Wild Snow is Louis Dawson’s major work, a fastidiously researched book on the evolution of North American backcountry skiing and snowboarding. If that’s confusing, you are not alone. They thickened the housing on one end of the spring, by 1.5 millimeters.

G3 re-thought its beloved ION to create a sub-350-gram, 5-12 release value tech binding that performs extremely well in steep terrain, soft snow, and most other conditions backcountry skiers will encounter. G3 was heading back to the future with a classic tech binding: solid, light, clean, with G3 engineering behind it. I could geek out on it with picts from wildsnow but i have to go skiing in 2 minutes Lee Lau - xxx-er is the laziest Asian canuck I know. The G3 Ion has been a super reliable binding, so I would expect the same from the Zed 12 in terms of reliability.

The 2018-2019 ZED ski touring binding from G3 appears to possess an excellent anti-rotation (AR) feature. The 2019-20 G3 Zed redeems its predecessor. ZED’s Ski flex compensation system and boot length adjustment is typical of this binding genre, G3’s appears well designed, allows a centimeter of movement. The beefier and bulkier Plum Summit, Dynafit ST Rotation, and Marker KingPin collect more ice than most. G3 Ski Binding Weights : G3 Zed 12 (no brake) 2019: n/a: 377: evo: G3 Zed brake only: 2019: 100: 84: evo: G3 Zed brake only : 2019: 115: 85: evo : Marker Binding Weights : Marker Alpinist 12: 2019: n/a: 287: ... *Weights by Lou Dawson come from www.wildsnow.com. After we published the post below, G3 was kind enough to send us an updated ZED heel unit, due for distribution fall of 2020. This preloads the spring, and makes an easily tested/verified difference in spring rate. The ZED’s toe retention pressure held up well enough in ski mode that we were never tempted to lock it out, even in high-consequence terrain. G3 Zed 12 Bindings 2020 .

With more than 220 historic and contemporary photographs, as well as 10 nicely designed maps, the book doubles as a guide to 54 classic mountain ski and snowboard descents, from New Hampshire’s Mount Washington to Alaska’s Denali. Price: $475.00 Marker Kingpin M-Werks 12 Bindings 2020 . It’s resulted in a few successes and what I’m comfortable calling contributions to the sports of backcountry ski touring and ski mountaineering. Verdict If you’re looking for a super simple, easy-to-use touring binding that still performs well going downhill, the G3 Zed 12 is a great choice. Price: $729.00 Salomon S/Lab Shift MNC Bindings 2020 . Price: $499.00 Look Pivot 18 GW Bindings 2020 . Simple. Zed got me all frisky last year. The Editors' Choice Marker Alpinist is in line with the G3 bindings.

I’ve never been entirely convinced on the use of stomp pads with classic tech bindings such as G3 ZED. G3 ZED in downhill mode, showing stomp pad gap exceeding their now recommended 1.5 mm gap. With a binding that uses kiss gap, this wider gap in touring mode is essential. (Stomp pad being a block of material under the boot heel, with a small gap that closes up when the binding heel flexes downward under high loads). WildSnow plans additional field assessment of the ZED, as soon as we receive our long-term evaluation pair. Yet like most things simple — that work — someone probably put a lot of thought into this. 11-19-2018, 09:59 AM #8. So I moved on to other shiny things. Shop Ski Bindings. True to WildSnow tradition, we did a teardown with the G3 engineers. But after an instance of consumer reported breakage I got the impression G3 was making some changes to the product. Price: $725.00 Tyrolia AAAttack² 13 GW Bindings 2020 . The G3 Ion LT and G3 Zed 12 seem less prone to toe piece icing than nearly every other binding we have used. This is the heel with top plate and springs removed, showing the tiny metal frame which moves against the grey plastic cam lobes, thus reversing the direction of force so the springs can be used for both vertical and lateral release. The unit is nearly identical, with one possibly key change. The binding I was on was a pre-production version I’d call “99% finished.” During our day here’s what I noticed : ZED’s lightness, especially combined with the lightweight SEEKr skis, is immediately noticeable. “G3 Finds the Lost Ski Binding of ZED - THE Backcountry Ski Touring Blog https://t.co/lUDvpMFKtI” From author Lou Dawson: Being published on paper over the last decades has been an interesting journey.