Dalbello Sports Virus Tour Ski Boot - Men's - 2009 BCS

First off the walk mode in this boot is incredible. Long strides and an aggressive vibram sole make walking on the most challenging terrain easy. The boot also skis pretty good. It is not sponge soft and can support being flexed into. If you hit a big bump of course you can crush the forward flex, but what touring boot doesn't?

I am concerned about the buckels esp. the middle one breaking. I have skied the Dalbello Krypton Pro and you could get a much tighter fit and amazing heel hold. The tour feels to have a lot of extra room around the ankle creating movement while skiing.

Overall I am happy with this boot. I don't think the boot is perfect, but for long tours the walk mode and comfort are great.

I am really happy with this boot. The walk mode mechinism is awesome and lets you take longer strides, saving you lots of energy over long tours. Yet, when you lock it into ski mode the boot is stiff and every bit as powerful as the Dalbello Krypton alpine boot, letting you drive fat skis down big lines after you've put in the effort to tour to the top.

The only things that could be improved on in the future generation of this boot is to make the vibram sole more durable and to tighten up the fit in the heel. Then this boot would be perfect.

Walk Mode: Best in the biz.... you simply can't beat how comfortable this boot is while touring. The articulation is incredible, and fun to watch.

Fit: Roomy and boxy at first (like most, if not all AT boots)....but hey, you're a resourceful skier, learn how to fix it!! I spent just 15 minutes adding a butterfly wrap, a bondtex board, and some extra sticky pads to the liner where I needed them, and voila!...The boots fit just as snug as my regular downhill boots. Most people get dismayed by poorly-fitting AT boots....and admittedly, having to fiddle with the fit is inconvenient and not "ideal". But you've got to custom cut your skins....what's so bad about custom-fitting your boots, too? Suck it up and go pick up some ankle/heel wraps to take up the extra volume and you will love the results. This can obviously be done with any AT boot as well, but I have found that the Dalbello Virus does indeed start off with probably one of the better heel pockets on the market right now, so you are already that much closer to the money fit with this boot. Compared to a typical Garmont boot, for example, these have a full-on race fit right out of the box!

Buckles: Could use SOME form of micro-adjust...?? Or perhaps just more anchoring options, such as one more extra hole to bump the lever over for a tighter fit. This is especially evident on the top-most buckle, where there is no option to slide the buckle mechanism over whatsoever. At least the bottom two buckles do have an extra pre-existing hole to move things over.... Due to some weird plastic design features, it would be tricky to add a custom-drilled hole on the top buckle, it seems.

Another buckle design downside is that they are practically impossible to undo with gloves on. The beautifully sleek, well-contoured edges of the buckle leave nothing to grab onto and flip open. After wearing these boots for two weeks straight, even while using very dexterous leather gloves, I could still count on two gloved hands the number of times I was actually able to unlatch the buckles without taking my gloves off.

Vibram: Could be a little bit stiffer / higher durometer. I wore right through the rubber on the edge of the toe after just a few days of booting up some very hard snow. Also, you can feel the Vibram flexing and deforming on the edges of the boot while walking on rock, etc... Sometimes the boot gives a "squishy" feel when making a lateral move across rock that requires you to push off the side of your boot...The Vibram wants to roll over and fold under the pressure. I've slipped a couple times- not because of the lack of friction (there is plenty), but because the vibram bends over sideways and simply releases the boot from its perch...however, you can feel it coming, and make the proper adjustments...

Overall, due to the outstanding walk mode and competitively low weight, this is the best touring boot I've come across after tweaking with the fit a bit.

I purchased last year Virus Lite Tour this year at 1/2 price.
The fit is great except for a capacious heel pocke. Heating and molding the intuition liners, foot beds, L ankle pads and a heel cup stolen from a different pair of Dalbello boots fixed this. We also moves the middle and ankle cuff buckle over one notch. They fit wonderfully now.

FYI my alpine ski boot is the Kryton Pro from two years ago.

I'm quite stoked to use these next week for some AT/BC slack country in Tahoe.

I purchased last year Virus Lite Tour this year at 1/2 price.
The fit is great except for a capacious heel pocke. Heating and molding the intuition liners, foot beds, L ankle pads and a heel cup stolen from a different pair of Dalbello boots fixed this. We also moves the middle and ankle cuff buckle over one notch. They fit wonderfully now.

FYI my alpine ski boot is the Kryton Pro from two years ago.

I'm quite stoked to use these next week for some AT/BC slack country in Tahoe.

After getting the top buckle thing ironed out I enjoy the boots. They tour really well. I've used them w/ Dukes and dynafits. I usually undo the top buckle completely and sometimes undo the middle buckle for touring or walking and get a lot of articulation.

For sizing, my local shop stated that in the dalbello world you need to size down so I typically wear a 27/27.5 in Garmont but wear a 26/26.5 in Dalbello (Virus and Krypton Pro). In hindsight, I wish I wouldn’t not have heat molded the liners as I think we over did it. The length of the boot/liner is great but I have narrow feet and before heat molding things were tight. Now I have to wear too pair of socks but I have to admit that the extra toe box room helps keep my toes warm. I may reheat the liners and use an ultrathin sock and thinner toe cap. All in all though I really like the boot for hiking and touring as well as the ski down. Almost the same as wearing my krypton pros on the ski down.