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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.
To right of tried and true F1, Scarpa Alien model 1.0 backcountry skiing boot is amazingly light in weight, appears to perform.
They absorb weight. In a good way. Carbon cuff version, size 27, 680 gr, 1.49 pounds, MSRP $1,700. Plastic cuff “consumer” version, 890g, 1.96 pounds. MSRP about half that at $800.00. Nice to see these totally out in public and apparently ready for prime time. World Cup races have already been won on the carbon model 1.0 version. No surprise. From what I can tell the Boa cable lacing system actually works, despite my habitual denial of alien visitation. Lean lock is a “one move” system of course, that folds up nicely when in walk mode. Inner boot is quite exposed, necessary to use a pant with a good and low integrated gaiter system. Overall a thumbs up. Exciting.
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.
Shop for Scarpa Maestrale and Maestrale RS
I used the Scarpa Maestrale boot all last winter, spring and now summer — a legendary ski season up here in the great Pacific Northwest. These are incredible backcountry skiing shoes, lightweight, with an unreal walk mode and sufficient stiffness to make skiing downhill fun. Since they’re a bit on the softer side, I use the Maestrale for my longer tours and for trips where I want lighter gear. That’s most of my travels.
The well worn Maestrales on top of Mt. Buckner, Washington Cascades.
Louie Dawson earned his Bachelor Degree in Industrial Design from Western Washington University in 2014. When he’s not skiing Mount Baker or somewhere equally as snowy, he’s thinking about new products to make ski mountaineering more fun and safe.
I haven’t skied for a few weeks, I’ll scratch the itch by writing about my ski boots. Lightweight, expensive and incredibly easy touring TLT5 is revolutionary not in any significant one area, but rather in that it integrates all those factors into a super functional package. This boot has been well received by myself and others, with good reason.
My TLTs after some use (with Intuition Pro Tour liner). Other than testing a few times, I never used the add-on tongues. I'm still thinking I'd like to have more forward support but really don't like fiddling with those. I might cut out the faux tongue and rivet in the stiffer one. Click to enlarge
Perhaps the most important technical aspect of TLT5 is that is uses a stiffer and thinner plastic for the lower “shoe.” This “Grilamid” has been available for 30 years, but is more difficult to work with than the usual Pebax or PU so it never become popular in the ski boot industry. That’s changing, as saving weight is more important than ever, and Dynafit has proved that with astute engineering a boot can indeed be made with Grilamid. Other significant features of the TLT5 are an integrated lean-lock and upper buckle that makes transitions super speedy, and touring cuff articulation that equals or surpasses anything else in the industry. But all that is known, and has been chatted, blogged, facebooked and spewed till TLT5 verbiage could pave a road to the moon. Main thing now, how do these shoes hold up?
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.
Humans are a funny lot. We flock to Starbucks and pick from more than 19,000 drink combos. Then we shop for ski boots and want it all reduced to a few flex rating numbers.
While using flex (AKA stiffness) as one factor in comparing ski boots is valid, the present trend of presenting boot stiffness with a detailed numbered scale, and implying the scale works across brands or even within a brand, is mostly BS.
Backstory: Many boot makers rate the flex of their shoes on an informal numeric scale from something like 30 to 130 (presumably starting at zero and being open ended). No official standard exists for this; all ratings are at the whim of manufacturers and mostly intended as a method for makers to compare models within their own lines (somewhat valid in that sense if the maker is honest and you disregard the fact that how a boot is fitted can change the flex).
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.
The author testing Scarpa Rush on Decker Glacier, B.C.
Scarpa Rush is a lightweight three buckle backcountry-focused alpine touring boot with tech binding compatibility. Essentially, Rush is the three-buckle version of the four-buckle Maestrale. Since the boots invite so many comparisons, this review of the Rush will draw on previous Wildsnow articles about the Maestrale.
Guest blogger Lee Lau is an avid skier and outdoorsman embarking on many adventures with his loving, and sometimes concerned wife, Sharon. He has over 15 years of experience skiing, ski-touring and dabbles in mountaineering. In the “off-season” he is occasionally found working in his day job as an intellectual property lawyer when he is not mountain biking. As a resident of Vancouver, British Columbia, Lee’s playground extends mainly to Western Canada, including South West B.C. and the Selkirks.
