This probably should have happened sooner (you may have noticed we were not dancing the streets in celebration of Kingpins this past season), but at least it happened. What’s disconcerting about this (and many other recalls) is it places the onus on the retailer to verify bindings for model year, remove the toe unit from the ski — and do the shipping and receiving. Presumably without compensation for the extra man hours. No happy campers on this one. For exact identification, the Marker website is helpful. We won’t waste bandwidth detailing here. What I can not for the life of me figure out is why or how this sort of thing escaped quality control testing. I’ve been to the Marker development facility in Germany. The diligent engineers I met were no strangers to testing machinery. If anything comes to light I’ll edit this post.
Following is the communique from Marker that’s been making the rounds.
Dear Valued Marker Customer:
Quality, safety and performance are of utmost importance to us and to our customers, and we are writing to inform you that we have identified a situation involving certain 2017/2018 model Kingpin bindings that has prompted us to initiate a voluntary recall.Marker USA is voluntarily recalling all 2017/2018 Kingpin bindings because of possible breakage of pins in the toe, which may lead to lower release forces and a potential fall hazard. Please stop using these bindings immediately and return them to your nearest Marker Authorized Retailer, who will inspect them to determine if they are among those being recalled. If your bindings are affected by the recall, your retailer will obtain a return authorization to send them back to Marker, at which point new toe pieces will be shipped to the shop at no cost to you. Your Marker Authorized Retailer should be your main point of contact for this free service, but if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at (800) 453-3862 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern time.
You can also email us at kingpin.exchange@mdv-usa.com.
Additional information is available on the Marker web site at the link below:
https://www.marker.net/en-us/support/recall/
This voluntary recall is in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and we thank you for being a Marker customer.
Sincerely,
Your Marker Team
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.
