If the fastening fits properly there should be enough freedom to allow the knee just to touch the front of the ski.
Fig. 8.
A A right, B B wrong positions for toe-irons (left ski).
In order to prevent the heel-strap from slipping off the boot, the heel of the boot should be made to project at the back, both top and bottom of the projection being rounded to allow of the strap being easily pulled on and off (see [Fig. 9, p. 41]). This is a better and a simpler arrangement than the strap and buckle at the back of the heel with which ski-boots are often fitted.
The heel-strap should be bent first downwards and then backwards on each side of the ski, so that the side of it which is uppermost within the cavity of the ski becomes outermost round the foot. This arrangement increases the tension when the heel rises.
It is most important that the heel-strap should be very tight, for its tension not only limits the vertical movement of the foot, and so makes it possible to lift the heel of the ski, but also, by keeping the boot firmly jammed between the toe-irons, prevents nearly all lateral movement, and so makes steering easy.
The heel-strap consists of two parts; the back part should be fitted with a metal lever called “The Ellefsen Shortening Clamp” ([Fig. 7], x). Opening and closing this lever lengthens and shortens the heel-strap; the strap is buckled so that with the lever open it will just pass over the projection on the boot-heel; it can be thoroughly tightened up, when on, by the closing of the lever.
This lever should be so fitted on the heel-strap that it comes on the outside of the heel near the back.