Burly Burly, then... uh oh.

By Brad Walsh Ranked #172 - Alpine Touring Bindings March 14, 2011

Bought these at the beginning of the '11 season and logged about 10 days on my powder boards. Made contact with something hard under the pow (a stump I am guessing from the red bard on my edges), and after double-ejecting found the heel piece, and no ski (without brakes it ran down the hill until someone was able to catch up to it). The heel piece had broken off of the track that joins the heel to the toepiece. I question the safety of the binding since the heel piece shattered before the binding even released - then again maybe a shattering heelpiece is part of their safety setup...
After returning the bindings, Marker gave their estimated return time (granted this is relayed through the retailer because there is no real good way to call Marker - they don't "do" returns) as 2 weeks to 6 months - LAME. So here I am at the end of the season where we are finally getting dumped on in the Northwest, and no pow boards for the rest of the in bounds season, and no touring setup for the spring. The whole reason I bought these was because I wanted something I could dabble in touring, but still use for the resort powder days, but at 200lbs, these weren't up to the job on a hard hit.
I would rate these higher if they could return stuff quickly or at least have spare parts in the US rather than having to wait for the Chinese to stamp out a whole new batch. Prior to this whole episode I would have given them a solid 4, and that only because the changeover mechanism is a little awkward and wants to nibble on your fingers when switching over. Also the track gums up with some serious snow so pow days touring is a little tedious as I spent more time than I would have expected having to clean everything out of the bottom of the track, and all the other little nooks and crannies. Fair advisory: these are my first pair and I don't have another pair yet to compare.
**Update 3/17/2011: Got the return back to the shop that handled the return. There is a screw missing from the heelpiece and the heelpiece is "refurbished" instead of new. Seeing as the new one blew up before I feel a bit leery about accepting a rehabbed one, but I guess this is better than waiting 6 months - so I wanted to update to let people know it didn't take six months, more like 1 month, but the BS continues with the screw and the used part... Marker should be happy they don't have much competition out there because I can't imagine my experience is the only one...***
**Update 03/22/2011: Got the part and the screws were stripped at the break. My return was returned with another broken part. Thanks Marker. I think I'll keep this thread going to see ho long this goes on...***

View Details: Marker Baron Ski Binding

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