Rottefella "Super Vario" 50mm Cross-Country Ski Binding w/ Wedge-Type Heel Plates - NOS - 80s Classic!!

Gather 'round, boys and girls, and I'm going to tell you some ski history. You see, back in the olden days, we didn't have these perfectly light, rigid, and narrow binding systems like we do now. There were always trade-offs - weight vs control, width vs rigidity, and so on.

Cross-country track skiing had pretty might rallied around the 75mm wide, 3 or 4 pin toe-clamp style system by the mid 70s, and it worked pretty well. The concept was invented in the early part of the 20th century by an enterprising Norwegian fellow whose name I am too lazy to look up. A friend commented to him that the fellow's invention looked like a rat trap, which in Norwegian is "rote felle". See where this is heading???

Back to the 70s. Grooming was getting better, with big heavy alpine snow machines starting to be used on cross-country trails, which were now becoming wider and smoother to accommodate. (ask an old-timer about how much fun the old style windy, narrow trails were back in the day and you will wish you hadn't). Tracks became firmer, and 75mm wide bindings started being a pain in the ass because they would rub against the side of the tracks and slow the skier down. In addition, all sorts of synthetic materials that are horrific for the environment were starting to be used in the manufacture of Nordic gear. So we ended up with narrower bindings, which were paired with light, plastic or rubber sole boots. And voila, the 50mm binding revolution was sparked.

This pair is from the 80s, when 50mm was facing its deserved defeat at the hands of Rottefella NNN and Salomon SNS. The "vario" part of the name is probably because that red bit can flip either up or down. Why? Because 50mm sole thickness varied. The Dynafits used by Moose when he was at the peak of his racing career (age 9) had a thin sole (red bit would hence need to be down) but other brands had a thicker rubber sole, ergo the red bit would be up.

Aside from the sole thickness, no one really ever agreed on the best heel plate system. So, these types of bindings came with all types of heel plates - in this case the ones with a ridge that would be used with a boot that had a slot in the bottom of the heel that mated with the ridge. I don't know how to describe them other than that. Adidas 38mm used the same heel plate system.