Stop Worrying so Much About Your Mount Point

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Ever since I first made the mistake of talking about skis on the internet, my inboxes have been populated by men worried about a centimeter or two.

Collectively, as skiers, we nerd out about a whole bunch of stats. But, on most skis at least, the only one we have control over after we’ve purchased the ski is mount point. You’re not going to change the radius of a ski or its rocker profile (fringe folks who intentionally park their car on their skis to flatten them out excepted). But you do have control over where you drill the holes that determine where your boot will be suspended over the ski. And so because we’re nerds, we obsess over that line.

But the longer I ski, the more I’m convinced that most of the energy we spend worrying about where to mount our skis is misplaced. That’s not to say mount point doesn’t matter, just that it matters less, and in a different way, than most of the folks who obsess over it think it does.

Generally folks are worried about moving a ski less than 3 cm either forward or back from its manufacturer-recommended mount point. And I’m pretty convinced that for the vast majority of skiers, on the vast majority of skis, those 3 cm just aren’t that important.

Instead, I’d encourage anyone worried about where they’re mounting their skis to take a deep breath and drill away, confident that they’re not going to “ruin” a ski by mounting it a centimeter or two away from recommended. And similarly, I’d encourage anyone trying to “fix” a pair of skis, or make them perform radically differently from their intended purpose, to remember that moving the mount point probably won’t accomplish much on that front either. Here’s why:

You’re not that sensitive

Ok, if you send me butthurt emails about this, you might be too sensitive. But for most skiers, moving where the midsole of your boot sits by a centimeter or two will probably be dang near imperceptible. Mathematically, moving your boot center by 2 cm on a 180 cm ski results in a 1.11% change. One of the best things about the human body is that it’s really good at adapting its movements to small changes. I can ski the same skis and boots with a 40 lb backpack as I can on a BN* run. We can adapt to a shocking range of inputs.

Yes, there are stories of World Cup racers noticing flex differences in their boots based on the color of plastic used, but for the rest of us mortals, small changes like that 1% binding shift are generally imperceptible. I bet your ski’s flex changes by more than 1% during the course of a season. Similarly, your boots’ flex probably fluctuates to a higher degree based on temperature.

Anecdotally, I once spent a day skiing with an esteemed colleague whose profession was also to pontificate about skis on the internet. He spent a full day skiing with one ski mounted 3 cm in front of the other, and didn’t notice anything amiss until I pointed it out when I noticed how unevenly the toe pieces of his bindings lined up.

In all my time reviewing skis, there’s only one model (the K2 Catamaran) where I found that moving the bindings 2 cm from recommended made an appreciable and worthwhile difference. Otherwise, it’s been small tweaks which have revealed that the ski is generally similar across a range of mounts.

It’s not that moving your mount point a centimeter or two won’t make a difference, it’s just that said difference is so small as to be inconsequential compared to other factors like the temperature, your mental state, and what you had for dinner last night. Don’t let your obsession with mount point ruin your day.

*A BN or bare naked run is the purest form of skiing.

In which Cy is found to be a hypocrite

All that said, I regularly mount skis just forward or back of recommended for two reasons: superstition and placebo. For example: thanks to hole conflicts, the first pair of Moment Deathwishes I ever skied had to be mounted 1 cm forward of recommended. I liked them there so much that I’ve mounted every pair I’ve skied since at the same point, even though I’m 100% convinced that in a blind test I couldn’t tell the difference.

Similarly, I’ll often mount touring skis that I see as being more directional, or more aggressive, a little ways ahead of the recommended line. I’m confident that I could ski them just fine at the line, but I like having less ski ahead of me when I’m on light boots, and I like the placebo effect that modifying the mount point has on me.

The key here though is understanding that it’s all smoke and mirrors, while also believing the superstition and taking the sugar pill. You won’t catch me calling “last run” even though no one actually believes there’s some fickle god of skiing that lashes out when folks do. Feel free to move your mount point for arcane and arbitrary reasons like this, but remember that asking a bunch of strangers on the internet to help confirm the results of your hyperfixation isn’t always a good use of anyone’s time.

A frame of reference

When I’m trying to figure out how “playful” or “directional” a ski is, one of the first things I’ll consider is the mount point. That’s often an easy way to get an idea of the manufacturer’s intentions with the ski. On paper, there’s a pretty simple equation for how moving your mount point affects a ski. Move it closer to center to make a ski feel shorter, easier to maneuver, easier to spin and flip and jib, and more balanced in the air. Move it back to make things feel more stable, more directional, and require less input while delivering more of a platform to lean on when going fast. Usually it’s a direct tradeoff: you’ll gain about the same amount of stability that you lose of playfulness, or vice versa.

These numbers are debatable, but I’d argue that skis with recommended mount points of 0 to -4 cm are generally pretty “playful.” Skis with mount points further back than -8 cm are usually pretty “directional” and anything between those classes is somewhat “neutral.”

Looking at the mount points of skis you’ve liked in the past is a good way to get an idea of where you fall on that spectrum. Ski manufacturers generally choose a mount point or range of mount points where they think the ski will perform best. And then you as the customer get to decide where within or outside of that range you want to mount the ski.

First of all: consider trusting the manufacturer, especially if they’re a smaller indy brand. They’ve spent a bunch of time designing these skis, so there’s a good chance that they figured out the best place to mount them. If the brand marks a range of mount points on the ski, feel free to mount at any of those points, without recrimination or regret.

If you’re looking at a ski with a recommended line of -6, and you generally prefer skis closer to -4, then sure, bump it forward! Similarly, feel free to bump a ski back a couple of centimeters. In my experience, the issues only arise when you try to make a ski something that it’s not. If you mount a ski meant to be skied at -10 at -4, it will probably feel pretty unbalanced and weird. Same for a ski meant to be run at -3 set up at -9.

You can easily make a neutral ski a tiny bit more directional or more playful by moving your mount point, but you’re probably not going to make a jib stick into an all mountain charger just by drilling the holes in different places.

If you find yourself in that situation, please, consider selling those skis and shopping for a deal on a pair that better fit your needs. I’ve seen too many people remount skis in an attempt to make them something they’re not, and in the process depreciate their skis by a few hundred dollars, and waste time on the hill being frustrated.

It’s all really personal

At the end of the day, we all ski in our own special ways. I don’t drive my boots the same way you do. I don’t initiate or finish my turns like you do. So, here’s the only real exhortation I have: don’t let worries about your mount point consume you. If you’re only bumping your bindings forward or back a few centimeters, do it with confidence, get out there, and have some fun. Even if you made the “wrong” choice, your body will adapt to it. After all, it’s just skiing.