Best one boot quiver/hybrid?

[ill-advised strategy]

I believe in having dedicated resort and touring boots, because touring boots develop some next-level funk compared to boots you ride lifts with. If I skied all of my days in only one pair of boots/liners, I would have to trade the 4Runner in for a pickup, because that single pair of boots would be too stanky to drive around with in the car.

If you’re ever grossed out enough to try some stuff:
Check your area hockey shop to see if somebody in the area has an ozone deodorizer.
Also a spray bottle with baking soda dissolved in water...mist the liners before you dry them, so you get baking soda residue penetrating the materials.

[shera]

One thing to consider is a lot of longtime fulltilt/flexon skiers are skiing that roxa 130. I think if FT had just stuck with the fit and function we’re all used to and added some touring capability instead of trying to rework the fit and function nobody would have jumped ship.

What are the differences that caused people to jump ship? What does the Roxa 130 have that the Ascendant does not have?

edit - to try to answer my question (nice review): https://www.newschoolers.com/ski-gea...1113/R3-130-TI

tldr: Roxa 130 is a stiffer boot and narrower(99 vs 102). Also a very lightweight boot: 1582g,

Another review says: "tall and stiff cuff" https://www.bootfitters.com/reviews/...a-r3-130-ti-ir

this was interesting:
*Update/Boot Hack: There is a y shaped metal piece in the rear of the boot attached with three rivets. If you drill out those rivets, and remove the metal piece you get an extra softening of the boot. To me it makes the flex feel a little more natural and progressive, though it's still not Full Tilt smooth.

[shera]

That all sounds like a lot of hassle. I just dump in the foot powder from the grocery store, works fine for me.

[nickwm21]

They built the Ascendent off the newer model wider-lasted fulltilts.... not the full tilt classic (flexon). So if you want a sub100 lasted 3 piece 50:50 boot, you have to go Roxa


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[m9443a]

I need to buy a new pair of alpine boots this year and I'm considering buying a pair of hybrids (specifically the Atomic Hawx XTD). I'm only skiing alpine as of now but am hoping to start piecing together a touring setup. Wondering if hybrids will work well for resort skiing in the meantime, or if I should buy a strictly alpine pair and buy full touring boots in the future. Any advice?

[bw_wp_hedonism]

I ride my Atomic Hawk XTD as an everyday boot now. Riding inbounds is definitely tough on the boot, and I expect will reduce its life significantly. And there are performance trade-offs. But I’m happy with it.


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[Ørion]

I rode a pair of Hawx Ultra XTD boots for 30+ days inbound and wouldn't recommend it, to be honest, but it is doable.

If that boot fits you well, buy a last season/used version of the downhill focused Hawx Ultra to start and set alerts on the various marketplaces for the XTD. Your feet will be happier and the boots will last longer as a result.

[eSock]

I rode a pair of Hawx Ultra XTD boots for 30+ days inbound and wouldn't recommend it, to be honest, but it is doable.

If that boot fits you well, buy a last season/used version of the downhill focused Hawx Ultra to start and set alerts on the various marketplaces for the XTD. Your feet will be happier and the boots will last longer as a result.

I did last season using the xtds as my inbounds boot, ended up buying an end of season sale hawx ultra s to take over inbounds duty, haven't used em yet but feeling better about the longevity of my xtds now

[Stuntmonkey]

I've got 5 days touring on my Roxa R3s. I am still debating getting a small punch out in one place but besides that they are fantastic. No resort days yet but I don't ride that hard on the resort that there would be much difference.

[Lindahl]

Hawx XTD isn't really enough boot imo. You'll wear it out pretty quick and it folds up way easier than a real boot. It does ok in powder and chop, but not good enough for crud and firm snow. I'd lean towards something burlier like the Cochise and use a second Intuition Tour Pro liner when touring.

