Get a good deal on Salomon Guardian backcountry skiing binding.
Salomon’s Guardian backcountry skiing (and resort) binding looks good. Check out this binding’s guts along with a few specs.
Large Salomon Guardian binding without screws weighs in at 1462 grams. Stack height at boot heel is 26 mm, similar stack as major competitors in this same binding class, 10 mm lower than some, more than 20 mm below others.
Toe piece, metal pivot axle, and plastic hinge. This is of course a weak point in many AT bindings, so we'll see how Salomon does. Nice they at least made the pivot user serviceable -- and it does look strong. Kudo to Salomon. Addendum: we became aware in 2017 the attempts to remove the thread locked axle may cause the axle nut to rotate within the plastic housing and thus become difficult to remove.
Plastic hinge and axle with blue Loctite -- probably a good idea.
After I used the binding for several days, it began to squeak. A quick dose of white lithium grease quieted the noise.
Rear binding to ski attachment. Above are the two aluminum plates that help with additional de-icing capabilities.
For some of us, the best feature of the Salomon Guardian backcountry skiing binding is the ability to go from tour mode to ski mode without the need to remove your boot. Press the grey button rearward and the plate is free to move.
Underside of the rear plate.
The rear climbing attachment has two levels of climbing rise. I found there to be no problem keeping the riser in the highest position but when the time came to ramp the angle down it had a tendency to go flat. Overall binding and heel strike was fairly quiet.
Underside of entire plate system. Salomon is anodized blue. The Atomic branded binding will be yellow.
Rear heel piece. Note ease of visual release value (RV) numbers, also known as DIN.
Front toe piece features easily read release value up to 16 as well as adjustable toe height that allows fit of rockered AT boots (though note that the binding is not certified to DIN 13992 standard for AT randonnee touring bindings, probably because it does not have a sliding AFD for release reliability with rubber soled boots. Boot models we used for testing fit were Scarpa Rush, Dalbello Kyrpton, Dynafit Titan, and Head Raptor 130.
Salomon supplied their 2012-13 Rocker 2 for test purposes. In the 188 length with a not so uphill friendly weight of 2306 per individual ski or 4612 for the pair. Dimensions of 139 x 115 underfoot x 139 as well as a tip rocker of 510mm and tail of 240mm.
The complete Salomon Guardian 16.
Specs, verified here at WildSnow HQ with bindings on demo boards: Size “N” (large?) Guardian, binding weight of 1480 grams (52.3 ounces) per binding with all hardware. Stack height (boot above ski at heel) is 27 at the toe and 32 at heel (verified at WildSnow HQ on demo board). Compare to main competitor at 37 an +-37 (latter due to sliding AFD on competition). Thus, you get around 5 mm less stack with the Salomon, but you do get some binding delta (drop at the toe) while the competition has a virtually neutral delta.
Get a good deal on Salomon Guardian backcountry skiing binding.
Joseph Risi was raised on pasta and meatballs in the “backwoods” of Long Island before seeking higher education in the mountains of Vermont. Always looking for adventure, building treehouses, working too many odd jobs around the world he now lives in the Aspen area of Colorado.
