Ready for the Dynafit Plunge

+1 for B&D leashes, clipped to a ring on the back of your boot. I love not worrying about runaway skis at transitions.

I have Verticals with ski breaks. Snow was firm in this morning an my skins slipped backward a couple of times on a steep pitch to the point I dropped a knee. When this happens the toe lever can get pushed down into ski mode and if you don't remember to it back up and continue skinning you'll eventually twist right out of the toe and your ski is off your foot, your ski break is locked in the up position and if your on a steep pitch in firm snow guess what happens? Yep, my ski slid on the skin all the way to the bottom of the pitch. Boo

Guess who is ordering B&D leashes now Thanks to this thread!

Always the contrarian I know but the B&D ski leashes are as useless as an ashtray on an motorbike IMHO.
They nearly always break in a fall and unless the ski dives and gets buried....bye, bye ski.
I used them extensively for a while and nearly lost skis on two occasions due to the leash connection breaking.
I was excited about them when they first came out for all the reasons the other posters love them but they have many disadvantages other than just the ski retention failure I list.

To each his own but I went back to brakes and am much happier for it.
YMMV.

They nearly always break in a fall and unless the ski dives and gets buried....bye, bye ski.

Scotsman I wondered about this..... I just read the Lost Ski thread by dswiz and shudder at the thought of being miles out with one ski. Yes mine came off and went for a ride but with the skin on it was a slow descent and only traveled as far as it did due to the firm conditions.

Guess who is glad they procrastinated on B&D leashes order. :

Scotsman I wondered about this.....  I just read the Lost Ski thread by dswiz and shudder at the thought of being miles out with one ski.  Yes mine came off and went for a ride but with the skin on it was a slow descent and only traveled as far as it did due to the firm conditions.

Guess who is glad they procrastinated on B&D leashes order.   :   

Well others may have different experiences but for the period when I used them ( and I tried to like them) , the leash broke three times when I fell. Once the ski was buried and the other two times , one ski went skittering away and I nearly lost them.
My falls are admittedly yard sales because I'm usually out of control and a complete hack but that's' MY experience. I farted around with trying stronger zip-ties but got to the stage where I was worried that the stronger Zip ties would not break in an avy.
The other disadvantages I found where.

Boot packing for sidecounty hits....no brakes so skis where difficult to hold together over shoulder without stopping to put on a strap and when you are rushing for first tracks with the hordes behind you...who has time to stop!

Bootpacking again...things dangle and are really annoying unless you wrap 'em around the skis.

Car rack-- They whistle and hit the roof and distract from listening to your SO's interesting conversation about her " feelings".

They distract from the sartorial elegance of your finely matched boot/ski/pant combo....and as a friend said" you look like an Alexander Bell experiment"

Toured the Dynafits and Scarpa Maestrales for the first time today.  I am completely sold on both and was pleased that nothing exploded since it was my first time mounting Dynafits.

The only problem I encountered was removing the snow from under the toe piece before locking into touring and skiing modes.  My finger, pole, and binding leash clip all performed poorly.  Just wondering how people solve this problem.