Powder Review: Moment Voyager XV Evo Binding

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In a nutshell

Moment’s Voyager XV Evo is, in our opinion, the full-featured touring binding to beat. It’s got all the features, reliability, and performance you need to get deep into the mountains, and ski aggressively.

• Stated Release Value Range: 7-15

• Weight (including screws and 102 mm brakes):

• Pin Height

• Riser Height (all heights measured from center of heel pins)

• Elastic Heel Travel: 14 mm

• Heel Gap: 4 mm

• Boot Compatibility: TLT (tech fittings)

• Range of BSL Adjustment: 25 mm

Intro

Yes, before you helpfully point it, Moment does not manufacture the Voyager XV Evo themselves. Yes, it’s an ATK Freeraider 15 Evo with a different toe, and a different paint job. But, Moment was one of the first brands to bring ATK’s touring bindings to a more mainstream, North American audience, and the “how” of that move is worth noting, as we’ll dive into later.

For years, when folks have asked me for a touring binding recommendation I’ve responded “Moment Voyagers if you just want to be told what the “best” binding is, without a long conversation about your priorities and skiing style. And if you do want to have that long conversation, we’re probably going to end up back at the Moment Voyager anyway.”

These bindings combine a really practical feature set, great reliability, great downhill performance, and a low weight into a nearly unbeatable package. And, new for this year, The Voyager Evo series also incorporates an adjustable toe release setting, at a very minimal weight penalty.

We spent some time on the new Evo version last spring, and will be putting a bunch of days onto them this winter, so here’s our review so far. We’ll be sure to update if we run into any durability issues, but for now, the potential for that seems low.

What’s New?

The most obvious change from the non Evo versions of these bindings (beyond the slight update to release value ranges) is the addition of a toe release adjustment. The previous version, like most other tech bindings, had a single, set toe release value, while the new version can be adjusted with a screwdriver.

Just to be very clear, release values on tech bindings are NOT the same thing as DINs. They are not certified or governed in the same way, even though they quantify the same thing, and are often roughly equivalent values.

This new adjustable release value doesn’t really have an impact on the mechanism of the toe release, there’s not a new “lateral releasable toe” here, or anything like that. Instead it changes the amount of force required to initiate the release. So, if you want true Alpine-style lateral release characteristics in your toe, you’ll still want to look elsewhere. The change in force required to open and close the Voyager is noticeable even just by hand. At 15 it takes a stronger push down on the toe to open up the Voyager than it does at 7. We’ll try to test the toe retention of this new version against the old one at some point, but it's tricky to come up with anything definitive since release testing equipment is designed for alpine bindings.

The old Voyager had an Uphill Hardness Variator that allowed you to adjust how tightly the pins clamped your boots with the toe locked. The new version still has this, but its location has been moved to the front of the toe.

The other new feature is less obvious, but still will be appreciated by some. The Voyager no longer has a separate brake lock button. Instead, like many other bindings, it locks the brakes up when the heel is rotated into uphill mode.

That’s a mixed blessing. Some folks didn’t like the extra step required to lock and unlock your brakes on the old version. I didn’t mind it, especially since the Voyager’s brake lock system was by far the most secure I’ve ever used on a tech binding, and it enabled even more riser height options since you could deploy any combination of risers with, or without turning the heel.

But the new version is more “normal” and so far it’s performed really well, it’s easy to use, and the brake hasn’t dropped unexpectedly. That should be the bare minimum for tech bindings, but unfortunately, it isn’t

Why buy Moment’s Voyager XV Evo over anyone else’s version?

This is the obvious question when it comes time to choose between Moment’s Voyager, ATK’s Freeraider, or one of the other co-branded options that’s now available. The most important difference here comes down to delta. We’ll have a whole piece explaining and diving into delta later this fall, but for now, here’s the cliff notes.

Delta is the difference (that’s what the word delta means) between the height of your toe and your heel in your binding. With touring bindings, we measure the difference between the center of the toe pins, and the center of the heel pins. The difference between those two numbers is the binding’s delta. Most bindings have a heel that is either slightly, or much higher than the toe.

Preferred delta is a pretty personal choice. Some folks like lots of delta, high heels and low toes. Others, like me, prefer a more flat or neutral delta. It’s just one part of a larger equation of mount point, boot choice, and skier stance. But, generally, most European tech binding manufacturers err on the side of having LOTS of delta. So if you want a flatter ride, you’ll need to shim up your toes.

And lots of North American skiers, who are getting into backcountry skiing after a bunch of years in alpine bindings, don’t get along very well with lots of delta. Bindings we’re used to, like Look’s Pivot have pretty minimal deltas, and we end up adapting our skiing stance to those bindings. Then we jump on a touring setup, with big delta values (10+ mm) and something feels “off.” That off feeling is hard to isolate when you’re skiing an unfamiliar touring boot and ski, but often flattening out your delta will help your touring setup feel more familiar.

All that to say, when Moment started selling Voyagers in the US, they worked with ATK to produce a new toe design that’s taller, and thus keeps the delta down. The Voyager Evo has a delta of 7 mm (for reference, I measured my pair of Pivot 18s with GripWalk boots as having a delta of 9ish mm, and according to Skimo Co's excellent chart the non-Moment Voyager has a delta of 11 mm). That means that out of the box, Moment’s rebranded ATKs feel more like Pivots than regular ATKs or other rebranded ATKs. Yes, other Freeraider Evos have the option to shim the toe for less delta, but Moment is the only brand with that option fully machined in as the default toe height.

