UKC

Hi,

I am learning to ski so I can go ski touring/mountaineering next season.
I am going to buy. A pair of boots, probably from Profeet as I am in London.
Is there any reason not to buy a pair of ski mountaineering boots straight away? I will be using them on piste with rented skis for the rest of the season at least.

Thank you

Charlie

In reply to charliehl:

I would strongly advocate against buying ski touring boots as your first boots. Why? Because they are harder to ski in and, as a beginner, you would be better learning to ski well in downhill boots first.

If you can only afford one pair of boots then get some freestyle boots as a compromise.

In reply to Edradour:

Thank you for the advice. I thought that might be the case.

For normal ski boots, are they matched to my skill level e.g. Beginners etc
Is there such a thing as boots that are good for beginners and intermediates?

Cheers

Charlie

In reply to charliehl:

People will tell you there is, just like they will with climbing shoes. At the end of it all though, I have come to the conclusion with both that if you are in top end competitions then it probably matters, but for the rest of us just going with what is comfy makes most sense. I only just bought touring boots this year, having toured extensively in my downhill boots until they needed replaced anyway. Now I have touring boots I won't bother buying downhill ones. Yes, they are different and each type is better at what they are designed for, but they are still fine for other use! Marketing is a clever thing for convincing us that we NEED different types of bootdnfor different things.

Edradour: "I would strongly advocate against buying ski touring boots as your first boots. Why? Because they are harder to ski in and, as a beginner, you would be better learning to ski well in downhill boots first".

Sorry, but I would have to disagree.

The OP stated that he wanted to ski for ski mountaineering and ski touring – so a touring boot is essential.

There is huge diversity in ski touring boots:
- At one end of the scale you have more supportive and heavier style of touring boots (which are more similar to a downhill boot).
- At the other end of the scale you have the “racing style” which is pretty much the exact opposite, i.e. less supportive, but incredibly light.

Buying a touring boot depends on your ability: a good skier on all types of snow will be okay with lightweight touring boots but they don’t tend to hold feet well on descents - an average or poor skier needs boots that will.

The supportive heavier styles of touring boots are OK for learning in. I don't think that these styles of touring boot are significantly harder to learn to ski in than downhill boots.

I do totally agree, that the super light “race style” touring boots are much harder to ski in, and are definitely not suitable for learning / improving in.

It’s hard to suggest good models as a good fit is essential – so a great boot for me might be a terrible fit for you etc. Having said that something like a Scarpa Maestrale is probably a good place to start.

In reply to charliehl: Is there any reason not to buy a pair of ski mountaineering boots straight away? I will be using them on piste with rented skis for the rest of the season at least.
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Providing the bindings are compatible with the boots, then no reason not to. Finding a choice of rental skis with AT or Tech bindings to rent cheaply for the season might be more or less difficult depending on where you are though. If they're not (e.g. you're using a rockered rubber sole with an alpine rental binding), you'll increase your risk of breaking bones or ligaments which isn't so clever if you're learning.

In reply to charliehl:

Just had a look at the pro feet website and while they have a decent range, most of their AT boots are either atomic, salomon or technica. Nothing too wrong with this but i would want to consider dedicated AT offerings eg Scarpa Maestrale, Dalbello Sherpa, Dynafit etc for a few reasons:

- alpine "crossover" boots tend to be heavier and perform less well than dedicated touring offerings
- the pro feet AT range is all overlap style so you should consider cabrio/tongue style boots which imo are superior as they provide a more natural flex, are more laterally stiff and also easier to get on/off

I would at least check out what Ellis Brigham and Snow and Rock are offering. My pick of the profeet ones would be the Atomic Waymarker because it has a heat mouldable intuition liner and that flex fit rubber thing on the side.

In reply to charliehl:

Touring boots wont fit downhill bindings very well if at all. Get some cheep comfortable downhill boots, use them for a couple of sessions while you learn to ski then sell them on and get a pair of touring boots. Also touring boot are expensive.

In reply to charliehl:

You could do what I've done, which is get some touring boots as an investment, with conformable liners fitted to your feet, and then put the liners in downhill boots for comfort when hiring. Its not a good idea to try and use touring boots with downhill bindings, hiring touring skis is not so straightforward in this country, and if you are like me you may find you learn better on hire gear which is generally very forgiving/solid/easy to turn anyway...

In reply to charliehl:

Charlie, it takes most people several weeks to get confident to go off-piste and ski the conditions that are likely to arise when ski touring. If you just want to ski tour to access climbs then maybe easier but if like me and others that I've ski toured with, you want fresh powder then this is top end skiing and takes a while to master. So I'd recommend you think about renting boots to start with as you're renting skis. I've been on tours with people who have rented touring boots. So, as others have said, it's possible to get boots that will do both after you have become a bit proficient. My first touring boots were Scarpa Denalis and I thought they were OK for piste skiing, but you do need a touring binding. My latest boot is Salomon Quest - more of a freeride boot for day tours than hut to hut and will fit downhill binding, although can be fitted with vibram sole for touring. All depends on what you aim to do, how much you want to spend and how good you are! Also, skis are a bigger compromise! HTH, Mike

In reply to Mikek:

Thank you for all the advice.

Am going to get some well fitted normal boots for the moment.
I have no doubt I will be asking some more questions once I am a lite more proficient on the planks.

Charlie