New AT-specific pole basket on Kickstarter

Hi all,

I'm a backcountry skier and mechanical designer from Vancouver, B.C.  For the past year or so I've been working on a ski pole basket that will help raising and lower heel lifters on AT bindings. I couple weeks ago I launched it on Kickstarter: kck.st/1f2nKvc   The website is www.liftbaskets.com

Why Kickstarter? I know it's a small problem; some poles and some baskets work ok, and some folks are fine with using the handles of their poles.  I agree that these solutions work OK, but figure there is a better way. I put it on Kickstarter to share with other skiers and see if they agree.

I'm going to be at Baker this weekend (Feb 8th/9th) spreading the word. Look for me at the end of the parking long on the way to the back-country Saturday am. I'll give you a demo.

If you've got any questions, fire away or email me.

Thanks! Hugh

Now if only winter would come back to the PWN and we could all get out and actually do some proper touring!

Your commitment is outstanding Hugh good luck with your endeavor.
It appears that the focus of your baskets are the binding systems that have those pesky lifters under the binding plates. Personally I'm not a fan of that system, but it appears that a lot of the more inbound/sidecountry bindings have that feature. I wish you success with your basket system in that market.
Always cool to see innovators getting after it in the BC!

Pretty neat product, got to look and touch as I headed up Deans Adieu last week at Blackcomb, appears to be very well thought out. As I skinned up I regretted not getting more info as I fought the Dukes with my BlackDiamond baskets ( I know, get some real touring gear and stop creating problems...} Now I know where to go ! Thanks for the chocolate

Notice the thin ? ice on Circle Lake at the bottom

Thanks for the feedback guys! Stoked you see the value. Joedabaker - yeah, I did focus on the easier problem to solve first! But I've got some ideas for baskets that help w' Radical's, Vipec, the Ion and Beast... stay tuned.

Even if you don't have Marker or Salomon bindings, it would be awesome to have you as backers on the campaign at the $1 level

Thanks again! I can't tell you how fun it is to combine my passion for building things with my passion for touring.

Have you tested these with any tele bindings?  The NTN freedom heal risers are imple wire bails, but the small one fits inside the large one and is a pain to lift so these might be a good solution.

I like it. I've definitely thought about something like this when flipping my lifters around - would have never had the initiative to actually do something like this about it though.

It seems like most of the poles I see in the BC have removable tips - how hard would it be to make a version compatible with the removable tips?