Would like to try a pair of hardboots once to see what all the hype is about. But for now i got a pair of DC something something BOA boots that i drove my car over a few times to get them softer.

 

my current setup is a pair of Remind liners inside an older pair of lace-up Burton Driver X's. No Vibram sole or anything. It works OK, not stellar. Not great with boot crampons, but I seldom use those. I would also like to see some innovation on this front. I've never tried hard boots but have been with those that swear by them. The hardboot setup is pretty expensive from my observations. I'll just stick with what I have for now. Just yesterday, my Spark bindings broke on the skin-track. The plastic piece under the aluminum toe plate that hinges up broke and the bindings would not stay in the touring brackets. It ruined the day and my partner on skis was pissed off. He was cursing up a storm about how much splitboarding equipment sucked. His Scarpa AT ski boots have cracked twice and he is on his 3rd pair. Funny how he didn't mention that when ripping on my setup...

 

I have the TM2 Jones boots and like them a lot. I only use them splitboarding, and use TM2 double Boa as my solid board boot. I haven't had any issues with my Sparks bindings or my boots yet. I have no desire to try hard boots.

 

I just use my standard Vans double boas to fit my Jones Solution and Karakorum bindings. Has served me well over 40 times on the way up and down. I’m happy with them.

 

K2 Thraxis on Karakoram primes and jones solution 169w. I dig the thraxis for the stiffness uphilling and the internal cuff boa for keeping my heel planted, finally having vibram soles doesn’t suck when kicking about at the summit

Aspirational buy for me are phantom slippers to keep up with my AT pals

 

I ride my Vans Verse, which are good 50/50 (resort/touring). The added lateral stiffness is very noticeable compared to my old Malamutes (which weren't soft by any means). The double boa is pretty cool for tuning between the ascent and descent. The sole is not vibram, but still pretty good. They are a bit heavy though, which you can feel at the end of the day. And they really need to be broken in, like a good ten days before they stabilize in their flex and volume. Overall, not the gear I'm the most in love with ever, but really solid choice for splitboarding while keeping good freeride feeling on the way down.

I half regret not taking the Salomon Trek at the time, but they seemed too complicated. The people I've seen in the Fitwells swear these are the best boots ever, but they just look like hard boots to me. The ThirtyTwo Jones seemed way too stiff for me too when I tried it, but should be excellent climbers.

The hardbooters I have been touring with were just way faster and the more the conditions were shitty, the more it was noticeable. You also pull the crampons out later (both ski and foot crampons). They were not that convinced on the way down, but it seemed to be rideable, also you need quite some tuning to the boot (spring/lever). All in all, there is no magic: soft boots are better for going down, hard boots are better for climbing—but so are skis and skimo gear.

 

I ride my Vans Verse, which are good 50/50 (resort/touring).

I half regret not taking the Salomon Trek at the time, but they seemed too complicated. The people I've seen in the Fitwells swear these are the best boots ever, but they just look like hard boots to me.

The hardbooters I have been touring with were just way faster and the more the conditions were shitty, the more it was noticeable.

Seams like pretty much any boot will work and after buying splitboard, bindings, skins, poles, avy pack, transponder, probe, and shovel, it was nice to just use boots I had for resort riding. Adding hardboots wasn't even an option I considered. I still think a softboot with tech inserts could be best option.

I used Rome Guides for a year. Basically just a resort boot with good hiking sole and BC look. I think I got swayed by the look. Maybe I'll drill out the toes and convert to tech.

The Salomon Trek look pretty interesting. Would like to checkout in person. Fitwells would be a good choice if I was doing more challenging mountaineering accents, but I'm into mellow safe terrain so I can bring my dog. I haven't seen the model everyone was hyped about on their website anymore. They now have a freeride model specifically for snowboards. Anyone check them out yet?

 

fitwell had the backcountry, which was stiffer. saw quite a few of them around. then they made the freeride which was supposed to be softer, more comfy and more boardfeel. they had boa lacing before, but now theres just the freeride with regular lacing. probably a really good option for splitboarding. for tech inserts you would need the whole sole of the forefoot to be hardboot stiff, like the teleboots, or it would just twist too much.

 

AT boots ftw. The ride down is better than my soft boots. If your ride down...sucks, it's you, the bootfitter that sucks or is just too lazy to take the time to get it right.

 

AT boots ftw. The ride down is better than my soft boots.

You ride Phantom slipper? They look nice. Very conflicted about trying them: On one hand they should make touring much easier, even allowing for a bit of kick and glide in the flats, reduced weight being able to carry bindings in pack, and adjustable pivot for true walk mode range. I'm sure the down would be fine. I'll go out touring for hours and end up with only 1000' vert so how important is it as long as it gets me some fun turns coming back down. I should point out I like to get out into wilderness not just yoyo laps. Then on the other hand skiboots suck and god dam that's gonna cost a lot! But I would certainly try them for a season if it wasn't such an expensive changeover. I wouldn't be surprised if I got used to them that I wouldn't want to go back. For now I'll just keep clanking around the BC and hope boots keep evolving.

