A Two Year Review of the Plum Pekye

The Plum Pekye is a lightweight yet strong tech toe for splitboarding. Mine have survived two seasons of touring, a full ski guide exam, and even two weeks of being tossed around in a heli basket. They’ve been my go-to tech binding for the past two seasons, and all they’ve asked for is a little grease. Hands down, they’re the best toe pieces I’ve ever used on a splitboard.

Overview

Material: 7075 Aluminum
Weight: 234 grams per pair
Country of Origin: France

Who is Plum?

Plum began as a workshop for the manufacturing of cams for automatic lathes, started by Henri Felisaz. Plum still makes cams to this very day in the town of Cluses in the French province of Haute Savoie. If you’r not up on your European geography, that’s where one would find Chamonix and the highest peak in the western Alps, Mont Blanc. With Mont Blanc in their backyard, it’s no wonder that in 2005, with Henri’s sons Jean-Michel and Albert Félisaz at the helm, Plum began making ski bindings with he same machines they had been using since 1930. They continue to make cams alongside some of the best bindings on the market to this day.

What is the Pekye?

Much like Plum’s now famous skiing toe pieces, the base of the Plum Pekye is machined from a solid piece of 7075 aluminum. It matches the standard Voile 3 bolt pattern, meaning no adapters are needed to use this on any modern splitboard. The single upper bolt holds down a circular aluminum disc that the binding slides onto. It is then held into place with the remaining two side bolts.

The Pekye has a nice positive snap to it when stepping in. It’s not quite to G3 Ion standards but more positive than that of the older Phantom / Spark toe pieces. The toe lever has two notches when locking out. It’s easy to think you are locked in when you have pulled the lever to its first position. Keep pulling though, that lever should be darn near 90 degrees to your ski when it is locked out. It’s not uncommon to hear of people thinking their toe piece is locked out and then promptly popping out of their binding when the skinner gets a little sideways. Your’s truly did this a few times until a friend who was more familiar with Plum toe pieces informed me there was one more notch.

Plum Pekye, Plum Sok and the Cardiff Goat on top of Mount Dekker in early December. Photo: Matt Haines

Maintenance

After two years of regular use I noticed the wings would not clamp down very easily. It was like there was unusual resistance. I applied some white grease to the springs and everything was back to normal. I have also experimented with some bike chain oil as well and it has been doing the trek albeit it needs applying more often.

The only other caveat the Pekye have, most every other Tech Toe piece has, snow. In warm snowpacks the space below the arms of the binding can get plugged with snow. Poke at it with your pole to remove the snow or you will not be able to lock the toe piece properly.

Plum SKSplit Crampons

Your going to need to attach crampons, and Plum has the right fit in the SKSplit Crampon. The SKSplit crampons drop into the holder on the Pekye vertically and lock into place once dropped. I’ve yet to lose a crampon and they do a fantastic job of engaging uphill four wheel drive. I haven’t quite got the acrobatics down to put the crampon on without removing my ski but I’m sure with time I will figure out the gymnastics.

The beauty of the crampon holder on the Pekye is it is replaceable. So, if you have a habit of kicking at your toe piece to remove snow and accidentally break one, fret not. They are the exact same crampon holder as on Plum’s ski bindings so replacements are easy to come by.

The crampon adapter on the Pekye is replaceable, a nice addition . At first I thought this was a little much, that is until I broke an adapter. Two bolts later and I had a new adapter. Far easier and cheaper than buying a new set of crampons. An added advantage here is that all of Plums ski bindings use this adapter. You no longer have to have different spare parts to your ski friends.

The Crampons come in 130 and 145mm width. If you have a smaller board, perhaps a women’s 146 or so, I’d be willing to bet the normal skiing 120cm crampons from Plum may fit.

Overview

This is one heck of a good piece of kit. I’ve been using this pair for a solid two years and only just started to notice a small amount of play in one binding. That was after a ton of trying to stomp in a skin track in tough snow. Realistically, I should have taken off my boot and kicked in the track.

These bindings have traveled internationally, been on top of volcanoes and have heli-boarded 40,000 feet in a day. They’ve stood up to a lot of abuse. All they’ve asked is to be regreased once (if you can’t get the plum grease, white lithium oughta do the trick) and needed one crampon holder replaced.

Who is the Plum Pekye for?

The Pekye is for every hard boot splitter. I have no reservations in recommending this binding to everyone.

If you are interested in picking up a set of Plum Pekye bindings head on over to Ski Uphill and pick a pair up. For other Plum reviews, hit our Search Button.