Dynafit Tourlite Tech 3, 1994-1995. The red plastic is repair and beefing mods done by yours truly. The boot skied ok but was quite soft, so we were always messing around with franken-boot stuff. The shell tongues on this model broke frequently; you can see the red plastic at the instep that repairs one such break. Click all images to enlarge.
Richard C. sent over a 1994/1995 Dynafit catalog to grace our archives with its retro vibe. Behold, I also have a pair of 1994/1995 Dynafit Tourlite 3 Tech here in the museum. Time for a retro post!
Wondering about the origin of the term “tech” for Dynafit boot fittings? It began with inventor Fritz Barthel calling his company “Low Tech.” Then, in this 18 year old catalog you can see they were already calling the boot with fittings the “Tech” model, while the one without fittings was just a Tourlite 3. Weight of my mondo 28, BSL 315 boots is 57.8 ounces (1638 gr) per shoe with the Dynalite liner option. That’s only an ounce heavier than some of this year’s offerings — but they skied about half as well. At the time, however, these things were state-of-art. I skied a bunch of extreme routes with them, cramponed a lot of couloirs, and walked a lot of dirt. Speaking of which, the sole on these boots might be the best sole I’ve ever seen on an AT boot. In terms of durability, anyway. Super thick hard rubber at the toe held up to I don’t know how many miles and vertical of rocks and scree. My son even inherited them for a few years, and we passed them on to some other folks before they came floating back into the office.
1994 Dynafit Tourlite boot sole was one of the best ever. Note the thick black rubber at the toe. This was used and abused for years and all it did was chunk out a bit. This type of sole is definitely heavier, but could be worth the couple of grams.
1994-1995 Dynafit Catalog, page 18. Click to enlarge. The Gore-Tex liner was interesting. It worked amazingly well to wick sweat away from your foot, but definitely was not a thermo liner like we're used to. It was more like a climbing boot liner. I just realized we don't have a good version of the pictured 1994 binding in our museum. Working on it.
Dynafit catalog 1994 page 19. Thanks Richard C. for sending the catalogs over for the archive. Click to enlarge.
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.
