you stuck it in an electric light socket.
Toe unit weight: 186 grams. Stainless steel screws are provided at both toe and heel. I’m not convinced they’re as good as regular steel screws. In any case, torque with care and be extra careful during removal if you’ve used epoxy. If epoxied heat the screws before removal, otherwise you can twist a head off. We’re big advocates of epoxy, but have been advised to instead use waterproof white glue in skis that have strong binding reinforcement plates. Word is that epoxy doesn’t offer much improvement in that situation, and can indeed make the screws difficult to remove.
Heel unit weight with 95 mm brake: 436 grams. The brake works fine on my 100 mm Hannibals after a slight bend.
When mounting the rear unit, you expose the front pair of screws by moving the boot length adjustment so a window lines up. The rear pair are accessed by rotating the upper heel unit, which is difficult due to powerful springs and the brake lock/catch. I found a better method was to simply remove the upper heel unit while mounting so the rear pair of screws are totally exposed. Better yet, perhaps remove the brake (smile)?
Holes in the strong Hannibal metal binding plate have to be drilled at correct diameter and tapped.
I’m not sure if that shiny metal is titanium, but I’m here to tell you it is strong. I had to pre-drill with a sharp bit, then drill with the ski bit. In the interest of science I drilled a few small test holes inside the borders of the binding mount graphics on the Hannibal. Near as I can tell the binding mount plate covers the whole area inside the graphics.
I know the guys at G3 sweated blood over ION, so we could all enjoy it. I embedded their video in deference to their hard work. Yeah, this is the first season for production ION so let’s not rush the concert stage quite yet, but it’s looking good. I’d suggest giving it a go if you want to try something new.
If you’ve read this far, here is a bonus tip for mounting ION. The heel unit base doesn’t have any provision for your screw holes in the ski to “volcano.” If that happens it’ll jack the binding up off the ski and you’ll be trying — futilely — to tighten the screws and get the binding tight to the topskin. I’d advise a slight countersink of the mount holes, to prevent volcanoes from developing.
Our other ION posts have massive data dumps.
Early adopter shopping for G3 ION — be the first on your ski hill!
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.
