Scarpa Maestrale RS

[iamchappy]

Easier in, 1put it in walk mode and pull back the shell. I got mine the other day via the freezepro... liners feel great as is not sure I want to mold them.

[tharmor]

I pulled the trigger on the freeze pro shop deal too. It wasn’t nearly as good as the campsaver deal but my shoe size is too common I suppose. Nevertheless, I am super anxious to get them. I had to go with the 27.5/28.0 shells since the 26.5/27.0’s were sold out there too. Now I am panicking a bit since that size might be too big. Fingers are crossed.




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[meter-man]

2.0s. Woot! \m/

Heel cup is cavernous. Not woot. AKB, they're yours if I can't get em to work.

ETA:
- They're light as a fairy slipper. Noticeably so over the 1.0.
- Buckles are slick and low pro, but the lower "buckle" looks certain to ice up with its cable closure.
- Walk mode lever **looks** too much like CNC'd Plum aluminum to give me comfort. The first RS had lots of walk mode problems - query whether this will too? Haven't seen anything negative on this yet.
- Vibram tread looks really thin. I won't be surprised if the tread gets chewed up 2x as fast as the 1.0, given that it **looks** half as thick. (I'm not going to measure haha)
- Fit: instep feels a touch lower and toe box/last width feel about the same - at least on my super-scientific carpet test. Heel cup is...bowl-like. Noticeably more open than the 1.0.
- Flex: it's like a Doberman made babies with a TLT....... just kidding, no idea, I didn't ski em.
- No more stupid hinges. Twas awesome for getting in and out of the boot, and pulling liners, but I repaired those damn hinges way too many times.
- Liner: Intuition. Feels stiffer than 1.0s, but my 1.0s are probably just beat, so not really sure on this.

Anyhoo - looks like a sick boot!

So...I've got to eat a pound of crow, or wish myself three days of mank as penance, or whatever the skier's equivalent is.

I've got both the 2012 RS (1.0) and the 2017 RS (2.0) on my feet as I type this. I inspected the heel pocket more closely. The heel pocket appears to be more similar to the 1.0 than I first realized. IMO, for my narrow-heeled foot, both are pretty open - about equally so anyway. So, I'm not sure my earlier comments regarding a wider heel cup stand (I will edit my first post). Long story short, you should try em, but if you were happy with 1.0's heel cup, the 2.0's is quite similar. Apologies if I led any of you astray.

Other differences I haven't mentioned:
- Flex: done at 63*F at home on the floor. 2.0 is stiffer in the forward direction. Noticeably stiffer. The 2.0 also does not go as deep into the flex as the 1.0. WIN!
- Liner: the 2.0 liner goes a tad (1/2"?) higher in the sides and back than the 1.0
- Weight comparison done on my home scale - 2.0 (size 29): 1564g (stock, except swapped out stock footbed for Superfeet) v. 1.0 (size 29): 1877g (same Superfeet footbed, "boot board" to take up volume under liner, ankle L-shims, and Booster strap). 2.0 is significantly lighter.
[ETA that these weights seem unduly high; maybe my home scale sucks?]

Next report hopefully will include some actual, real-world testing...

Anyone need a 1.0 RS in size 29?

1.0


2.0


1.0


2.0

[tharmor]

Does anyone else find the new Maestrale liner really hard to get in the boot now that the hinge is gone? If it feels this tough at room temperature I'm worried that things will be really tough on cold mornings during multi day winter camping trips...

I got mine today in the post from freeze pro shop. As I was and am still worried about the right size I pulled the liner out to do a shell fit and it nearly destroyed my soul putting it back in. And this was at room temperature. There is no way those are getting back in on a yurt trip. Forgive me if I come across as a bit chapped but I nearly lost my f%#^ing mind getting them back in. The good news? They aren’t the right size - and it’s pretty bumming.


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[AKbruin]

I got mine today in the post from freeze pro shop. As I was and am still worried about the right size I pulled the liner out to do a shell fit and it nearly destroyed my soul putting it back in. And this was at room temperature. There is no way those are getting back in on a yurt trip. Forgive me if I come across as a bit chapped but I nearly lost my f%#^ing mind getting them back in. The good news? They aren’t the right size - and it’s pretty bumming.


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Ah man, that sucks. To be fair though, I had a hard time getting the 1.0 liners back into the shell after I replaced the hinges. If these are worse . . . well, that'll suck.

Mine are due from CampSaver in a couple weeks.

