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Marker Alpinist Heel Riser Repair

By

Andrew Ross

An already filled in groove: the spring will press a slight groove into the repaired zone.

An already filled in groove: the spring will press a slight groove into the repaired zone.

 Marker Alpinist: The binding that offers everything you need, and only a dash of what you don’t. After three seasons on these bindings, I almost love them. They’re lightweight, have three riser heights (including flat), and have never iced up on me. So far, so good. Where do they fall short, you ask? It’s those…

Responses

  1. Barry Wicks

    I had a similar problem with my alpinists. I ended up punching the heel riser pivot pin out with a hammer and small punch, wasn’t to hard but took some geometry equations to figure out how to support the heel piece while tapping on the punch. I ended up bracing the ski/heel piece on the edge of my work bench. Once the pin was out, I could see the steel spring was a bit flattened out compared to a new heel piece. I used pliers and bent it back into more or less original shape, and it seemed to cure the flappy riser problem, at least for a little, it is feeling softish again after some fairly heavy use. Agree it is a bit of a design flaw. Re assembly was pretty easy as well. I think the alpinist is a sweet binding, and I really like how it skies. My only other nitpick is that the heel turret is super hard to turn, so I end up touring in mid riser mode almost exclusively by just flipping the flap over the pins. I’ll only go to the trouble of rotating the heel if there is a really long flat section. I might go in for the jb weld patch up next time I need to “adjust” the spring to get a longer service interval. Thanks for the idea!

    1. Andrew Ross

      Great tip with the punch, Barry. Good to know the pins go back in. If the JB Weld doesn’t hold up for me, I may have to try this.

      And I agree – it’s a great binding. Skis wonderfully. I love a flat mode, though, so unlike you, I’m either in high or flat, and have to twist the heel piece around at every transition.

  2. Erik Fullmer

    I’ll give this a try too! I’ve been tinkering and haven’t found a solid fix yet. Your method for flipping it forward is hilarious, good to not be alone in that.

    1. Andrew Ross

      Thanks, Erik. I’m glad you found some humor in this piece. Report back if you invent a better method for fixing these risers!

  3. Andrew Ross

    Update:

    After 10,000 vertical feet on these bindings, I’m happy to report that the repair has held up well. After my first 4k or so, I thought I noticed a bit of wear in the JB Weld that made the risers easier to flip with my pole, but there have been no unintended switches into flat mode the way there had been before. Since then, there has been no noticeable change in binding performance.

    Would I use this fix on a multi-day traverse? I’m not that confident in it… yet.

    I *am* confident enough to recommend this as a quick, cheap and easy fix that is guaranteed to get you through a weekend of touring – and probably well beyond.

    For those looking for a more permanent repair, Tahoe Trail Tools has brought their after-market Alpinist riser into full production. I haven’t tried them, but they looks pretty sweet:

    https://www.tahoetrailtools.com/product/beta-heel-up-alpinist/14?cp=true&sa=true&sbp=false&q=false

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