To the usual practice of boring a hole through the wood of the ski should be preferred an arrangement such as we have just described, preserving for the runner that on which he most justly may pride himself: a whole and uninjured ski-blade.
The writer has always used in the High Alps a binding fulfilling the conditions here laid down. He found his binding both safe and strong.
Elasticity and uniformity of pressure are so well secured by the severance of the heel-band from the body of the ski, that a fall forward is not accompanied by an awkward strain, such strain being almost always brought about by the reaction of the weight of the ski upon the muscles or bones of the foot. It is now generally recognised that strains and breaks are not caused by the firmness of a binding, but by an unequal and jolting application of pressure to the bones and muscular tissues.
A binding, the whole of which may be detached from the ski-blade by taking out a pin and removing a lever, is handy to travel with, as instruments to fit on a new binding instead of an old or broken one, are inconvenient adjuncts.
The weak points in steel rope bindings are:—
1. That the rivet connecting wire and leather may give way. The splicing should be most carefully seen to.
2. The metal cheeks may turn out to be brittle, if too hard or too thin, as in any other binding with cheeks.
3. The soft steel wire being made of strands, the very condition of its pliancy, this also means that the strands may be too soft, or too hard, or that they may be broken or unwound by coming into contact with hard edges. To obviate this risk, an oiled leather sleeve through which the wires might run, would protect them against friction and provide them with a lubricant.
The lubricant should be applied also on the bends of the wire.
The leather sleeves are placed outside each cheek by means of a rivet with the loop upwards and free. This provides a non-rigid “focus” of soft material, through which the fine wires, though tense, run loosely. The section of the wire thus enclosed lies at a varying angle with the foot as it rises and falls, and adjusts itself to this in its every position.