Touring, telemark, or cross-country ski binding

#The instant invention relates to a touring, telemark, or cross-country ski binding, comprising a supporting means to offer support in forward, upward and side directions to the front part of an associated shoe, especially a front sole section of the same, on a ski or similar piece of sports equipment, further comprising a retaining means to hold the shoe in the supporting means such that the shoe heel can be raised freely.

#Ski bindings of this kind are known in general. Reference is made, for the sake of example, to the applicant's WO 96/23558. With this known design, the sole is supported in the region of the forward sole end and, therefore, contact between shoe and ski or the like sports equipment will get lost as the heel of the shoe is raised higher. As a consequence, control stability and efficiency in the transfer of force will suffer.

#Considerable improvement over this prior art is obtained with bindings designed according to DE 195 17 791 A1 and DE 195 03 397 A1 the origin of which likewise is the applicant of the instant application. Those designs are characterized in that the point of engagement of the retaining means, embodied either by a tensioning cable or a pliable tensioning strap, is located at the sole of the ski shoe in the region of the plantar arch or just ahead thereof in order to hold the shoe in the supporting means. As a result, the shoe heel can be lifted much more easily and higher without compromising ski control and force transfer to the ski.

#Preferred embodiments of the binding structure according to the invention will be described in greater detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

#FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic side elevational view of a first embodiment of a touring or telemark binding according to the invention;

#FIG. 2 shows the binding of FIG. 1 with a raised shoe heel;

#The components which all embodiments have in common are designated by the reference numerals below:

#10 ski

#11 ski shoe