I've used F3's with flexible crampons, and as much as anything, it depends what you are climbing. If you are front pointing up a steep slope, the bellows will flex, which causes you to lose a few degrees of front tooth bite and is more tiring on your calves. This isn't bad if it is just a short section, but you'd be bummed on a 5,000' couloir. For lower angle or moderate terrain (volcano skiing), crampons on an F3 would be great as the boot isn't flexing as much.

Step in crampons will work, but front pointing on firm neve/ice will be tiring with the boot flex. I have not cramponed in mine, but boot packing and scrambling was fine, just expect a little flex, just like tele boots.

Hi Elliott - I'm not sure what a 26.5 boot sole length is, but as I own F1's, F3's and Dynafit bindings, I suspect I know the answer to your underlying question of "Will these boots fit my TLT bindings, which were drilled for F1 boots?" The answer is "Kind of." The real problem/issue is that starting with the F3 (I think), Scarpa moved their Dynafit front pin holes back 2mm (4mm?) which makes them tour much than the old pin hole locations in the F1's as you don't have to lift your foot as high with each step and it is a more natural stride. This caused a situation where you can have a pair of F1's and a pair of F3's of the same size, and even of the same sole length, but they may not fit in a TLT binding as that binding only has 4mm of adjustment. If the binding was mounted properly, as in right in the center of the range, when you go to switch boots, there is barely enough adjustment to cover one of the boots.

There are two solutions to this. One is to buy/use the TLT Verticals, or one of the newer Dynafit bindings which have much more adjustment. The second option is, if you know you are going to be using two pairs of boots (F1 & F3) with the classic TLT binding, split the difference between the HEEL TO PIN HOLE length and drill them there.

I suspect that Scarpa will soon have all of their boots on the same program, but for right now, the F1's are older molds than the F3's. I can get my F3's to work in TLT's mounted for F1's, but there is barely any heel pin engagement, so I'm careful about what I ski with them.

Any top-flight ski shop in your area should have a boot guru to help dial in the fit of these. Call around, or better yet, ask the local shreds where their boots got worked on so that you can get them handled by the best guy/gal in your neighborhood. Don't forget to tip!Don't try it yourself, you would be surprised how many people try it in their toaster ovens and the burst into flames!It will be done best by a pro, but you can do it yourself, google lou dawson and boot fitting and he has a good article with some DIY guidelines.

The Intuition liners that come with these boots are top flight. You'd be best served to have a ski/boot/tune shop help you get these set up just right. Any top shop in your area will have a coupl'a peeps that have done this dozens of times and can get you sorted out. They have the proper ovens and technique whereas if you baked them in your own oven you could easily mangle these things. A major bummer. I'm not saying you can't give it a try, but damn you've got some good boots. Have a skilled pro help you out for best results!

the bellows flex, which shortens the sole length and therefore makes you boot very likely to release from the fritche bindings

No, the descriptions says Dynafit only. ____Even if you could make it work, I'm severely recommending the Dynafit.

The "select options" pull down is a real time description of what is in the warehouse. Sorry, no 30.0.

i'm currently working on some mods that could seriously improve the down. removing the tung, cutting away plastic on the side for more lateral flex while riding, and drilling out the metal plate that locks the forward lean into place... this way the forward lean would be locked forward but still allow further forward flexion. it would make it a lot closer to a snowboard boot with a highback binding. even with out the mods i'm impressed, and enjoy riding in them, but with them i'm sure i'll be very impressed....i do wish there were no bellows though, they suck on steep climbs

I never used it, but go at splitboard.com, there's a couple riders using the F3 and the voile plate as setup, and they seems pretty happy!!!