Scarpa Maestrale RS

[Andeh]

What? Maestrale doesn't have a removable tongue.

[pfluffenmeister]

^^^ nope.

Has anyone skied both the RS and the Dynafit One U-TF?
I've been in the RS(sold it) and am looking at getting another touring boot.

The ones are ubersexual cheap right now; how much softer are they than the RS?

[adrenalated]

One PX is somewhere in between the standard Maestrale and the RS in stiffness. Unfortunately, I haven't skied nor flexed the PU version (the One U-TF).

[LightRanger]

I think couloirman is referred to the liner tongue.

FWIW, I haven't detached mine or messed with it. Your description is the reason.

Edit: maybe not?

[Name Redacted]

Have about 5 days on these boots now and love everything about them except for the removable tongue-- I cannot get it to stay attached for the life of me. Anyone have a good picture of how it is supposed to be secured? Because I have searched, can't find any and feel like I have tried every single possible overlapping method of the velcro thingie and orientation of the slot on the bottom of the tongue and nothing works. It slides way up the front of my shin while the boot is loose in walk mode and I have had to take the boot off at the top of a skin track to fix it multiple times now.

Are you taking the tongue on and off during a tour? Unless you have a different model than mine, they require an allen key to remove/install the tongue, and the two lower buckles are attached to the tongue so I don't see the point of no tongue. I usually just leave all the buckles undone on the way up and have plenty of range of motion for my tastes.

ETA: Oh, the liner tongue, gotcha. Why would you take that out for touring? Seems uncomfortable as hell with that plastic tongue on your shin. I thought it was secured with a velcro flap or something on the older ones, although the newer ones are a little different.

[El Chupacabra]

Has anyone skied both the RS and the Dynafit One U-TF?
I've been in the RS(sold it) and am looking at getting another touring boot.

The ones are ubersexual cheap right now; how much softer are they than the RS?

I had the orange Maestrale, and now have the One U-TF. Not too many days in the One yet, and the Maestrale was a little too small for me, but my thoughts:

Maestrale had a more progressive flex, which I liked. The One feels stiffer, but more "hit a wall" type of stiffness, not progressive. Again, this is comparing to the orange Maestrale.

Maestrale Intuition liners were much, much nicer than the Dynafit TF liners, and warmer. Dynafit's laces are nice, helps hold my heels down well. But hard to take off the Dynafits -- the laces seem to hold onto my foot, and I end up pulling most of the liner out of the boot.

The One fits my foot better, but YMMV. The One is wider at the metatarsals, heel is reasonably snug (I think a little bigger than the Maestrale, but not much). The One is much higher volume (vertical) than the Maestrale -- I have a thicker boot board stuffed underneath the liner, just to take up that space. Seems to be working so far.

The One has the nice walk/ski buckle lever, like on the TLT. I like this more than the Maestrale's traditional walk/ski switch. Plenty of fore/aft movement in walk mode in both boots.

Maestrale has a much nicer power strap -- stretchy, like a Booster, but without the heavy metal buckle of a Booster. The One has a flimsy and cheap non-stretchy power strap. I may actually remove it altogether, as I don't think it does much.

Maestrale was a little lighter weight, but I think most of the weight difference was in the Intuition vs. Dynafit liner.

If my foot fit a Maestrale better, I would pick it over The One.

[couloirman]

Yeah I am referring to the liner tongue. I never tried to take mine out on purpose, they just pull right off when I an inserting my foot into the boot and tug up on the liner tongue to straighten everything out inside. Now they just keep falling out no matter how I configure the liner tongue velcro. Super annoying

[LeeLau]

Yeah I am referring to the liner tongue. I never tried to take mine out on purpose, they just pull right off when I an inserting my foot into the boot and tug up on the liner tongue to straighten everything out inside. Now they just keep falling out no matter how I configure the liner tongue velcro. Super annoying

I've had it happen to an on older protour liner where I unhooked the liner's tongue once and put it back in such a way the velcro tilted upwards. It'd catch on an inner part of the boot as I put the liner on or took it off. I solved that by gorilla taping the velcro down so it wouldn't catch.

[shafty85]

Yeah I am referring to the liner tongue. I never tried to take mine out on purpose, they just pull right off when I an inserting my foot into the boot and tug up on the liner tongue to straighten everything out inside. Now they just keep falling out no matter how I configure the liner tongue velcro. Super annoying

You could also just sew the tongue on permanently? Unless you want to take it off and put it back on regularly for some reason.

[media310]

Our writers take on the Scarpa Maestrale RS

http://mtnweekly.com/reviews/ski-rev...t-touring-boot

[meter-man]

A "take" based on one day at Berthoud Pass consisting of what sounds like one complete ascent and descent?? Wow. I am embarrassed for having clicked through. Why not just pick up the boot in the shop, tell me a story about your old boots, snap a few quick photos, and call it good?? Oh wait. That's pretty much the extent of this review.

Set against all the kvetching about review styles on the Blister and Skialper threads, this "review"/"take"/"article"/"dogshit" is a stark reminder of how bad reviewing can get. Thanks for the reminder.