[meter-man]

I got mine today in the post from freeze pro shop. As I was and am still worried about the right size I pulled the liner out to do a shell fit and it nearly destroyed my soul putting it back in. And this was at room temperature. There is no way those are getting back in on a yurt trip. Forgive me if I come across as a bit chapped but I nearly lost my f%#^ing mind getting them back in. The good news? They aren’t the right size - and it’s pretty bumming.


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Put it in walk mode - then it should take 5 seconds. It is harder than the old one, but not that hard.

[tharmor]

Put it in walk mode - then it should take 5 seconds. It is harder than the old one, but not that hard.

It was indeed in walk mode with the hinge fully retracted to the back. The problem for me at least was the tongue. It doesn’t get out of the way and the heel opening is so narrow that the liner can’t easily slide back in. Maybe it’s just me but it’s not like a traditional three piece boot design in that regard.


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[ffmedic84]

They aren't. I haven't had any issues with it in walk mode.

[iamchappy]

Pulling and putting liners in is a battle, I have to push in and mash the liner heal to get them in, I tried a intuition pro tour liner that was in my dalbello sherpa in the rs went in way easier and could actually pull my foot out with the liner on with a good forward kneel. The pro tour liners even felt better than the scarpas but then my scarpas haven't been molded. The pro tours that I pulled from dalbellos and put in the Rs i had on my feet for about an hour today and were comfortable.

[Solesides]

The Scarpa stock liner even after baking tore the inside of my heels up pretty bad. I threw an Intuition power wrap from my Dalbello Kryptons in there and it feels amazing, no friction anywhere in the heel pocket and great hold. Will get them out for a walk this weekend and see how they do. I also like the extra volume across the shin with the wrap, as compared to the Scarpa liner which required cranking the top buckles.

[tharmor]

The heal of the liner getting all torn up is what I’m a bit concerned about. Would duct tape or any sort of adhesive make this less concerning?


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[NW_SKIER]

The heal of the liner getting all torn up is what I’m a bit concerned about. Would duct tape or any sort of adhesive make this less concerning?


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Shoe goo

[Solesides]

The heal of the liner getting all torn up is what I’m a bit concerned about. Would duct tape or any sort of adhesive make this less concerning?

Sorry - earlier post was about the skin on my heel, not the liner itself. There's a portruding contact point somewhere in the heel pocket with the stock liner that is just not there with the power wrap.

The trick for me to get the liner (any liner) back in with ease is to pinch the heel with thumb and pointer finger and press straight down, while the other hand is fully inside the liner pressing all four fingers into the toe box in a horizontal direction. I do this with the cuff in ski mode, not in walk mode. But to put the boot on once the liner is in, having it in walk mode seems to be the only way. Compared to the TLT6, this is a real struggle. It leads me to believe that the TLT6 will still be a superior expedition/multi-day boot..can't imagine the difficulty of dealing with a frozen RS2.

[swissiphic]

Sorry - earlier post was about the skin on my heel, not the liner itself. There's a portruding contact point somewhere in the heel pocket with the stock liner that is just not there with the power wrap.

I've had similar issues in the past with different boots including the o.g. mango maestrale. Trial and error showed that raising/lowering heel height with adding/removing shims under the liner or footbed seats the heel in the shell's pocket in microadjustabley different ways...it took a bit of dicking around but I could usually get it 'just right' after a bit of time without having to rebake liners, punch the plastic, add L pads, etc... just a first step in some home mods though, in other boots like the garmont megaride i had to get the shell punched to form a perfect pocket for my heels and in other boots like the garmont axon a new thicker foam intuition wrap liner ultimately did the trick.

[Gman]

Does anyone else find the new Maestrale liner really hard to get in the boot now that the hinge is gone? If it feels this tough at room temperature I'm worried that things will be really tough on cold mornings during multi day winter camping trips...

I had the same thought when I tried putting them on, still looking for tips. I think the next best thing is to put it in walk mode to give more space.

[tharmor]

My boot fitter made it look really easy. He said to angle them towards the outside front edge as your skipping it back in. Of course he had the cuff released. After they were baked it got easier to do.

Also, I have a day on mine now. I’m glad I made the exchange for the smaller size as the fit is now snug and the intuitions are holding my ankle down nicely. Great boot thus far.


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[iamchappy]

My liners are 27 but feel there to is to much room in them to try and mold them, the pro tours I threw in them are great, if I down sized to a 26.5 I think the scrapa liners would would work for me, if I was fitting for the boot I would of gone for the 26.5 over the the 27 shell size I think is the same...

