Marker Heel Pieces

Hi Aaron,

I have heard of/seen this pairing being done before, for the exact reasons you describe - folks who prefer the Trab toe, but want a lower ramp angle than the Vario.2 while maintaining the gapless benefits. It seems promising! There is one main caveat: there is no way to predict how this combination will release. If I had to guess, I think it would release higher rather than lower, but since the Marker heel is not designed or tuned to work with the Trab toe piece, it could throw the release values way off. You would need to test it to find out. The nice thing is that the Alpinist heels are adjustable laterally, so you could play with it and try to dial it in.

Regarding the play with the Vario heels, we sometimes notice a little bit of play in the adjustment track, but we don't normally see play in the pins and heel tower itself. If you're concerned, feel free to send video to help@skimo.co and we can take a look at what's going on!

Anna, The past couple seasons the Kingpin uses the same Toe piece as the Alpinist. The older Kingpins with 6 springs in the toe piece, has a different spring tension, so would affect the overall release value of this mix. Overall it would work. But you should go to to a shop and have them test and set the release.