 

One of my prejudices against hardboots comes from experience with XC BC touring: Leather boots are best while hardboots are hated for touring and only tolerated when touring for turns for better downhill control. AT being an even worst design to tour on just to be able to lock in heel, again just for the downhill. So my thought is why should splitboarders be using tech that was designed as a compromise for skiers to decent? Not arguing there's a better option just why adapt the worst touring platform from skiing?!! About as stupid as touring with snowboard bindings on your boots!

 

Vans 22/23 Verse Range. Nice looking walk mode.

 

Where did you find this picture? Also the 32 Jones ones for 22/23? I thought they were discontinued?

View attachment 161597

 

And to be fair 32 Jones MTB 22/23

 

Wow! If the Verse stays the same otherwise, that makes it quite the freeride/freerando boot! Damn, bought mine two years too early…

 

Backlands are really nice for touring. Ridiculous ankle articulation in tour mode. Super light, shell is 700 grams and 1000G with liner from my Rome boots. That's about 1/2 the weight of my Jones. I can motor in these things! Kick turns and edge hold is really good. It's what I expected but it's going to be hard going back to touring in clunky soft boots.

What I didn't expect was how they would ride. I know you won't believe me but they feel just like snowboard boots. Not even the stiffest boots I've owned. People say they need more lateral flex but I didn't notice. I have canted pucks so maybe that helped. It was just like using soft boots but with better edge control laying into a hard carve. I rode with normal stance +15/-3. Think they would really be nice +/+ for low carves. I was even slashing around on banks and they just felt like normal boots while riding. Of course they're ski boots which suck but they don't feel weird and hard like I expected. I had planned all kinds of mods but don't see the point.

I read a lot of posts on soft vs hard boots for touring. One thing I noticed was pretty much every hard booter switched from soft boots while the soft boots guys would never even try hard boots.

What I don't like:
They are ski boots and ski boots suck.
They look really uncool. Style matters.
They are comfortable but don't have that comfy softboot feel.
They are white plastic and look like they belong on Starwars storm trooper.
At the resort people think you're strange and avoid looking at you. This is actually a bonus.

 

Nice! I've thought it was an advantage to look like a kook and then blow past their sorry slow asses. They won't even dare talk to you in the lift line...let alone bump in to your board. "Hey brah how's dim softies work'n fo ya?"

 

I think it's their own boot, design from scratch, not based on an AT one (I might be wrong though).

 

arent hardboot bindings all the same and adjustable?

 

I was under the impression they were different but perhaps I am getting wrapped around the marketing on each site, if they are the same it’s a much easier decision

 

You likely won’t speed up the conversion process any with hardboots, and the hardboots wear out fast enough, but they have their benefits. The skiing thing is hard when manufacturers set touring inserts way forward, but at the point when that is more important, should you look into skis instead? There are still some splits that are better than others for touring though.

 

my 2 cents as a soft-booter who has toured mostly with skiers but also hard-booting splitboarders: Hard boot splitboarders, all else being equal, will be faster than soft-booters but still not quite as fast as skiers. It's been a while since I've been out with a hard-booting splitboarder, but when I did, the speed gap between them and skiers was less than the gap between them and soft-booters. Hard-booters were closer to the skiers in speed than the soft-booters were to them. YMMV.

I have a friend (who lives in CB) who has been a splitboarder for several years and I was always about 10% faster than him (an estimation, of course) but he switched over to AT skis on a super light tech setup and on a recent hut trip, he blew by me on the climbs and flats (which was the majority of the time).

I believe hard booting, as it continues to evolve, will be the future of splitboarding, but the $$ will slow the adoption of it. As for me, I have a dedicated pair of stiff softboots for inbounds and my splitboarding boots are a hodgepodge of new liners in old boots and stiffening inserts I had from older boots. I wanna try hardboots, but they most definitely are not in the budget for now and some time into the future...

 

I might end up going this way, 1 set of boots for inbounding and splitting is more wear then I want to put on them

 

Another touring soft boot option with walk/touring mode released by BOA.

 

Another touring soft boot option with walk/touring mode released by BOA.

