“Hybrid” bindings are all the rage these days, and for good reason — they promise the downhill performance and release characteristics of alpine bindings while providing you with the ability to skin uphill in a tech / pin setup.
Today, Tyrolia throws their own offering into the ring, in the form of the new Attack Hybrid platform.
Similar to the Salomon / Atomic / Armada Shift2, Marker Duke PT, CAST Freetour 2.0, and ATK Hy Free, the Attack Hybrid functions pretty much like a regular alpine binding in downhill mode, but it has an uphill toe piece that works like a typical tech / pin binding.
But how does it actually work?
In short, the Attack Hybrid features a heel piece that’s very similar to the standard Attack heel, but with a latch / button to lock the brakes for uphill mode and a single climbing riser so you can skin with your foot flat on the heel or raised to a stated 9°. (If you look at the Attack Hybrid 14 images above, the brake lock and climbing riser are both gold.)
Up front, the Attack Hybrid features swappable toe pieces that slide on and off a metal plate with a quick-release tab that’s very similar to the demo / rental version of the Attack platform. The downhill / alpine toe is nearly identical to a regular Attack toe, while the uphill / tech toe is very similar to Tyrolia’s Almonte touring binding.
So, when touring with the Attack Hybrid, you’d keep whichever toe piece you’re not using in your backpack (they come with a protective case) and then swap them during transitions. The Attack Hybrid’s tech toe reportedly offers an “emergency mode” that allows you to ski down using the tech toe (e.g., in case you forget / lose your alpine toes), but that’s just for worst-case scenarios — you want to ski with the alpine toe.
The Attack Hybrid reportedly uses more than 50% renewable plastics, as well as a 30% carbon-fiber composition that brings the weight down to a stated 880 grams per binding in uphill mode and 1125 grams for downhill mode for the Attack Hybrid 14 (the Attack Hybrid 11 is about 60 grams lighter per binding).
Tyrolia says the heel stack height is 32 mm and the ramp angle (aka, heel-to-toe delta) is 4 mm in ski mode.
The Attack Hybrid will be available in two variants, with the Attack Hybrid 14 covering a DIN range of 4-14 and the Attack Hybrid 11 spanning 3-11. Both feature adjustable “MN” toes so that they can work with all ISO-certified binding sole norms (i.e., Alpine, GripWalk, & Touring).
We’ve got two Attack Hybrid bindings in for long-term testing, so keep an eye out for more coverage as we spend time on them this season.
When they say “weigh in up/downhill mode” are they conveniently ignoring the fact that you still have to carry the other toe piece?
Let’s have the weight of the whole binding, including all the parts you need to go up AND down.
That’s a good point, but because of angular momentum and the need to move the skis forward, weight on the skis has 3-5 times the impact on energy consumption compared to weight in the backpack.
I assume that’s the assumption they’re making, and it’s the one that CAST and Marker make for their stated weights for their respective systems. But we’ll be getting our own measured weights shortly.
Tjaard, is this so you can say how heavy it is compared to Shifts, Kingpin, or any other touring binding? If it is anything similar to the Duke PT, the two toe pieces combined weigh less than a sixteen ounce bottle of water. When you carry a bottle of water in your pack, does it just weigh you down SOOOO much? If someone invented some amazing device that converted touring/tech bindings into an actual DIN 13-16 with all the elasticity/capability/power of a Look Pivot or Marker Jester for those days that you aren’t lightly fluffing your way through powder, AND it only weighed <250 grams per side, would you be interested? Oh hello, they already have.
I’m really surprised it took this long for someone to just use a demo plate on the front for this type of application. I do short low angle and side country touring, still haven’t gotten super serious about touring, but this would be a great alternate to something like a shift or even the cast system (depending on price). When my Shift inevitably brake, this will be top of the list.
Steven K this has been a thing guys in the TGR forums have been doing for at least a 5 years (search DIY Alpine Downhill + Tech Toe touring binding”). They use the demo Attacks and mount a pair of tech toes forward of the track (which has been cut down). For uphill you slide the alpine toe AND heel off the track, click into the forward mounted toes, use voile heel lifters or homemade ones and go. For downhill: slide the alpine binding back on and go. The tech toe is permanently mounted. Looks a bit silly and the toe might be a bit far forward for kick turns, but not a bad option for people who think they might want to tour once a season or so.
Yes, I have made and used the TGR “FrankenCast” for a few years now. Never had any problems and I trusted it enough to bring only that binding system for a 9 day touring trip to Japan a couple years ago. Never seemed to slow me down on the skintrack or transitions and it’s really nice to step into a more substantial binding for the descent.
Tyrolia was obviously inspired by the TGR original. Hey, Tyrolia… while you’re listening… could you make Attack2 demo plates available for purchase separately? It would help with our R&D for you.