Short version: Moment’s Voyager Evos will probably feel more natural out of the box for skiers coming from an alpine background than un-shimmed versions of the same binding. That eliminates a variable for folks getting into backcountry skiing.

Tech binding feature list:

Ease of use

Unless you’re fully ready to ditch brakes and leashes, and come to the dark side of tech touring, the Voyager XV Evo is the easiest to use touring binding we’ve used. If you’re new to ATK bindings, read this first, and then you’re set. The Voyager XV Evo is easy to step into, easy to get out of, easy to transition between touring and skiing, easy to actuate the risers, and just generally easy.

The springless toe design definitely gets some credit here. It keeps snow and ice from gunking up the binding better than most other toe designs, and also gives a really binary feel when stepping into the binding—it’s easy to tell if you’re in and locked, and you’re less likely to end up with that “pins clamping the toe of the boot, but not fully seated in the tech fittings” sensation.

The cammed heel pins also make it easier to stomp into the bindings when you’re perched on a precarious ledge than u-spring bindings.

All of that combines to make the Voyager XV Evo the easiest to use and get along with full-featured tech binding I’ve used. That’s a big win when you’re trying to move efficiently through the backcountry.

How does it go downhill?

The Voyager skis really well. I’m hesitant to call anything the “best skiing” tech binding, since it’s so subjective, but the Voyager is definitely up there. Most of that is thanks ATK’s excellent Freeride Spacer integrated into the heel, along with the Voyager’s 14 mm of spring loaded heel track movement which helps compensate for ski flex and bigger impacts.

I’m fully sold on Freeride Spacers, and I think the version integrated into the Voyager is the best around right now. It does a really good job of transmitting power from your boot to your ski, and eliminating that “floating on pins” sensation that some tech bindings have.

Sure, it would be great if it was a little easier to adjust the Freeride Spacer to different boot soles, but I think the version on the Voyager is much more durable than the stand-alone version ATK sells, and integrates better into the binding.

The Voyager XV Evo skis powerfully enough, and handles chatter well enough that I’m uninterested in more downhill performance without the addition of a TUV-certified release. Sometimes I think folks get caught up more in what they can do than what is safe or wise to do on their tech bindings. If you’re looking for a tech binding that you can ski hard inbounds, all day, every day, you should consider having a real heart-to-heart with your knees, and getting your surgeon on speed dial. Skiing tech bindings like the Voyager, which don’t have certified releases, hard in firm snow, is a great way to end the season with less ligaments than you started with. And that’s not the Voyager’s fault, that sort of skiing is far outside of the intended use of a pin binding like this.

Comparisons

Compared to the old Voyager XVI, the new Evo version’s toe weighs 23 g more than the old version, and Moment says there’s a 53 g total difference between the two. That’s not nothing, but for the addition of adjustable toe release I’ll take it. Lots of skiers will appreciate the new no-button brake lock as well. Otherwise, I think these two bindings ski about identically, and are similarly practical and efficient. They continue to fill the top two slots for “easiest to recommend tech bindings.”

I personally have had a few pre-releases out of the old Voyager’s toes, when trying to throw small, violent spins in deep snow, and I’m interested to see if the new version’s adjustable toe release does away with those. I’ll report back after more time in the new version. But for now, the adjustable toe release is a “can’t hurt, will probably help” addition for me.

If you’re shopping between the two, the old version is on sale for $635 right now, and is still a great binding. But, if you care about adjustable toe release, or want the latest and greatest, the Evo version is a great binding.

Compared to the Salmon MTN Summit I reviewed last spring, the Evo is 27 g heavier, and for those 27 grams it gets a lot of upgrades. It’s less prone to icing in the toe, it has adjustable toe release, it has a lower “flat” mode while touring, it’s easier to lock the brake, it’s easier to stomp into the heel, the heel pins should be less liable to wear, it has a dedicated freeride spacer, and the risers are both easier to actuate, and more secure. It also has a higher max release value. For the $100 price difference, I’ll take the Voyager every time.

That’s not to say that the MTN is a bad binding, and it’s much more likely to go on sale, so if you can get MTN Summits for half the price of Voyagers, no, you’re not blowing it, your life will just be slightly less convenient.

That equation holds true for just about every other tech binding in this class. It’s pretty much impossible to find another tech binding at a similar weight with the same feature set and similar delta to the Voyager Evo. If you want to go significantly lighter, you’re going to lose most of those features, which is fine, but does make for a touring experience that takes more getting used to. And if you want a binding that skis significantly better, and is significantly safer, you’re going to need to jump up to hybrids like the Duke PT, Shift, or Cast, which are much heavier and less efficient.

The Marker Kingpin and Kingpin M-Werks are both significantly heavier, not as easy to use, and for me at least, fall into the category of "I don't care that it skis a little better than the Voyager if it doesn't have alpine release characteristics."

That’s why the Moment Voyager XV Evo is the gold standard we’ll compare all other tech bindings to for this coming winter.

What would a perfect day on this binding look like?

The Voyager straddles a broad range of potential ski touring days, thanks to its weight and feature set. It’s not too heavy to mount on a lighter ski for big alpine objectives, or overnight trips, but it skis well enough that I’m also happy on it ducking out the gates for shorter laps with more featured and playful terrain. If you want one touring binding to do it all, you can’t go wrong with the Moment Voyager XV Evo.