Alpine Touring gear or Randonée gear is the preferred choice of the European ski mountaineer. In the past few years in North America AT gear is gaining popularity and finds more friends as well. AT bindings are a releasable binding species which allows to skin uphill with a free heel and it will lock down for the descent. AT bindings are manufactured to a certain norm and they work with all kinds of ski boots available on today's market. They do work with the rectangular shaped soles found on regular alpine ski boots and with the rubber treaded soles on ski mountaineering boots. A anti-friction device under the bale of the foot is the little trick to make it work for both types of soles.

AT bindings are around for a long time. It started with cable bindings similar to the classic Kandahar Binding. The early versions of AT bindings (Silvretta cable bindings) had no safety features and injuries in a skiing accident were common. The first safety bindings for ski mountaineers were designed and build by Iser and Vinersa in the 80's. Both German made bindings employed a plate which was hinged at the front, and a heel piece from Marker's Rotamat system. A few years later Silvretta designed a lightweight AT binding with a release feature for rotation and front release of the heel piece. This design, of course updated, is still available today.

The first touring boots in the 80"s were build as a hybrid, from leather and a coating plastic top material (Hanwag). A low cuff and soft materials limited the desired skiing speed of the more skiing oriented mountaineer. These guys often used regular ski boots made from stiff platics and they worked just fine for the climb uphill with the skis strapped on. It became difficult if parts of the tour had longer booting passages along rocky ridges. A friend of mine experimented with gluing Vibram rubber soles to his regular ski boots. It improved the walking ability on the rock and scree, but it made the sole of the ski boot too thick and created other challenges to fit the boot into the bindings.

Boot manufacturer like Hanwag, San Marco and Koflach developed ski mountaineering specific boots with a treaded rubber sole, a slight rocker for easier walking and created a norm for sole specific measurements to comply with different AT bindings.