backcountry snowboard & SKI leash

A runaway ski at the resort is like a flying sword. It will slice like a hockey skate and impale like Excalibur. Leashes or brakes on your skis are mandatory at the ski area, if nothing else just to get past the lifty and onto the chair. A runaway ski in the backcountry is different. It won’t slice a head off or staple children to the chalet. Rather it will come to rest in the valley 1,000 feet below or stick in a snowbank. Unless you’re mountaineering and the ski crevasses itself, the main problem with loosing a ski in the backcountry is post-holing down fields of untracked powder while following the single, straight-lined track.

To stop a runaway ski, brakes rule for convenience – just click in and go. These prongs deploy when your boot ejects from the binding and they usually stop the ski. The problem with brakes is their weight. The common backcountry AT ski brakes are the G3 Onyx Ski Brakes (9.7 oz), Fritschi Diamir Brakes (10.2 oz) and the Dynafit TLT Brakes (8.6 oz). Although less than a pound, the weight is on your feet. As they say: an ounce on your back is a pound on your foot.
 
Ski leashes offer a lighter alternative. Leashes connect the ski to your boot. They can be super light, such as the G3 Plastic Ski Leash (0.7 oz), or burly and simple like the Black Diamond Ski Leash (1.6 oz), or heavy like the G3 Metal Ski Leash (2.7 oz). For trickery, try the B & D Ski & Board leash (3 oz), which has an extendable coiled cable allowing skin removal without unclipping from the leash.
 
But there’s also a problem with ski leashes: they can be dangerous in the backcountry. Strong leashes won’t break if you’re tomahawking (bro-speak for somersaulting) down a steep face with your sharp-edged skis wind milling around you. Strong ski leashes can also turn your skis into anchors in an avalanche, dragging you under the debris.
 
Are leashes and brakes really necessary in the backcountry? My guide amigos and myself would argue “sometimes.” That’s why we opt for the thong leash.
 
The thong leash consists of a mini biner connecting a string loop on your binding to a string loop on you boot. Usually these loops are unused, but that’s okay since they weigh nothing. On firm snow or deep powder, connect the loops with a mini biner.
 
To build a thong leash for Dynafit or G3 Onyx bindings – heavier AT bindings usually have brakes – collect two feet of two-millimeter accessory cord and two mini biners. Cut four, four-inch lengths of cord.  For the binding side loop, feed the string through a hole in the toepiece (toe lever hole for Dynafit) and tie a loop using an overhand knot. On your ski boots feed the string through at the tongue base and tie a loop long enough to connect the two loops with a mini biner. I prefer the cool-looking Micron minibiner made by Black Diamond (1 oz each). A cheapo keychain mini biner from the grocery store also work. Clip the mini biners onto your backpack shoulder strap for easy access.

The beauty of the thong leash is its simplicity and low weight. The drawback of the thong leash is its strength. Two-millimeter cord has a breaking strength of 225 pounds and a BD Micron is unrated, but very strong. Even grocery store minibiners are strong enough to turn your skis into eggbeaters or sea anchors. A solution is to make one part of the system breakable under a 50-pound load. Try a lanyard clip or a plastic Hangman Snap Hook from Seattle Fabrics. (see Lou Dawson’s nice write-up here). Another way to make the system breakable is to use a cable tie on the binding side instead of accessory cord. In a serious tugging event the cable tie will break and spare you the beating.
 
In other words, it’s the perpetual tradeoff between function, efficiency and safety. Brakes, leashes, thongs … they all work, but 95-percent of the time I use nothing. The other 5-percent my thong saves me miles of postholing.