Scarpa Matrix Blowout

Anyone seen this happen before? The dynafit heelpiece fitting on my 2-week old Scarpa Matrix blew out today. The screw ripped right out, and took the boot threads with it (you can see the orange plastic between the threads on the screw -- the little bit of white stuff is dental cement that we tried to fix it with, which didn't work). We were about 4 miles out still when it happened. Fortunately the plastic molding combined with some Voile straps worked well enough to get me out. I will be calling Scarpa tomorrow to try and return them (didn't buy them locally). Mostly just wanted to share this bizarre thing with you all because I've never heard of it happening! But also, if any of you have dealt with Scarpa's new N.A. dealer and can share any wisdom with me, I would really appreciate anything that would make the process easier. Got a hut trip coming up in 4 weeks!

Glad those straps did the job, hey? That would've been ugly, getting out without a locked-down heel... I cross-posted this to TTips as well, hope you don't mind!

www.telemarktalk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=409877#409877

Nate,

I noticed that my heel piece on my Garmonts was getting loose. I didn't know whether or not the screw was backing out or pulling out but I very gently tightened it. I assumed the worse, that it was pulling out, so I did not ski them too much before asking Marmot about a solution before the threads blew. I can tell you that a longer screw in my Garmonts has solved the problem. I believe that there is a lot of solid plastic in the heel to accept much longer screws. If possible use stainless. I do not know if the Matrix heels have any molded hollows in the heel, which might make the longer screws pointless. Also, I believe that it is a better fix if done before the first set of threads are sheared. It would be interesting to see if anyone else responds to such a retrofit as a routine precaution.

I should note that the year that I had them was a bad snow year and I mostly did lift served skiing, which may put more stress on these bindings than expected. On the other hand I have been doing a lot of lift served the next two years and they are holding up great.

Alan

Thanks for the tip on the longer screw, Alan. I'm glad that works. I think a longer screw and JB Weld (based on what someone posted in Marcus' cross-post on TT) will at least become part of my repair kit, along with a couple Voile straps. I did ship the boots back to Scarpa in Boulder today, though. Figured they were brand new so I had pretty good reason to request a replacement pair. Oh and just for comparison sake, I had used them 4 days (actually 3 1/2 all in backcountry.

Your situation sounds somewhat unique, since your actual use was so little. I think that lots of lift served skiing in my case puts an unusual and undesigned amount of wear and tear on the system. However, my experience would support a rather beefy design.

I suspect that you had a defective heel piece caused by improper mounting (i.e. over-torqued screw), or the plastic in that boot was somehow defective. But I still feel that the screws used are too short.

The unit is not supposed to have a lot of "pull-out" forces placed on it, but considering that plastic gives, I believe that they can experience significant torque and with the ability of the plastic to yield, it could cause such forces to develop. A longer screw or some internal anchor mechanism such as a screw or bolt insert would eliminate the problem.

Alan

This topic has received a bit of discussion on the Backcounty Forum:

www.backcountryworld.com/showthread.php?t=3034