On skis, what does a base plate do, and is it necessary?

Question

I noticed when shopping for my first skis, some bindings seem separate from the skis with a platform or base plate and some bindings are two pieces attached directly to the ski. What is the purpose of the plate, are they necessary when buying skis with no bindings?

Answer 1

The base plate itself is mounted to the skis, and the bindings are attached to the base plate. It could have slightly different purposes from binding to binding.

One reason is that more flex is allowed between the boot, binding and the ski. This is an advantage that might help prevent the binding releasing when it doesn't need to (pre-release) when the ski is put under stress when skiing at a high rate of speed, hucking, or skiing in tough snow conditions.

Another is that it could allow for easier binding adjustments.

Yet another is you might be looking at AT (alpine touring) bindings, where the heel can either be locked down for skiing or unlocked for hiking back up.

Answer 2

Let it snow pretty much summed it up, but the added elevation gives more edge control too.

Answer 3

The base plate raises your boot higher away from the snow so you can get a greater angle with the ski for better control as in carving or racing. With the new parabolic skis you can carve just like snow boarders and if you get your ski to such an angle that the boot hits the snow then all pressure comes off the ski edge and down you go. If you go down you will spin like a top which can be fun as long as there are no trees to stop your spinning decent!

Answer 4

With a base plate, if your feet grow and you need new boots, you will never have to re-drill the bindings.