View attachment 162100

I am convinced that Backlands/Phantoms are more precise AND adjustable to almost any riding style/conditions than any soft boot...PERIOD. Just by using one or a combo of the following gives an extensive range of options whether going uphill or down hill. So the options for adjustment are: The top velcro strap to loose or snug for touring and/or riding, tongue stiffeners (or not...I don't use them) and the Phantom link levers for forward lean, touring and riding or non-engaged riding for a no-highback or no-binding pow surfing experience. Also the new and non/boa Phantom Slipper pivot ankle strap and buckle system looks like it can be dialed in for more tweaks and less hassle than the boa thing. These boots can be dialed pretty much on the fly with in seconds for touring and for riding. With all this and the ability to heat mould the shell...its the Frick'n Bomb...my humble 2 cents based on experience and worth every damm penny. Plus, easily takes 1/2 second to pop out when coming in hot for another chair assisted lap (this past thursday, was cruising in hot into the non-existent chair line and merely popping the rear binding toe clamp and going 1 footy while continuing to cruise in, stopping for a moment at the line for the chair to swing around and jumping back on the chair) and a couple seconds to clamp in at the top...no sitting on yer arse.

The few downsides are: Price of entry, they can be a bit cold...some neoprene boot/beer cozy in the pocket and if ur upside down in a tree well, they could be tough to get out of.

 

Are they from deeluxe?

Envoyé de mon H8324 en utilisant Tapatalk

 

Are they from deeluxe?

Yes, Deeluxe next season (22/23)

 

All the new splitboard boots coming next year look to be focusing on better touring. Which is a good direction but the loose cuff approach seems like a half measure. Notice that Deeluxe adds a gator to the top of cuff. Imagine walking around in powder with your boots untied which is basically the current (and future) level of spitboard boot technology. I still have hope for an effective snowboard touring boot made mostly from leather, but I think the designers need to quit trying to adapt a reg snowboard boot and start from scratch. Start with a stiff hiking sole that has a tech toe and a locking pivot on the ankle. Attach a leather upper and dial in the flex while keeping it as light and low volume as possible.

Hardboot like the Backland are tough to market to boarders but they already have all the features I think are needed for optimum touring. The (backland) design is geared torwards going uphill and as a downhill ski boot it is considered way too soft. Ironically for splitboarding the flex is right in the sweet spot which really makes it more suited to boarding than skiing.

 

zuzupopo / Catalogues - zuzupopo

www.zuzupopo.com

22/23 catalogs. Great to check out whats coming next year before considering end of season deals.

 

For now I have everyday boots (Adidas Tactical) and split boots (K2 Aspect). I really would like a boot I could ride both inbounds and touring, but haven't found the right mix yet. Touring seems to prematurely break down the Adidas, while the Aspects are too heavy duty for 99% of my inbounds riding.

Aspects get the job done, but I'm not super stoked on them. They're stiffer than I prefer-- stiff is nice on ascent, but I prefer more ankle articulation. They're also pretty heavy and the paracord lacing / lace design is pretty terrible.

I'm mostly salty about what I see as a pretty major design oversight. If you look at the pic below, the boot has a power strap which doesn't actually wrap fully around and secure the rear neoprene zone. Basically the power strap barely works because it can't create secure tension across the entire upper. My suspicion is K2 did this to accommodate that over-engineered Boaconda dial.

On the plus side, they have a really heavy duty sole. That's nice when I'm hiking over sketchy sections, and dampens out a lot of that heavy duty metal feeling from my Sparks.

 

How are they for hiking? Could you put some hours on them on trails to get up to late season snow? I've used hiking boots for long hikes where the ride down is limited. My hiking boots don't have enough ankle support or height which really sucks for the ride down but certainly make the hike up more enjoyable. Would consider a mountaineering boot if there was one that improved the riding. Sportiva makes some boots that are interesting that have a tech toe for touring.

 

Do-able but too heavy for multi-hour no-snow approaches, IMO. They're quite heavy. Old backpacking idiom is "1 lb on the feet equals 5 in the pack". That's probably a bit oversimplified, but roughly fair.

I personally generally hike with pretty lightweight shoes (typically Inov-8s), so the incremental space / weight of wearing shoes ain't too bad. The biggest thing is having to deal with snowboard boots awkwardly throwing off my balance. I've done no-snow hikes to riding peaks in these, but they're not meant for serious mountaineering... so depends on the approach.

 

Never had super long hikes before touring (the Alps are pretty much full of roads 😂 ), but if I were too I think I would go with the light trail-running shoes + snowboard boots option. Like very very light for the trail part and as soon as it becomes a bit snowy, icy whatever, back to snowboard boots with vibram, crampons etc.

 

the xplore system is more for improved downhill tele performance for wider xc skis without loosing kick and glide of a lite binding. good system but not going to try to mount on my splitboard. i've heard that other xplore boots are pretty good for hiking and they kinda look like a low profile snowboard boot. might be worth a look

i've ridden in xc bc boots. about the same as hiking boots. i used to xc out to top of a ridge then just boot pack laps. of course now i just use my split.