Summer finally hit me. I’m sitting here sipping on a cold canister that feels like a chunk of ice in my grip, thinking about a fourteener hike and Jeep trip this weekend, but forcing myself to keep covering the famous WildSnow binding collection so come winter I can concentrate on trip reports, backcountry politics and other more current stuff — like gear. Thus, another classic randonnee boot grabber comes off the wall and onto the product photography table for the once-over. Yeah, promise, I do realize it is summer — luckily winter is just around the corner!
This is the third generation production Low Tech (soon to become Dynafit) binding, distributed in the early to mid 1990s. These were somewhat of a cult binding back then. Inventor Fritz Barthel and his friends built the things mostly by hand, and you had to be a fairly “bleeding edge” gear junkie to use them. Nonetheless, they started to catch on and soon Dynafit picked up the license to manufacture the binding and push the backcountry skiing world a quantum leap ahead.
Check out museum display of our 3rd generation Low Tech ski touring binding.
The incredible self discipline this blog posting and associate article required should win an award, as the sunny back deck of our house was calling me like the song of the beautiful Sirens who tempted Ulysses during his adventure.
“It is said that one of the Sirens, Parthenope, in grief at the escape of Ulysses drowned herself…” Our lawn might be feeling some of the same emotions, only rather than drowned, it is parched.
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.