[Lord Thomas]

I did an inbounds A/B last year between my XTD 130's and my RX130's. Big difference. RX was much more responsive, powerful and supportive. XTD's were OK until I started getting on the front of the boot and then is just kept going. XTD's, however, have been fantastic for touring in pretty much all conditions where I didn't have to really lay into them, much better than the lighter boots I've tried. FWIW, I'm 5'11" and a tender 220lb, tend to drive fairly hard into the front of my boots. I'd say get a used inbounds boot and a touring boot. If, not like me, you are fit and strong then to with one of the beefier hybrid boots (e.g. XT3, Strider, Cochise....not XTD or lighter)

[jacob_dbu]

Look back at my comment a ways back. Cochise, Lange XT3, Dalbello Lupo HD. These are the boots to get for riding inbounds that can still tour. My cochise skis great inbounds, I don't need a plug boot for how I ski. But anything under ~1700-1800g is gonna be a big compromise in the resort.

[herrgard]

I’ll be skiing the xt free 140, cochise 130 and shift pro 130 this season to decide which is best for me. Cochise with zipfit liner to take up some lower leg space and shift pro one size down because it fits big. I had the xtd ultra 120 last season but it killed my heels and would fold when pushed.

Skied the lupo before, but it was too small in my little size and too big in my large size. Skied good but didn’t like the linear flex. Also the tongues is a hassle when touring.

[Caucasian Asian]

I don’t tour, but I’ve been solely on the Cochise 130 for a few years now.
I like the dyna sole blocks because they have better grip in the bar and the parking lot, as well as when we scramble around on the rocks.
I am running two different liners though. Intuitions mostly, but cold days call for the Tecnica heated liners(I’m getting old).


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[burrito]

I've been in Dalbello Lupo 130Cs for the past two or three seasons and mostly really liked them. The come with shitty liners and are a bit finicky to tour in, but they more than make up for it with their downhill performance. My one big knock on them has been the durability of the Grilamid clog. Mine are pretty beat up despite minimal rock scrambling, and Dalbello pretty much admitted the material sucked when they replaced it with a PU version one year after its debut.

In reality my perfect 50/50 boot is still the mythical original shell Flexon/Full Tilt/FL3X with a pin toe, touring mode, and a GripWalk outsole. C'mon K2, you know you want to make that happen.

[skisurfmirth]

In my opinion I would also look at the dalbello krypton. Now that is has tech fittings you can tour in it the odd time and it’s fine if you don’t have long flat approaches. Just remove the tongue and you’ll have all the forward rom of the lupos. And they ski much better than lupos. I’ve owned many lupos (the 1st Lupo TI, Carbon, Ax125) but am now back in a krypton cuff lupo lower and use Hojis for any bigger touring days.


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[XXX-er]

I need to buy a new pair of alpine boots this year and I'm considering buying a pair of hybrids (specifically the Atomic Hawx XTD). I'm only skiing alpine as of now but am hoping to start piecing together a touring setup. Wondering if hybrids will work well for resort skiing in the meantime, or if I should buy a strictly alpine pair and buy full touring boots in the future. Any advice?

yes, I been there , so quit being a cheap fuck, resist the urge to try and make a boot do more than one thing well

so buy a great alpine boot and buy a great touring boot of the size & stiffness you need

You are usually lucky if you can get a boot to do one thing well

[carlh]

I have xtd130s from the first year that I tried to make work inbounds. That lasted like 5 days before I bought an inbounds specific boot. I really like the xtds for touring but I am 6’3” 200 and like to ski fastish so lighter boots are not enough.
I now have both the xtds and hawx s which is a nice solution for me even if I wish the inbounds ones were 200g heavier since they fit my feet well.

[joeshek]

I've been in Dalbello Lupo 130Cs for the past two or three seasons and mostly really liked them. The come with shitty liners and are a bit finicky to tour in, but they more than make up for it with their downhill performance. My one big knock on them has been the durability of the Grilamid clog. Mine are pretty beat up despite minimal rock scrambling, and Dalbello pretty much admitted the material sucked when they replaced it with a PU version one year after its debut.

