A TLT Speed safety strap solution

Clem was asking about my safety strap solution, so I thought I might post a picture. It's amazing how heavy most safety straps are, and in addition in some situations they are way too strong. Before ski brakes became common, scalp lacs and various other cuts from flailing skis were. Then there is the issue of 'safety straps' in avalanche conditions. Some people would not use them if there was significant risk, and others put a frangible link in the strap so that it would break away under high load. Others would tie a long cord to the ski, hook it to the boot and coil it up under their pant leg. I was never a big fan of this latter solution. It's often a pain in the neck.

If you use bindings without brakes, some sort of safety strap is needed. Here's my latest version, one that I've had good luck with for 4 or 5 years now, first on my tele setup. Especially for ski camping, easily removable safety straps are very handy. Going up hill, and later setting up the tents the skis may need to come off and on for any number of reasons. Not having to attach the safety strap saves a lot of time, and they are not needed in this situation anyway.

See the photo below:

The hook is a Delrin "3/4 inch Standard Snap Hook" from Seattle fabrics. I cut off the plastic webbing loop and drill two holes in the hook to thread the cord through. I have not measured the breaking strength, but I have not broken any so far, yet I'm quite sure they would fail under extreme loads. The cording, which I use for all sorts of things like tent guy lines etc, is 1/16 inch diameter sailboat 'control line', 200 pound test, Spectra core with a polyester cover. Quite amazing stuff.  The loop of cord attached to the hook is bar tacked at one end, leaving a half inch pull tab to make it easier to take the straps off the skis.

The cord loop that attaches to the binding is made from nylon cord with the core removed and then spliced and over sewn. The loop is then looped through itself as per the pic. I guess my sailing background is showing. 


It's important to get the total length right so that the straps cannot contact the steel edges of the skis. Otherwise your ski straps will not last very long.

Now is this futzy enough or what?

Larry

Nice setup Larry. I've been in the business of supplying leashes to my AT friends for a little while now and have mostly been doing around-the-ankle nylon straps with fastex buckles. One of my guinea pigs has discovered, fortunately, that the small fastex buckles do break under a significant load very easily. I imagine your clips would fail under similar stress, but your system looks a little easier to get on/off quickly.

Here's Jonathan S's solution, just a bit differernt from yours, Larry.  The photo is quite a bit down the TGR thread. This is also an excellent thread on all things Dynafit, a good resource. Thanks, Jonathan-

www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62630

Interesting that we independently came up with very similar solutions (although given that we seem to have the same boots & skis, perhaps we think alike in other ways too...):
www.nerandorace.com/dynafit_leash.html
A few notes:
-- My girth hitch point is incorrect (as it can jam the toe lever), so use Larry's point instead (i.e., front/top of eyelet, not the side).
-- I vaguely recall that I got the cable tie idea from someone here, so thanks again to whoever it was!

My current system is similar, but I used the short strap (with a metal ring) that came with my Dynafit leashes. (The around-the-ankle part of the Dynafit leash stays at home.) The advantages of this setup are:

1) Very quick to connect/disconnect.

2) Lower leash cannot be cut by edges because it's too short.

In the picture below, the leash on the left is in downhill mode, while the leash on the right is in uphill (skinning) mode.

The obvious weak link is the boot buckle that my clip is attached to. The system would be much stronger on a boot with a tongue-hinge attachment like the one shown in Larry's picture. I think of this system as a way to prevent a runaway ski due to fumble fingers rather than an egg-beater fall. If I'm really worried about ski retention, I revert to the around-the-ankle leash.

(Thanks for showing how to thread the toe-piece, Larry! I had it wrong, but different than Jonathan's method.)

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Edited to add:

If I need to climb on foot wearing crampons, I remove the plastic clips and cord loops from my boot buckles and stick them in my pocket. You don't want to trip over your shoelaces when you're climbing hard snow!

Do you ever have trouble with the hook snagging on brush or broken by rocks when you are bushwhacking?

I would just remove the hook in those conditions. An advantage of this system is that the hook is not attached "permanently." You can just unclip it.

There is another consideration too for some conditions. I think that one of the easiest and most common ways to loose a ski is just getting into the binding when the snow is hard. I remember the time a skiing partner of mine was a bit frustrated and sort'a kicked into his NNN BC binding, sending the ski rocketing down from the top of Finney Ridge. 

For conditions like these, and because I never know when I'll get an attack of the clumsies, I've wanted a safety strap long enough to hook on before I put the boot in the binding.

Those are good points. I haven't really planned for that. To be honest, I came up with this system mainly for VertFest. I wanted a super quick retension system that was just good enough to get past the judges. I think it would be sufficient for many tours, but I'm not going to discard the around-the-ankle safety straps that I've used on spring trips for many years.

The other half of the system (for a rando rally) is making sure I can remove my skins without taking my skis off. This is important for speed, but it also eliminates the risk of having a ski run away at the top of the mountain. The only time my skis are off without either the leases attached or the skins on is at the bottom of the hill when applying skins.