Dynafits are Fustrating: The sequal!

As you know I have a love/hate relationship with my Dyanfit bindings.
I love their weight and tourability and think they are the prefect binding for spring/corn tours but have less like for them in powder for various reasons.

On the tour yesterday at Table Mtn/Artist Point, it was cold  yesterday ad although only mildly frustrating these are the problems I had and I wanted to see how you guys coped with them.

1. In the cold deep snow, my volcanoes became plugged with icy frozen snow and I could not insert my ski pole tip no matter how hard I tried to gain enough leverage to turn the binding. I had to bend down and do it with my hands, tiring and awkward with a pack on. Cleaning out volcanoes was difficult and would have taken I estimate about 5 mins but they plugged up again almost immediately. This resulted in me not using my various climbing heights as efficiently as I would have with Fritschis.

2. Quite a bit of the tour had long either flattish or slightly uphill sections . The Telemarkers proceeded to ski down the steep part and easily cope with the flat sections. I would ski down, and " Monster Walk" across the flat sections and that was very tiring and slow. A couple of times, I stopped to free my heels , but the time it took to click out, turn the binding, click back in with toes only, was slower than just "Monster walking" with heels fixed but would have probably be less tiring. I have tried to free my heels without disengaging the toe pincers but have yet to master it. With Fritschi's this would have been no problem.

Now in both cases, it just took time to solve the problems but when you are with a fast crew, making them wait while you de-iced your volcanoes or switched to free-heel for flat sections would be tiresome.

Can the more experienced DYNAFITers out there give me their solution to these problems as I am even more convinced after yesterday that in cold, deep snow Dynafits are not worth the weight saving versus the ease of Fritschis!

You might want to check out the video embedded in this link. www.wildsnow.com/404/yes-virginia-you-ca...it-modes-on-the-fly/
Just be sure to lock your toe piece first!

My solution is simply: embrace your inner gearwhore.

My first "real" AT setup (one that was not a handmedown) had TLTs. Made all the same observations. If you start from the assumption that your first setup still leaves you "pure", my first step down the scarlet path of gearwhoredom came when I started rooting around eBay to build a Fritschi setup that I'd use mostly for the winter and/or powder days to avoid the icing and transition issues. I switch to the TLTs for spring and thereafter.

As a newbie to dyanfits that I will use this year in deep snow for the 1st time, I plan to try an anti-icing technique that was successful on telemark bindings:

www.peakrigs.com/slather.htm

I'll let you know how it turns out

I have never had a pair of Dynafits on my feet.

That said, everyone I ski with has them, including my wife.  Swooz's link is a good way to do the flat-transition, though it's hard on the gear if you have brakes on your heelpieces.  Only a couple of folks I ski with use it.

I usually use some silicone spray liberally on Anastasia's bindings and she never (rarely?) has volcano issues.

Scotty, Scotty, Scotty How many times do we have to listen to all you Dynafit folks bitch about your gear ? Just give in to the force and get with the Fritschi program. I lust over your weight loss with the Dynafits but after years of listing to all of you complain about them I'll stay with my Fritshis. I can honestly say I have had no problems with them in any conditions. On the icing problem have you tried spraying the whole mess with a good dry lube? May you find solutions and enlightenment soon .