In reality my perfect 50/50 boot is still the mythical original shell Flexon/Full Tilt/FL3X with a pin toe, touring mode, and a GripWalk outsole. C'mon K2, you know you want to make that happen.

Seems like you are describing Roxa r3 130s?

[seawolf.]

The Roxa R3s are legit. Go find somewhere to put em on your feet and see if it works for you. Real intuition liners stock is a massive bonus, and they've "pre-punched" the most common problem areas to ideally need less shell work done (they're calling it Roxa "Bio-Fit")

[SnakeMagnet]

Tecnicas seemed to be the only ones that don't squeeze my turducken feet into pulp, so from Mach 1 MV's I went and picked up Cochise 130 today. Of course despite the pre-work i need the toe box punched out further. I wonder if there's any boots out there with 'high volume' toeboxes and MV/LV everything else because a Mach 1 HV was way too roomy in the back. My feet are narrow and high-instepped with non-existent shins, piss poor metatarsal support, hammered-to-hell pyramid toes that expand out a lot when under weight. Oh, and the left is a perfect 29.5 and the right is a 29.0 and change. FUBAR is not used lightly and they describe these.

[jacob_dbu]

You are usually lucky if you can get a boot to do one thing well

Real fucken talk

[rod9301]

I ski in the bc the dynafit hoji free 130

Very stiff, tours very well.

However, my lange rx 130 is still much better in the resort.

I really don't know why, but the feel is luck better.

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[kootenayskier]

In reality my perfect 50/50 boot is still the mythical original shell Flexon/Full Tilt/FL3X with a pin toe, touring mode, and a GripWalk outsole. C'mon K2, you know you want to make that happen.

So many of us have been dreaming of and pleading for this boot for so many years. I can’t imagine K2 gives a fuck, but perhaps 3D printing technology will get to the point where one of us can take this on, as a Heritage Labs type project for boots.

[burrito]

Seems like you are describing Roxa r3 130s?

While they tick a lot of boxes on paper, I tried on a pair of original R3s a few years ago and found the fit and feel, at least on a trade show floor, very strange. It's been a while, but as I remember the super low instep shape (which probably technically fits my low volume foot better than the relatively high instep of the Dalbellos) made the boots feel like I had so much leverage on the "hinge" of the tongue that I was going to fold them over with very little effort. I'm willing to give them another shot, but they did not make a great first impression.

So many of us have been dreaming of and pleading for this boot for so many years. I can’t imagine K2 gives a fuck, but perhaps 3D printing technology will get to the point where one of us can take this on, as a Heritage Labs type project for boots.

It's a seemingly easy but actually incredibly difficult problem for K2 to solve. The geometry of the original Flexon shell is 95% of the way there, so it should be simple to add a walk lever and different sole blocks, right? Not really. 95% of the way there might as well be 5% of the way there when it comes to cutting a new set of moulding tools if you don't have any hard surface data (i.e. 3D CAD) to work from, which almost certainly didn't exist when the original Flexon tools were cut. Very minor changes are doable when you're working from physical tools rather than 3D data, but otherwise it's pretty tough and very inexact to try to replicate a 30+ year old tool in a way that you can start adding and removing bits here and there. Certainly not impossible, but you're talking quite a bit of R&D and prototyping time, not to mention the literal millions of dollars it will cost to produce the new tools once you have the geometry. This is almost certainly why FT opted to use the Descendant shell they developed themselves rather than the original Flexon shell when they developed their touring model, and I have a hard time believing K2 is willing to spend all of those resources on a tiny part of their line they're probably just going to axe in a few years, anyway.

Regarding 3D printing, the material science part of it isn't there yet for the strength and reliability of material you need for something under the stresses of a ski boot, but it's definitely not impossible. Here's to hoping.