Rumors have been swirling since early this month about an even stiffer but still tour friendly boot from Dynafit. Yep, Titan is said to be same weight as Zzeus but with stiffer PU plastic. Dynafit claims “20% stiffer.” We don’t know how they measure this, so I’d translate it as “noticeably stiffer.” So try out a ZZeus. If it’s not stiff enough for you, wait for a Titan. Or hold off for the Goliath? (JUST KIDDING, but one has to wonder how stiff will boots get till they’re stiff enough…)
Dynafit Titan backcountry ski boot offers extra stiffness and downhill performance.
Again, what Dynafit is after with both ZZeus and Titan is to keep boots light and tour comfortable, but give you a stiff downhill mode in overlap construction. If you examine our weight chart, you’ll see that ZZeus does indeed compete in the mass category, while still providing overlap construction and a definitely stiff feel. Thus, if Titan continues that trend as claimed this should be a very interesting development in the beef boot wars.
More, Titan has the mongo Dynafit sole swap system that uses plentiful screws as well as interlocking plastic. I can testify that other boots with swap soles sometimes do experience some shift in Dynafit bindings, while I’ve seen none of that with the ZZeus attachment system, and expect the same from Titan. Liner has extra plastic so it is more alpine-like, and the shell has an extra spoiler (nice feature for customization). Also, liner is “strobel” lasted, meaning it has the sole area stitched and thus may end up with a better fit during heat molding as the sole area doesn’t tend to deform the way a full-wrap thermo liner tends to do.
A detailed comparo between this and ZZeus is probably in order, so we’ll put that on the WildSnow production list. Meanwhile, we’re figuring it’s just a matter of months before one of the beef boot companies finds a World Cup GS racer they can pay to run a race in a pair of AT boots, and make a YouTube video of this historic event. Who will be first? We are waiting and promise to embed immediately. And once that happens, will beef boots be stiff enough?
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
