The Marker Tour bindings models have been awarded with backcountry awards by the ISPO jury. They found that the Tour F10 and F12 “fully satisfy the requirements for a modern touring binding.” They were impressed by the overall design, ease of use, materials and finish.
Marker Tour FT12 binding
The Tour bindings complement Marker’s slackcountry Royal Family (Duke, Baron ...) responding to the requirements of lighter weight for a long range touring binding while retaining the convenience of an alpine design.
The F10 Tour weighs 1685g in small size without a ski brake. As its name suggests it offers a DIN range from 3 to 10. You can think of it as a Duke on a diet. The bars linking the toe and heel are hollow aluminum and fiberglass reinforced components are used elsewhere. It has a triple pivot toe piece which moves the pivot point towards the toe of the boot for easier kick turns. The Marker F12 Tour adds 100 grams but offers a DIN 12. One interesting feature is the Back Country Comfort mechanism. When this is set to walk the binding shifts 40 mm backwards. This is said to give an easier walking position and better control of the ski during ascents in steep terrain. I’m not totally convinced whether having even more ski in front of the toe is a good thing when making kick turns. The binding has an integrated shock absorber which reduces binding noise when skinning for people who like their backcountry extra quiet. You still have to take your boots out to switch from tour to walk mode which won’t suit people who have a lot of rolling terrain. That said the Marker Tour is about the same weight as the Diamir Eagle but with a more modern design. Hopefully with Marker’s experience with the Duke line they won’t have too many teething problems. With Hagan and Felisaz also entering the touring binding market next season competition is really hotting up across the spectrum.
Atom
Twitter
MyYahoo