[tharmor]

Telemark-Pyrenees has these is pretty much all sizes on sale using code: “AT10” which drops them to $505. Not a bad deal for a killer boot. I’m loving mine.


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[AKbruin]

Me: 6’, 180-185 lbs. (depending on my last bowel movement).

Old boots: First-gen (2012/2013) Maestrale RSs in a 28.5 with cork insoles. I had the liners cooked. They fit like a dream, although, in retrospect, they may have gotten a little sloppy in the last two years.

New boots: 29.0. The 28.5s felt uncomfortably tight in the store on my right foot. The 29s, which use the same shell but a thinner liner, are better although still tight. I threw in the same cork footbeds I used in my old 28.5s, and, curiously, they’re about half a centimeter short. But they don’t slide around, so I’ll stick with them. I took the boots to an excellent bootfitter (shout out to Travis at Tahoe Sports Hub in Truckee), whose shell fitting skills are superior to my own and revealed that that the shell was pretty big, maybe two fingers. Travis would have recommended 28s or even 27.5s, but his inclination seemed to be toward an uber-performance fit. I personally value comfort for long days over precision, so I’m 95% sure that the 28.5 shell size is the best for me. Whether the 28.5 or 29 liner is better is a tossup. I figure they’ll eventually wear down to about the same degree anyway. Because the shell size was big and because I didn’t have any pressure points, we ended up not cooking the liners. The idea is that they’ll naturally mold to my feet as I ski them more. They still feel a little snug on my right instep but not quite uncomfortably so.

Conditions: I’ve skied them five days at my local ski resort in which I skin up about 1,800’ on groomers and then ski down them before work. I’ve done two more standard tours on them, including a 15-mile, 10-hour meadow-skipper with a couple miles of scrambling. (Still early-season conditions here.)

What’s good
-Lighter than my old RSs.
-Noticeably stiffer than my old RSs. Maybe my old ones softened a bit from usage? Anyhow, the flex seems much more than the 5 unit difference in the flex index. They’d definitely be overkill for soft, hippy turns. The stiffness, however, is nice on icy groomers. The flex progression is fine.
-There’s much better rear articulation in walk mode, which makes long strides more comfortable.
-One less buckle to fidget with.
-There’s a specific loop on the front buckle for the ski leash, which is a nice idea.

What’s bad
-The Vibram soles are very thin. I’m sure Scarpa shaved them down to save weight, but I’d still have preferred thicker, more durable soles. (They, however, felt fine scrambling and dry hiking.)
-I find the new tongue to be more fidgety than the old one. Every time I put them on, I have to reposition and realign the plastic. It's not terribly inconvenient, just mildly annoying.
-As others have mentioned, once completely out, it’s difficult to get the liners back in the shell, which could suck in hut or winter-camping situations.

What’s uncertain: 90% of the time, transition from walk-to-ski mode has been a breeze and confidence inspiring. But during my one long tour, there were a couple times when it wasn’t easy to get them into ski mode, perhaps due to snow/ice build-up. It’s too early to draw any strong conclusions though.

[jorion]

I haven't read this entire thread so apologies if the answer to my question is here somewhere.

Has anyone else managed to rip the tongue off the rest of the stock intuition liner? I did. My friend seemed to think it would be an easy fix sewing it back on, but I'm a little skeptical. I'm a sewing jong though. And I'm not sure I can just take it to the Asian ladies in SF who patch holes and hem jeans to sew it back on. I toured with it a couple days already just putting it in the right general place and locking it down with the boot. It worked well (i.e. without pain) most of the time but it was a little fiddly. The RSs have always been really fiddly for me already since you have to eyeball how tight the arch strap is, so this is not a welcome development.

I guess I could just get new liners, but I really don't want to spend money right now. Is there a cheap and easy solution I'm missing?

[XXX-er]

if its the new RS try for warranty

[AKbruin]

Yeah, I'd try to warranty them first. If that didn't work or would leave you without boots too long, I'd probably call a place that specializes in technical repair (as opposed to a garden-variety seamstress), like Tahoe TEC in Truckee, and see what they could do.

[jorion]

Thanks guys. It’s the o.g. RS and they’re...three years old I think? So I didn’t even think of talking to scarpa. I guess it’s worth sending them a letter, but Tahoe TEC seems promising.

[XXX-er]

Not if they are 3 yrs old ! If the shells still work buy Intuitions

[High Country]

. And I'm not sure I can just take it to the Asian ladies in SF who patch holes and hem jeans to sew it back on.

The Asian ladies might very well come through for you. Or in a similar direction, maybe locating a shoe/boot repair shop - they can sew anything