Description
Over the years, we’ve had a number of requests for a Hok with a free-pivot binding. Ice climbers, mountaineers, and snowboarders are all looking for an approach ski they can use when needed. The boots they use tend to have rigid soles, which don’t work with our standard universal binding and its Nordic (ball-of-the-foot) flex. Years ago, a number of bindings worked with a variety of rigid-soled boots (Silvretta in particular), but modern AT (toe-pivot) bindings are almost all pin bindings: excellent for AT skiing, but not usable with non-ski boots.
We recently came across a simple toe-pivot approach binding developed for snowboard boots. It’s simple and lightweight, and with a custom heel piece and a few added inserts, it screws onto our 125 cm Hok with no drilling. We also added a custom climbing wire, and the heel piece doubles as a heel locator for the binding.
Along with the two inserts added for the approach binding, we kept the existing inserts, so you can easily swap bindings as needed.
This setup isn’t designed for aggressive downhill skiing, but it works well as an approach ski for those hard-to-reach areas in winter.
