Ultimate alpine TOURING boot?

There's nothing wrong with having 2 (or more!) outfits for different kinds of trips - one touring oriented, another maybe more downhill capable, one SNS BC or NNN BC or 3 pin , the other AT. With modern skis the techniques needed are not so different as they once might have been. Perhaps new threads are in order for several topics; how much control is needed to handle backcountry problems, how much boot, how much ski, and what kind of freedom of motion is o.k. (I'd say fore and aft, Lowell perhaps would not), and what kind is forbidden (lateral ankle motion?). Then we'd be clearer about what to demand for our sport.

There is some great discussion going on here on the relative merits of varying degrees of support needed for skiing vs the weight and limited range of motion favored for climbing/touring. Its interesting to here how some folks gravitate toward more support while others can and do get by with much less. Not to mention sb and others who can make a valid argument of the free heel persuasion.<br><br>I first got interested in touring through the telemark turn and spent many years only skiing freeheel (many thanks to sb's book and others for early inspiration...) Recently I picked up AT and now tour with a fixed heel AT rig and work and downhill mostly freeheel with much heavier equipment. Still love the free heel turn in a full range of flavors. Full circle evolution??<br><br>Anyway - I still have a 3-pin snowfield touring rig but rarely use this for turns in difficult snow - although I love the lightness and stride offered. I find that my older Dynafit TLTs, while not as stiff as tele T1s offer comparable control downhill but are night and day ahead for touring. <br><br>For me - some amount of aft support is desired, even though as Lowell has pointed out, modern skis can be turned with an upright nuetral stance. Just load them up and watch them come around... I don't think I'm necessarily always in the back seat, but... I guess mostly its a security blanket for when things go bad. Maybe its from years of parallel skiing freeheel without being able to fully load up the tips due to lack of heel piece?<br><br>As for sb and touring more difficult snow with SNS BC and others - my hats off to you... Personally I just feel the light AT route is a more efficient way to travel light and fast AND enjoy a variety of downhill challenges.

There's nothing wrong with having 2 (or more!) outfits for different kinds of trips - one touring oriented, another maybe more downhill capable, one SNS BC or NNN BC or 3 pin , the other AT.

<br><br>Exactly. In my case, I prefer both outfits to be alpine touring gear. The long tours that I want to do are rugged enough that I feel more comfortable in a climbing boot, but I'm sure other people could get by in nordic style boots.<br><br>I like keeping my gear collection relatively simple, so for many years, the only thing that distinguished my touring outfit from my downhill outfit was the boots. When I switched to Dynafit bindings for my downhill outfit, that was no longer true. So this thread describes my efforts to come up with a touring boot for my Dynafit system, to get back to my preferred, simple setup.

I received some TLT buckles from LifeLink and got Dave Page to install them on my Mountain Lites. The boots now look just like in my drawing (page 1) except without the toe bellows. Eager to try them out, I cruised up to Alpental for a shakedown.<br><br>They work great. The buckle really solves the problem I was having with a loose fit around my foot. The quick-cinch upper adjusts quickly over a big range and does not slip while skiing downhill. I think the boots are a winner. They tour very well and ski just fine. I had no trouble hop-turning down International on crusty, chunky snow. I carried my Jet-Stix along, but didn't bother using them. I'll save them for a powder day. <br><br>The snowpack was excellent for Alpental ... in August. Except for a stream crossing about 1/3 of the way up, I was able to skin up and ski down all the way from parking lot to summit. But it was very skimpy on the lower part. There's virtually no snow anywhere on the drive up from Seattle, so it's pretty amazing you can ski at all up there.<br><br>Maybe I'll take a picture of the modified boot and post it. Since I don't own a digital camera, it may take a while...

Wow - neat Lowell! Any idea how much the boots now weigh?

Any idea how much the boots now weigh?

<br><br>Using my wife's cheap kitchen scale, they seem to be about an ounce lighter (per boot) than my TLT4s. (I measure 2 lbs. 14 oz. per boot, but this is a really poor scale.) The TLT4s have a thermofit liner, but the MLTs do not. I'm currently using the liners from an old pair of Scarpa Invernos in them. With the buckles installed, I might go back to using the stock MLT liners.<br><br>So, I guess that means they're light, but not dramatically so. But lightness is not really the point. Tourability is.<br>