Two years of reflecting on the Onyx
G3 athlete Andy Traslin has logged a lot of time on the Onyx bindings over the past two years. Here are his thoughts after a lot of deep reflection on those uphill slogs:
In the last two years I climbed over 2 million feet backcountry skiing and mountain biking.
This year I started the watch once again, too see how much vertical I’ve been doing. I was getting in a lot of days, trying to put the Onyx binding to the ultimate test in the backcountry. As much as I enjoy climbing it’s still always about the satisfaction of ripping down an untracked slope.
Where I really noticed the benefits of the Onyx were on the downhill - the ability to really power a turn and hold an edge with confidence and stability. There are two features that are really a benefit with the Onyx. One is the ease of switching from downhill to cross-country mode with a quick bit of pressure on the heel lever. If it is a short flat section. It’s worth going into XC mode.
The other benefit I really noticed happens in powder or heavy wet snow. I noticed other binding users having to excavate snow from the toe just to step in. But with the Onyx, no matter how much snow is around the toe. I just have to brush a little bit off, apply pressure on the toe piece and step in.
With all this late snow we are having it’s going to be a great spring.
