Touring bindings

Go with the guardians, you don't need the sixteen din at your size, the salomons are lighter, the boot position isn't as high and you don't need to take your boot out of the binding to switch between walk and ski modes

for sure. there about the same price for me so though I might beef up. I'll prob get guardians, I'm assuming they should hold up fine for a season or two of 20-30 ft drops and some touring

Same price I would go for the dukes. Neither binding is really better so it really comes down to what your prefer. I have had a pair of dukes in my lineup for the past five years and have been relatively happy with them. They have held up pretty well and when I have had to fix them the parts have been readily available and easy to work with. I really like that there is a big used market for parts. The guardian failures I have seen needed to be warrantied because the owners couldnt find the parts or were incapable of fixing them on their own. I also hated the fact that the guardians did not have a flat walk mode, I did one day on a friends pair and will never use them again. The dukes are going to be lighter on the uphill and ski just as well on the down (never understood the complaints about stack height really you are comparing millimeters). Both are heavy both have bad strides both ice up really quickly and both have their durability issues. Guardians can be switched with boots in but lets be honest if you are buying a binding like this then you are not doing tours that require keeping your foot in the binding. When it comes down to it I think dukes are by far the best of two evils but that is just me. Either way you are going to have to sacrifice something.