DIN skier code chart: the ISO 11088 tables

These are the lookup tables a certified binding technician works from. They produce a skier code, which is the row of a binding-specific chart, and that is where this page stops. It does not print a release value, because that number belongs to your binding model and to a jig.

Step 1: code by weight

Step 2: code by height

Step 3: take the lower code

Where weight and height give different codes, the lower one governs. That is the conservatism built into the standard, and it is the step people skip when they try to do this from memory. For most adults the weight code is the lower one and therefore the governing one, which is why an experienced technician asks weight first.

The full code sequence, from lowest to highest, is B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O. Each step up or down is one letter, and both the skier type and the age adjustments move you exactly one letter.

Step 4: skier type

You declare this and you sign for it, because it changes the setting in a direction with consequences either way. Declaring Type III because it sounds better raises the release value, which means less chance of coming out of the ski unexpectedly and more chance of a leg that stays attached to a ski going somewhere your knee cannot follow.

Step 5: age

What the shop does with the code

The technician takes your code and your boot sole length in millimetres, which is printed on the heel of every alpine boot, and reads a release value from the certified chart supplied for your exact binding model. Then the ski goes into a release jig, torque is applied in twist and in forward lean, and the actual release is measured against the chart value and adjusted until it falls within tolerance.

That last step is what makes the difference and it is what cannot be done at home. Springs relax over seasons, mechanisms collect grit, plastic housings creep, and boot soles wear down, all of which move the real release torque away from the indicator reading. The jig measures reality; the window on the binding is a label.

Have it done at the start of every season and after any change of boot. It typically costs less than a lift ticket, which makes it the cheapest safety spending available in skiing, and unlike most safety spending it is maintenance on equipment you already own rather than a purchase.

Junior settings are deliberately not covered here

Very light and very young skiers sit at the bottom of the release scale, where an error of one step is a much larger proportional change than the same step at an adult setting. Those settings belong entirely with a technician who can see the child, the boot and the binding. This site will not estimate them and neither should any other.

The bindings we list, and their ranges

The range printed on a binding is the span of values it can be set to, not a quality rating. Your certified value should sit comfortably inside that range rather than at either end, because a spring near the limit of its travel is less consistent. A recreational adult usually lands somewhere between 5 and 10, so a 3 to 11 binding covers almost everybody.

Related

Work out your own code on the skier code reference. Binding mounting and DIN explained covers what happens on the bench and why mounting is not a home job either, and alpine against tech bindings covers why touring bindings are a different question entirely.