Advice wanted: Ramona and I are getting new skis and boots and the dealers are raving about the new Xplore bindings. They seem like a great idea, but it means buying more expensive bindings and more expensive boots. Are any of you using them? Do you like them and do you think they are worth the higher price, or would you just go with NNBC?

Ron & Ramona,  I have skied with NNNBC bindings for years and then bought a new pair of skis 2 years ago. At that point, I bought Explorer bindings and had to get a new pair of boots too. Now having skied on both I would say that for average xcountry trail skiing, there isn't much difference or advantage to the Explorer bindings.  They both seem to perform equally to me.  One of the marketing points they make is that the explorer puts the pivot point further back and therefore gives you more stability or force when turning the ski. However, I held my nnnbc boots and explorer boots sole to sole and that does not seem to be true. In my boots, the pivot point is the same distance. Now to get really nerdy, you could argue that the explorer pins your boot from both sides of the toe whereas the nnnbc is anchoring the boot in the middle of the boot toe and there may be some advantage there.  Anyway, for me on average trail skiing I have not felt much difference. If you only ski with NNN boot / binding then the Explorer will feel stiffer but I was only comparing with NNNBC set-up.  Having said all that, I really like my Explorer bindings and they function well, I'm just not personally convinced that there is a huge advantage for them.  If I was changing my gear & getting new stuff, I would probably go with the Explorer bindings but not because I really think they're better than NNNBC.  Also, if you're doing a lot of turning in off groom snow, the harder toe bumper that Audrey recommends is probably the way to go and will give better performance.  I have not tried that yet.