A-Z of Skiing: B is for Bindings

Which is the only piece of skiing equipment designed to prevent accidents? It's the one to which skiers give least thought: bindings. Noparachutist would set off for a jump without checking his harness, yet skiers are careless about the device that keeps them attached to their skis- and, in the event of a fall, releases the skis to avoid injury.

Which is the only piece of skiing equipment designed to prevent accidents? It's the one to which skiers give least thought: bindings. Noparachutist would set off for a jump without checking his harness, yet skiers are careless about the device that keeps them attached to their skis- and, in the event of a fall, releases the skis to avoid injury.

A sprung device designed to keep the boot attached to the ski except under the abnormal pressure of a fall, the binding needs to be adjusted toa skier's weight, boot size and skiing style: a computation of those three factors gives a "DIN" setting for the binding. Ideally, you should learnyour DIN setting from a reliable fitter, so that you can quote it whenever you hire skis abroad; if you use your own skis, you should regularly checkthat the bindings have not gone out of adjustment.