[Bobcat Sig]

A "take" based on one day at Berthoud Pass consisting of what sounds like one complete ascent and descent?? Wow. I am embarrassed for having clicked through. Why not just pick up the boot in the shop, tell me a story about your old boots, snap a few quick photos, and call it good?? Oh wait. That's pretty much the extent of this review.

Set against all the kvetching about review styles on the Blister and Skialper threads, this "review"/"take"/"article"/"dogshit" is a stark reminder of how bad reviewing can get. Thanks for the reminder.

But the buckles are orange now. Totally different.

[LightRanger]

So, I didn't see this definitively answered when discussed 20-30 posts back... will these fit onto my Gen1 RSs? https://www.scarpa.com/Maestrale-%20...lk-Replacement

Bueller? Adrenalated?

I can call Scarpa on Monday too.

[Graham]

Yup, they will, I asked them last week and this was Scarpa's reply:
Yes, the Mirage will retrofit on all Maestrale RS models, though the ski walk mechanism from 13/14 is rock solid and isn't as finicky as prior years'.

Ski/walk mech solid from 13/14 you say? Well why did mine develop play within 3 days? And why redesign? Anyway, I'm ordering mine soon.

[LightRanger]

Sweeeeet. Thanks mang!

[cliffhucker]

My $0.02 here: I've skiid the Maestrale for 2.5 seasons now and love it! I've ridden them 95% touring, but managed a few days here and there at a resort out of necessity. They've held up to sled skiing, ski mountaineering, hut trips ie. work, and a whole lot of touring/hiking without a hiccup, my feet have been happy and generally warm. Advertised flex is 120 but compared to a pair of alpine boots I would say they ski closer to a 110 flex due to the lower cuff height.

[I've seen black diamonds!]

My $0.02 here: I've skiid the Maestrale for 2.5 seasons now and love it! I've ridden them 95% touring, but managed a few days here and there at a resort out of necessity. They've held up to sled skiing, ski mountaineering, hut trips ie. work, and a whole lot of touring/hiking without a hiccup, my feet have been happy and generally warm. Advertised flex is 120 but compared to a pair of alpine boots I would say they ski closer to a 110 flex due to the lower cuff height.

Same here. I've got about 30 resort days and 50 touring/ ski mountaineering days on mine. Several 15 mile+ days with heavy pack and no blisters. Even some ice climbing. Grivel G12's fit better than Camp Nanotechs.

[sweetdaddy]

I retrofitted my gen 1 RS with the newer Mirage ski/walk parts and they match.

Two helpful things to note on the install:
1 The fasteners have Torx T-15 heads. A guy earlier in the thread said they were soft aluminum and stripped out the heads, I think he probably unknowingly put a hex to them, they're galvanized steel.
2 The pins that hold the bar to the lower shell are barbed near the head end for retention (didn't know until the new parts showed up). They wouldn't budge when I hit them with a punch & 3lb hammer, was gonna take them to work and press them out. Seeing the new parts inspired me to take a heat gun to 'em for a couple minutes and they came out like butter.


My gen 1 walk mech had issues intermittently not locking in ski mode on one boot. A good smack usually got it to go but, it wasn't exactly confidence inspiring. The guts were all metal unlike some of the earlier gen 1's that had plastic. Probably oxidation or a little debris from metal on metal wear that made them stubborn. I cleaned them up and applied lithium grease and they seem to move freely. Backup parts.

[1000-oaks]

How does the Mirage mechanism compare to the gen2 metal guts with regard to play? My gen2's definitely have a fair amount of play that I don't dig (and it's not like I was hitting the park in Maestrales), but I don't notice it while skiing.

I fixed the play by getting a second pair of boots, Pro 130's.

[sweetdaddy]

No improvement, same amount of play by hand flexing cuff. Old bars didn't show any wear or ovalizing in the holes either.

[Graham]

No improvement, same amount of play by hand flexing cuff. Old bars didn't show any wear or ovalizing in the holes either.

Whoa, really? So pretty much no sense in throwing down for the mirage upgrade? Glad I hadn't ordered yet.

To be fair, I don't notice the walk mode play either while skiing, and I've skied 25 days inbounds with them. Does anyone else have problems like this? Bueller?

[GeezerSteve]

My gen1 RS have a bit of wiggle but I've never noticed it skiing

[adrenalated]

My RS also have a little play that I can't notice while skiing. Shells have a couple hundred days on them but the walk mode has been replaced once or twice.

[sweetdaddy]

Whoa, really? So pretty much no sense in throwing down for the mirage upgrade? Glad I hadn't ordered yet.

To be fair, I don't notice the walk mode play either while skiing, and I've skied 25 days inbounds with them. Does anyone else have problems like this? Bueller?

Well, my issue was the boot intermittently not locking into ski mode with the lever down and requiring me to fist smack it to get it to lock. With all the horror stories of walk mode failures on gen 1 RS I thought some internal parts were going tits up and ordered the new ones as preventative maintenance before taking them apart; an annual disassembly, clean and lube with lithium grease would have taken care of it. The gen 2 looks it's 10x less likely to suffer from lack of lock up, so there is an advantage in that. Moral of the story, take the shit apart first.

[gramboh]

How do people run their RS' when skinning? Upper buckles clasped/power strap lightly closed, or buckles off and strap loose? Do folks actually slide the tongue off to the side other than getting the boot on/off?

cheers