In this article, the SkiMountain.co.uk Team explores the subject of stiff ski touring boots suitable for accessing remote big mountain terrain, and then charging hard... read on to find out what your options are!

Why Stiff Ski Touring Boots?

So, here's the scenario - you're a good skier, you want to ski hard, but you want to do a bit more than sit on chairlifts and get in gondolas.  You want to access amazing terrain far enough into the backcountry for it to start to hurt if you try to get there in your ordinary downhill ski boots. 

Normal ski boots are fine if all you want to do is a quick 20 minute boot pack up to the top of a head-wall, or traverse that bit further over to get to the untracked stuff, but if you want to do any serious hiking or skinning to get to your dream line then normal ski boots start to become a less-than-ideal tool for the job.

Whether you're an Olympic skier or a Poker.dk pro, it's important to get the right equipment for the job, but sometimes you may find that what you thought was an ideal pair of boots soon turns out to be an erroneous bit of judgement. However, ensuring that you're able to conquer any difficult terrain with the right gear makes for a far more enjoyable day.

Whats wrong with using normal downhill ski boots?

Heres a list:

• they're super-stiff and have a constant fixed forward lean (good for skiing but rubbish for walking or skinning in)
• they have a smooth, flat sole designed for alpine DIN bindings (which are rubbish when it comes to hiking over rocks or icy stuff)
• they're heavy (usually around 3kg per boot, 6kg a pair - fine for sliding but it soon adds up when you keep having to lift one foot above the other!)
• they tend to be tight - great for cranking on piste, but try kicking steps or trudgeing for any length of time and you'll lose toenails!
• they can be cold, often because they're tight and not really designed to be used in high mountain terrain.  With normal ski boots you get cold feet but then you go to the restaurant or back to your chalet and warm back up.  No such luxuries deep in the back-country!

The Alternatives - Ski Touring Boots

There are a number of alternatives, all of which fall into the fairly broad category of 'Alpine Ski Touring Boots'.  Many of these ski touring boots are designed primarily for outings such as hut-to-hut tours where alot of the focus is about the journey rather than the difficulty of the skiing. 

Ski touring boots aimed at hut-to-hut tours are not stiff or tall enough (i.e. they don't come as high up your shin) to be able to ski really hard in - More and more though, hard-core skiers are looking to access remote steep and deep terrain with the prime aim of finding probably the most difficult skiing they will do - big mountains, steep fast lines, perhaps even cornices, backcountry kickers, windlips, and drops to fly off. 

For that sort of skiing you need the right skis, the right bindings, and the right boots!

Stiff Ski Touring Boots

The boots we're looking for in this article need to tick the following boxes:

• In skiing mode, they need to be as stiff as a normal downhill boot and put your legs into an aggresive forward lean
• They need to have a walk, or skinning mode which reduces the flex of the boot and dis-engages the constant forward lean so that you can walk semi-comfortably
• They need to have a sole with a good grip and a better 'shape' to it for walking in.  Normal ski boot soles are flat so the only way to walk in them gives a clack-clack effect.  In contrast a touring sole has a rocker so that your foot rolls through your steps better.
• They need to be warm and comfortable on long cold expeditions
• They need to be significantly lighter than ordinary boots, thus requiring less exertion when climbing uphill.
   

Ski Binding Systems

We're planning to discuss the skis and bindings in other articles soon, but for now before going onto reviewing the stiff ski touring boot options you need to understand the binding types available to you.  You will need to be able to skin, and for that you'll need a binding system that lets you lift your heel up which skinning but lock your heel down while skiing.  There are 3 options:

• Type 1 (ISO norm). Use normal alpine ski bindings with a seperate adapter that you clip in to let you lift your heel while skinning.
• Type 2 (ISO Touring). Alpine ski touring bindings such as Fritschi Freerides, Naxo's, or Marker Dukes.
• Type 3 (Dynafit). Dynafit bindings (a very lightweight and completely different binding system that many hard-core skiers will baulk at using, despite the fact that one of the new models goes up to DIN 12 while weighing around 1.2kilos less than the Fritschi Freerides!)

Understanding which of these binding types you're planning to use is crucial to making your ski touring boot choice because different boots are compatible with different bindings.  Many of the boots here are either compatible with options 1 & 2 OR options 2 & 3.  Very few boots on the market are compatible with all three types of bindings.

Right, enough chatter... onto the options for stiff ski touring / ski mountaineering boots:

Stiff Ski Touring Boots - Which Ones?

The main options come from four manufacturers: Garmont, Scarpa, Dynafit, and Black Diamond.  Other companies including Lowa, Crispi, and Nordica have made ski touring boots as well, but don't currently offer anything that would fit into the 'stiff ski touring boot' category.

Ski Touring Boots - A Quick Comparison

We'll be adding to this article as we find out more about each of these boots, so check back for updates.  The rest of the article should be read as a work-in-progress... we reckoned it was better to give you incomplete information rather than nothing!

Garmont

Garmont have split their alpine ski boots into three categories - Power Performance, Freeride, and Ski Mountaineering.  The boots in the Power Performance category are essentially just normal downhill ski boots although the Shamen (or Astral for women) is interesting in that it has a flex rating of 120 (i.e. pretty stiff) and you can change the sole from a flat & smooth normal downhill sole to a grippier & rockered ski mountaineering sole compatible with step in ski mountaineering bindings.  So with the Shamen you can have a normal downhill ski boot with a touring sole - perhaps a good compromise for those really unwilling to sacrafise downhill performance.

Garmont's 'Ski Mountaineering' category are generally less stiff boots though some of the stiffer ones will be perfectly suitable for skiers who ski well but don't have any intention of really hucking and ripping!

Garmont's 'Freeride' category is the one we're really interested in here though.  The Axon, Endorphin Mg, and the Adrenaline are the models which are the closest matches to our test criteria in this article.

• The Garmont Axon - Essentially the same boot as the Endorphin, except with Dynafit compatibility (note that the Axon is not compatible with Type 1 (ISO norm) bindings.
• The Garmont Endorphin Mg -Compatible with Type 2 and Type 1 bindings (i.e. Fritschi Freerides or normal downhill bindings)