Classic Ski Touring Binding — Emery Altitude Generation 1 — 1970s

I was supposed to be working more this summer on getting most of our binding collection digitized. I’m such a slacker, just got started. Autumn entertainment.

Emery Altitude in touring-walking mode, late 1970s, included a Look Nevada turntable heel as state-of-art as any ski binding of the time. (Shown with modern touring boot.)

The first popular Emery Altitude ski touring binding, originating from France and sold in the mid to late 1970s, was one of the most well conceived bindings of the time. Comprising a fully functional alpine heel and toe mounted on a plate with a walking pivot and heel latch-down, the concept was simple and effective. You could mount a modern toe unit on this rig in 2016 and, aside from the weight, have a backcountry skiing binding as functional as nearly any other of the present.

This blog post exists for comments specific to this binding, see the complete Emery Altitude museum display here, and complete museum index is here.

(Note, we conjecture a few Emery ski touring bindings of a more developmental nature were farmed out prior to this, if anyone knows, please leave comments. We’d also like to narrow down the years this binding was retailed, so information about that and the history of Emery as a company is appreciated as well. We do note that the Emery company made snowboard bindings for a while, and was acquired by Rossignol in 1999, but that’s all we know.)