Italien rando racing gear manufacturer has used their long experience developing Dynafit “Tech” compatible racing bindings to good effect in the touring end of the market.  The ATK Race RT weight just 170 grams, about half that of a TLT Speed. RT stands for Race Touring. A binding made for tourers who want to cover a lot of vertical, fast.

The binding offers usual lateral and vertical “DIN” release settable from 5 to 10 plus the toe release can be set. Interesting stuff, we don’t know if you can lock the toe for the steeps.

You can use a baseplate to allow for 3 mondo points of heel adjustment giving an all up weight of around 400 grammes incl. screws compared to around 700 g for the TLT speed. ATK are also going to release a ski brake.

So a number of interesting developments. Metal construction, none of those plastic parts that break when it gets cold. Especially interesting is the metal ski crampon holder and potentially better release characteristics in falls.

http://www.atkrace.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=54:atk-race-rt&lang=en

is the crampon mount compatable with a dynafit crampon or does it just look a bit like one?

imagine that! standard fitting in AT bindings

Hmmm good point. It would be good if it is. I’m waiting for my local store to get them in to take a closer look (they normally stock ATK). The front toe release may need a season to get the wrinkles out though.

460 euros is still quite steep.

that does seem steep. Even just a couple of years back a new product on the touring market seemed big news, now it’s weekly. Some of the gear brochures are arriving now and there’s pages of touring orientated or inspired gear, although it’s more mainstream I’m not seeing much sign that prices are dropping, hadn’t we assumed touring gear cost more because of the small market?

Yeah one could have hoped that the “slackcountry” brigade could have offset our costs a wee bit. The price of skis is eye watering.

slackcountry that’s the bit between the piste and a restaurant if I’m up with the latest lingo.

Still some bargains for skis if you’re prepared to have something one or two years old. It’s hard to see how the prices are justified, there’s no real research and development going on and the manufacturing costs aren’t a lot. Marketing just consists of producing some total nonsense and hoping people on the internet repeat it, I’ve less than no idea what most of them are talking about either as a skier of 30 odd years or, way back, an engineer.

You mean you don’t have dual rockered skis with carbon beta channel inserts and dualtec? How do you stay upright?

I must admit to not being keen on paying more than 200 euros for a pair of skis but bargains seem thinner on the ground this year. This year I got the bases on my Sweet Daddies fixed, ground and restructured and they look like new!

hard to say, I might well have some, I’d describe them as sort of long flat, mostly wood.

it always reminds me of the Not the Nine O’Clock news sketch “Gramophone”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtube_gdata_player&v=dSINO6MKtco

Excellent, reminds me that Rowan Atkinson can be really funny when he tries. The whole sketch is like a thread on TGR where some poor sod (apparently referred to as a JONG or GAP-ER) asked about Snoop Daddies. “Snoop Daddies, grandad? you’ll be wanting cable bindings with those you skinny skied gaper”.

talking of slackcountry and more AT kit that’ll never be used raises the question whether the traditional labels are selling out or cashing in.

according to one brochure I just flicked through, dynafit have coloured crampons and, quite ridiculously, a first aid kit designed to sit inside your crampon while it’s in your rucksack (all of which are probably back in someones apartment). And Scarpa seem to be selling a pair of boots for every day of the week.

ATK’s mounted on Movement Fish - so light you have to tie them down to stop them floating away:-