Gear Preview

Marker Duke

1. dh performance king
2. can't switch modes on-the-fly
3. Marker safety/quality
4. heavy

Can it really be true? Yes, indeed. After years of waiting, hoping, and speculating, Backcountry skiers can rejoice: Marker USA is releasing the Marker Duke, an all-new Alpine Touring binding for the 07-08 season.

Those of us who used to bash gates on the race course know Marker has a formidable reputation as a maker of Alpine bindings (competition from Atomic notwithstanding). Top Racers have turned to Marker for decades for the world's highest-performing bindings, and they've not been disappointed. Marker has been a major innovator in the Alpine world, driving many of the trends that now permeate the industry.

Equally important for recreational skiers, Marker's relentless technology advances have made them one of the safest bindings on the hill.

Can Marker bring that steller performance and safety pedigree to the comparatively primitive world of backcountry ski gear?

Initial reports suggest the answer is a commanding affirmative.

The DIN-16 Marker Duke automatically becomes the binding of choice for one-riggers who want to use the same pair of bindings inbounds and out. Additionally, if you happen to be an aggressive skier, an air specialist, or just on the heavy side by A/T gear standards (say, 175 pounds or greater), the Duke offers the extra strength and burliness to survive practically anything you can throw at it.

And last but by no means least, here at last is an Alpine Touring binding you can actually count on to keep your knees in one piece when you fall.

The Marker Duke appears to suffer from none of the binding slop or wiggle so endemic to its backcountry peers, meaning you enjoy unmatched downhill performance, just like your Alpine rig. We don't yet have the skier miles for proof, but we can expect the Duke's resistance to unexpected pre-release to be excellent as well.

With so many positive qualitites on the downhill, it is perhaps inevitable that the Marker's liabilities manifest when climbing. At a whopping six pounds per pair, the Duke may as well be an Alpine binding when it comes to carrying them on your back. You can't switch between walking and skiing modes while snapped in, which is sure to bring grief on extended tours.

For these reasons, the Duke is far from a perfect one-rig solution, especially as you begin to weight touring and climbing performance over downhill skiing. On the other hand, the Marker Duke just might make your Alpine bindings obsolete. And if downhill performance is your ultimate goal, nothing else in the A/T world even comes close.

* note: because it is brand-new, there is no reliablity data for the Marker Duke. Based on Marker's excellent quality control history, I would expect relatively few issues. But, as with all first-generation products, if you buy now you'll be at the front of the wave. More conservative shoppers may wish to wait for next year's version.

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