Plum Summit 12 Review

Plum's "Guide" binding was an early competitor to long-time category dominant Dynafit. It was French, all-metal, boutique-made, and unique. People jumped on board, but the binding always lagged behind the Austrian option. As a small company, it took Plum some time to update that venerable Guide model. Other companies have now joined the fray and offer sophisticated and great products.

Plum is keeping up and now, for 2019-20, offers the Summit series of bindings as their all-purpose, full-function product. All they make is bindings, and the Summit series is their flagship product. There are modern updates that make it more competitive with others, but they still aren't as sophisticated as the closest competition.

Performance Comparison

For your typical ski touring, the Plum is confidence inspiring and likely overkill. Those things are good for some of you.

Photo: Jediah Porter

Touring Performance

In assessing touring performance, we consider toe pivot range of motion, propensity for icing, and heel riser options, range, and deployment. The Plum Summit, whether you choose the model with higher or lower release values, is a good touring binding, in the grand scheme of things.

Rear view, in touring mode. Shown here is both the highest and middle lifter level.

Photo: Jediah Porter

The heel lifters are the best part. As many are coming to expect, there are three heel elevation options, and one can move between them with the flip of your ski pole. The range of the heel lifters is broad and covers all you might need or think you need. The Plum toe pivot range is all you would ever need. The all-metal, relatively bulky construction and inclusion of a somewhat complicated brake means that the Summit collects more ice than average. You'll battle this a little, especially in relatively warm, fresh-snow situations.

This steep skin track in Grand Teton National Park was a great testing ground for the high-lift mode of the Plum Summit 12. We don't often use that high lift mode, but its nice when we need to.

Photo: Jediah Porter

Downhill Performance

The Plum Summit binding is almost exactly average in downhill performance. The rigid, all-metal construction lends a secure perception. The release characteristics and range are typical for non-certified tech style bindings. In our testing, we had no issues with release. Our lead tester came out, thankfully, in a high speed submerged rock impact. In tens of thousands of feet of high energy skiing, none of our testers had any "pre-release" issues.

As long as the outlier binding geometry doesn't haunt you too much, you will very much enjoy amazing powder skiing with the Summit.

Photo: Jediah Porter

The Summit binding geometry is a bit of an outlier. The stack height is higher even than some of the "crossover", inbounds and out, bindings. In our measurements, the stack height is 48mm. Similarly, the binding toe-heel delta (difference between toe height and heel height, in millimeters) is well above average. We measured a 15mm difference between the toe pins and heel pins, in downhill mode. Average is about 10mm. Now, how much this binding geometry will affect your ski experience is mainly up to you and your preferences. In the primarily soft-snow conditions we've encountered with a variety of tester boots, we noticed no ill effects of this outlier binding geometry. If it matters to you, you likely already know your preferences from years of ski instruction or ski racing or both.

We've had tons of powder snow for testing the Plum Summit 12. Fact is, you could bolt tennis shoes to 2x4s and have an ok time in powder this good.

Photo: Jediah Porter

Ease of Use

Plum's updates that yield the Summit 12 mainly seem to be in the "ease of use" category. As compared to earlier Plum bindings, the Summit is definitely easier to use. As compared to average bindings from other manufacturers, they are nothing special. Transitions are typical. Stepping in and out of both downhill and tour mode is comparable to other tech bindings. Like any tech binding with brakes, the heel piece is sometimes reluctant to let go of your boot when stepping out of downhill mode. The brake is difficult to transition some of the time. When stowing the brake away for uphill mode, sometimes a simultaneous stomp and hand-lift is required to get the brake to lock. In other situations, one or the other of these strategies does the job. We are not yet sure what variables affect this experience.

Weight

At 2.54 pounds for a pair, the Plum Summit 12 is relatively heavy. In our review, for instance, it is the heaviest binding that isn't ISO/DIN certified. It is more than a full pound heavier than either of our Editors Choice winners. It is a half pound heavier than average.

A few years ago these would have been average to lightweight ski touring bindings. Now they are on the heavy side, but still have their appeal.

Photo: Jediah Porter

Durability

With that greater weight you get, conceivably, greater durability. The Plum Summit is made entirely of metal. Most other bindings have some plastic or composite components. So far, our testing of the Summit series bindings hasn't fully taxed the durability. However, our experience with other Plum products suggests that they will hold up. Our examination of failure-prone parts indicate that the Plum is indeed quite robust.

The machined aluminum main construction of all Plum bindings is svelte and appealing.

Photo: Jediah Porter

Value

The cost of the Plum Summit is in line with other bindings that share the same basic feature set. For the cost, elsewhere you might get lighter construction or ISO/DIN certification. But you won't get both at any cost.

This scale shows the weight of the Plum, in grams. This mass is well above average. Plum themselves make bindings that weigh under 100 grams, for instance.

Photo: Jediah Porter

Conclusion