Ultimate alpine TOURING boot?

Idle musings during a day in town...

The sketch below shows some ideas for what could be the ultimate alpine TOURING boot.  I emphasize TOURING because the idea of this boot is to balance cross-country and downhill performance.  This is not a boot for if-you-fall-you-die skiing.  It's a simple "go anywhere, do almost anything" boot for ski mountaineering where you want to cover distance as well as make turns.  Perfect for, say, skiing the Ptarmigan Traverse.



Features:

1. Dynafit compatible
2. Flexible forefoot
3. Forefoot buckle
4. Quick-cinch upper lacing
5. No rear spoiler

In my experience, the biggest drawback to touring on gentle terrain with alpine touring boots is that you can't make a full stride.  By loosening the cuff, you can bend forward at the ankle, but you can't point your toe or extend your foot forward very much because of the rear spoiler.  I find this to be true even with the cuff unlocked.  The spoiler always gets in the way.  (Maybe you need to have toured in mountain boots a lot, like I have, to notice the difference.)

It's conceivable that you could design a really free-ranging cuff with a lock system, but I haven't seen one yet.  The Scarpa F1 is an interesting attempt, but the locking system is too bulky and weird for hiking and scrambling, in my opinion.  I'd rather have a traditional mountain boot cuff.

Dynafit compatibility is a no-brainer.  The flexible forefoot would improve the "step-off" part of each stride just as the low cuff would improve the "step-onto" part.  The forefoot buckle would provide quicker and more positive adjustment of the forefoot than a lace.  The quick-cinch upper lace on the cuff is something I've been experimenting with on my current mountain boots.  I use a lace from a pair of cross-country skating boots.  The lace is light, quick, simple, and very adjustable between touring and downhill modes. A buckle might work here, but in my experience, most buckles don't loosen enough and I end up unbuckling them entirely. I'd like to avoid that.

Based on past on-line discussions of skiing in mountain boots, I suspect that almost nobody would buy this boot.  Few people notice the shortcomings of today's alpine touring boots for touring and even fewer people are willing to give up some downhill performance and adapt their skiing to use a boot like this.  But it's nice to daydream.

Who will build this boot?  

Have you tried makeing any mods to a pair of plastc mtn boots to be Dynafit compadible. Seems like it wouldn't be to hard ounce you figured out where to drill the holes.

OldHouseMan,<br><br>Lou Dawson's site has a description of how to modify a boot to be Dynafit compatible:<br><br> Check it out. <br><br>Lowell,<br><br>We have a full machine shop here. Maybe someday we can get a couple of old pairs of leathers and plastics, some extra spare parts, and make a go of it. I'm somewhat interested, especially since I know where I could borrow a pair of ultralight skis with Dynafits.

Lowell, you might have to build them yourself.<br><br>After nearly a year of skiing on the F1's, I think you could do worse than start with that boot as a base. No one else has the combination of flexible bellows and Dynafit compatibility as yet. I agree that the all-in-one lever to lock the heel and close the top strap is a PITA (sometimes literally), it ends up being slower for me than a separate conventional buckle and walking hinge, usually because I can't get it to lock right away or because it's hard to unlock without jamming both thumbs into the release lever.<br><br>The flexible sole and the range of motion of the cuff, however, make for very comfortable touring on the flat or steep; the more or less regular height of the rear spoiler works well for recoveries while descending and doesn't impede kick and glide much at all compared with most AT boots.<br><br>If anyone has ideas for replacing the F1 locking lever with a smaller, simpler device and conventional buckle up top, I'd be all ears.

I like the idea of a light boot that allows a longer stride but I don't think I'm quite ready to give up the aft support of a spoiler. Call me wimpy but I definitely like to load up the tails with a stiff spoiler - especially when the snow gets weird (currently on 3 yr old AllTerrains). I appreciate the goal of a lighter more TOURING oriented boot designed for longer distances but even on lower angle tours snow conditions can and do get difficult and its nice to have a supportive boot especially descending with a heavier pack.<br><br>I haven't used the F1 but I would be more inclined to buy it if it had a more concentional upper strap. I like that it has a cuff that has a large range of motion for touring but is still supportive when in down hill mode.<br><br>

How about a boot with an F1-type lower and INTERCHANGEABLE cuffs?