alx3709597

I would say I had a different experience than most others with these bindings, which are often claimed to be the best freeride bindings on the market.

They are lightweight and low profile, and look great on the ski. In the 10 days I had them mounted I ejected from them several times, all of which were smooth and as expected (8.5 DIN setting), and I never had a pre-release or a release that I didn't feel confident in.

The last ejection was a higher speed face first frontal ejection, and after retrieving my skis I found one of my toe pieces in a mangled condition. The 'wing' portion of the toe-piece had rotated 90 degrees such that one wing was orientated straight vertical. Upon closer inspection the black plastic piece on the end of one wing had broken off. I had to kick the toe piece with my boot a few times to get it to rotate back to normal so that I could click in, and was able to ski down. Further inspection of the toe piece left me to believe that it was completely compromised, and there was significant side to side slop when the boot was clicked in. I have attached a picture of the damaged toe piece.

Additionally, after only 10 days of riding on them the heel pieces were scratched and marred significantly(I have uploaded pictures), exposing the black plastic beneath. They looked as if there were 50+ days on them. I am pretty confident that after a season the heel pieces would be absent of all paint. Most of these scratches are due to using a pole to release the binding.

Perhaps the broken toe piece was a lemon (failure does happen). however due to the paint chipping alone I would not be able to recommend this binding to anyone, as it does not give me confidence in the quality, durability and design of the binding, which I would expect after paying $300 for them. It is clear that these are not the same Look Pivots of the past, which had a reputation for being completely bomber.

Luckily, Backcountry's excellent return policy was able to get me a full refund on the bindings and I will be trying Solomon STH's instead.

As advertised, these goggles have a very large fit, and not for people with small faces. They just barely fit under my size L Smith Variant helmet. Bronze w/ Red Spectra lens is an awesome color, great for low light situations and night skiing as well as sunny bluebird days. They have yet to fog on me after three weeks of skiing with them.

Thought I would chime in as a bigger skiier skiing the 185s, as I have seen a lot of questions asking if the 185 is too short. I am a 6'2'', 225lbs, and 22 years old, and I typically charge pretty hard.

I have had very little issue with tip diving the ski in all but the deepest of days. The tip and tail rocker allow this ski to scrub speed like nobodies business, making it a dream to ski in the trees. This rocker also comes in handy on steeper technical lines where you need to be able to pivot.

Despite it skiing shorter due to the tip/tail rocker, I was surprised to see how well it rails groomers, which I attribute to the stiff camber underfoot. Yes its no GS racing ski, but its a blast getting down groomers while your hunting powder stashes in trees.

I haven't skiied the new JJ AK, which I am sure is awesome, but unless you're among the heaviest and hardest charging skiiers, I would not overlook the 185 based on size alone, as it may surprise you. I have found the ski to be very close to a 'one-ski-quiver' (if you believe such a thing exists), and has always been worth taking out if it has snowed in the last one or two days.