Dynafit Salewa North America — Beautiful New Diggs

by Louis Dawson
written by Louis Dawson
Meeting in the showroom.

Meeting in the Salewa Dynafit North America showroom. I was amused at the positively “western” style of the pleasing industrial architecture, what with high ceilings and great open spaces, in comparison with most of such facilities I’ve visited in Europe.

WildSnow is in Boulder, Colorado, doing a few industry visits. First stop, Salewa Dynafit had an enjoyable open house last night at their new Boulder facility. A year in the making, the new digs enjoy 6,200 square feet of beautiful open office and logistics areas built in a former indoor tennis court. Everything from full mechanical to a new roof took a year of work. I’m excited for these guys as they spent years in a cramped space that didn’t do justice to how hard they work on getting product out there for us all to enjoy.

Salewa comprises four brands: Salewa, Dynafit, Wild Country and Pomoca.

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Randonnee AT Ski Touring Boot ISO Standards

by Louis Dawson
written by Louis Dawson

When we’ve got questions about the boot/binding interface — or just wonder the “why” of a given boot feature, we find ourselves frequently referring to ISO 9523:2015, the industry “norm” for “ski touring boots.” You might also see 9523 referenced in ski touring binding user manuals.

Thoughts regarding boot dimension standards: Some tech touring bindings provide a stomp pad under the boot heel, specified to have a given clearance, thus requiring your boot heel to have somewhat standard dimensions. And consider ski boot toe wear caused by dirt hiking, and how thicker rubber could fix that, but providing a thicker sole is conflicted by the ISO standard dimensions. This list could go on for pages.

Ski touring boot heel dimensions.

Ski touring boot heel dimensions.

Side view of ISO 9523:2015 ski touring boot heel dimensions shown to right. Heel specific issues with AT backcountry skiing boots are things like the binding heel not closing when you step down, or the boot having vertical play once the binding is closed, or stomp pads not being close enough to the boot sole. If you experience any of that, check your dimensions based on the ISO drawing above. For example, see that the vertical thickness of the sole heel is 32 mm <>2 mm (measure by placing boot on a flat surface and measure up from surface. If your binding is acting funny and your boot is within this spec (many of ours measure at 30 mm) then look at the binding for problems such such as improper adjustments. If the boot is out of spec or at the extreme end of the range, then consider fixes such as grinding to reduce thickness (rarely necessary), or re-soling if your boots are worn from dirt hiking (likely).

ISO 9523 boot toe dimensions have issues as well. One of our pet issues here is that most AT boots could have more rubber at the toe, where most wear happens while walking. As shown in the diagram, this would be easy to accomplish while sacrificing some rocker. Many soles could even be made overall thicker (most of ours measure at around 28 mm), but doing this can be difficult in the case of Dynafit bindings, as the amount of sole below the Dynafit fitting is critical in how the binding operates.

Bottom Line: Many ski touring boots conform to DIN/ISO 9523, some do not. In particular, many of the skimo race oriented boots do not, and boots with the Dynafit Speed Nose do not.

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Salomon 2017-2018 Touring Skis and Binding Review

by Bob Perlmutter
written by Bob Perlmutter
Salomon (Atomic) Mountain Brake, new this year, is the best we've seen. We have little appreciation of brakes that require rotating the heel unit and playing around with systems of catches that often function with mixed success, why not simply divorce the brake from the binding?

Salomon (Atomic) Mountain Brake, new this year, is one of the best we’ve seen. We have little appreciation of brakes that require rotating the heel unit and playing around with systems of catches that often function with mixed success, why not simply divorce the brake from the binding and be done with it?

Salomon, the venerable French outdoor sports conglomerate, began in 1947 as a small family run manufacturer. Long since, they’ve expanded into all aspects of skiing as well as a multitude of outdoor and mountain sports. It should come as no surprise that their early forays into AT continue to accelerate. I have had the good fortune to try some current and future products…

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These Boots — SCARPA F1 Ski Touring

by Guest Blogger
written by Guest Blogger

Sarah Uhl

Happy feet.

Happy feet.

These Boots.

I can’t get Nancy Sinatra’s song out of my head. “These boots are made for walkin.’” This year more than any other, my ski boots have elicited a uniform Pavlovian response: pure happiness. We all have had ski boots that make us cringe when we pull them on — but we know their performance or their lightweight nature will make ‘em worth it in the end. These boots, Scarpa F1, are not like that.

Scarpa F1 just works, and when your ski touring boots are working, you are going places. This past winter they provided me with one 5-star experience after another. And it’s not just that they were great for going uphill, downhill, and everything in-between, it’s that they led me to such a diversity of highs. As much or more than how my F1s pushed snow around, I associate these boots with all the fabulous people I’ve been touring with this year and all the incredible places I’ve seen because they carried me there.

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Scott Cosmos 3 Ski Touring Boot — Review #2

by Guest Blogger
written by Guest Blogger

Pete Anzalone

(Also see Cosmos Review #1)

Cosmos 3, I like the black-white design with red accents.

Cosmos 3 (for extensive photos of the boot, and specifications, see our previous reviews.)

I’m not sure if the Cosmos 3 is a beef-boot, a touring boot — or what. In any case, I am sure about their performance. More, the C3 is in possession of a single critical improvement vis-a-vis its Cosmos predecessors that makes it truly noteworthy.

As a dedicated Scott guy (and Garmont before that) I’ve had three pairs of the Cosmos boot. All toured well and skied well. All also broke in predictable and consistent ways. For me, these malfunctions were tolerable due to the fit and downhill ski performance and knowing that the needed repairs could be made — often with the generous help of Scott Sports USA.

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Fischer Transalp TS Pro — Boot Review

by Louie Dawson
written by Louie Dawson

Jackson Hole has had one of their best seasons in memory. Even so, we managed to visit (a press trip courtesy of Fischer) on what might have been their worst week of the year. Although the conditions didn’t quite line up to our blower pow expectations, we still had an excellent time. In a place as beautiful as the Tetons, it is hard not to.

I gave the Fischer Transalp TS Pro boots a try — Fischer’s beefiest AT boot. The boot is very similar to Fischer’s mid range Transalp TS Lite. The main differences are the plastic that it is molded from, the beefier power strap, and beefier buckles. The shell is made out of TPU, rather than the Vacu-plast of the TS Lite boot. This gives it much more stiffness, but unfortunately doesn’t allow the boot shell to be vacuum molded. The boot has been on the market since last fall with many reviews, so the focus here will be how it skied rather than what type of power strap it has.

The Transalp TS Pro

The Transalp TS Pro

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