(This post sponsored by our publishing partner Cripple Creek Backcountry — check them out if you’re shopping for Tecton or Evo.)
Going toe to toe with a Fritschi Diamir Tecton Evo toe, a few pin punches and a torx bit got us to the guts. In pictures. (Since this toe is identical to Fritschi Evo, for the purposes of this article we’ll often term it as “Tecton Evo.”)
As the Tecton toe unit (or Evo) looks before the nefarious deed.
Charles Darwin wrote something about this, didn’t he? How assembled living things are greater than the sum of their parts?
The boot toe bumps the binding boot-toe-bumper, like this, when you’re touring. Issue brought up elsewhere on the web is this can damage boot toes, depending on how hard one goes forward in a “knee fall” and what kind of plastic the boot is made from. We tested with Pebax boots. After burying the binding bumper into the boot toe plastic, the boot toe rebounded with a few small divots. Apparently boots made from Grilamid plastic don’t fare as well, though damage can be heated and pushed out. Happy to entertain questions about this in the comments, but let’s move on to the real destruction!
Removing the boot toe bumper (circled) requires removing a pin (arrow).
Off it comes. (Yes Virginia, we did test boot forward motion in the Tecton (Evo) toe with this removed, it only went a few degrees farther forward and had the serious detriment of not releasing out of the binding in downhill mode, as the stock configuration is designed to do.)
As you can see in this photo, I ground down the material where the bumper rests on the Tecton Evo toe. Didn’t make much difference in how the boot and binding behaved, so moving on…I drove the pin out of the toe lever and proceeded with vivisection.
I’m beginning to think beyond Darwin, Swiss watch? Flipping the binding upside down, I removed two small torx screws with a #1 driver.
Off comes the toe lever, metal tab indicated by arrow is how the lever interacts with the main binding parts.
Plate removed, revealing what is easily the most awesome collection of mechanical engineering to ever grace a ski touring binding toe.
The lateral release toe carriage comes out quite easily.
Something like a gutted fish? Or, filet of Fritschi?
Coming in closer to assuage your lust for technicality.
This is the series of linkage cams that ties the toe carriage to the release spring and piston. At this point in the process I began to feel as if I was witnessing the legendary lost machine of Archimedes.
Instinct led me to the toe carriage, its propenerance of parts tempted the dissectionist in me.
Driving pins out released the toe pin mounts from the carriage.
Carriage sans pin mounts begins to look simple.
Underside of main Tecton Evo binding chassis, with slider carriage removed.
Another view, impressive injection molding.
Could I evolve the dissected Tecton Evo toe back together? Perhaps, if my life depended on it, but I’ll pass on that for now.
Overall impression: Clearly the most intricate touring binding toe available — by a quantum jump. The complexity is due to Fritshi’s effort to combine use of toe pins with a lateral (side) release at the toe. It’s amazing they pulled this off, but not without compromises such as the lack of boot forward release while binding is locked in touring mode. Not only with the Fritschi models, but other companies as well, a tendency in binding design is the attempted integration of features (rather than separation). Examples being brakes that semi-automatically lock up when you go to touring mode, not to mention extra parts and pieces added to allow shifting between uphill and downhill mode without removing your boot toe from the binding. Considering all this, I remain impressed by the basic simplicity and proven performance of the “classic” tech binding form factor — even going so far back as to use the rear “U-pin” type heel springs. But those basic designs do have problems. Only question is it worth solving those problems by adding cost, extreme complexity, possible failure points, ice sensitive components and so forth? Only time will tell us what is what on that — as well as each skier’s needs being somewhat unique. Meanwhile, kudos to Fritschi for their leadership innovation with the Tecton and Evo toe unit, as well as the Tecton heel.
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.
