GREAT SPLITBOARDING BOOT

By Stephen Koch Ranked #8 - Alpine Touring Boots December 18, 2011

The F1's are a great boot for splitboarding. I removed the tongue on the back boot to soften them up. The bellows makes for smooth and comfortable uphill riding and even offers a bit of flex on the way down, which is a benefit to me as a snowboarder. I use Dynafit toe pieces for the up and have been using both Voile Mountain Plates and Burton Race Plates for the riding. The board I am rocking is a Rome Split Proto that is super light and fun.

I love the fact that I can DRIVE MY CAR safely in these boots! It is so nice to get to the trailhead and GO without having to change into boots. I am so stoked to find this boot and get back into hard boot splitboarding. I was over the challenges of splitting with a soft boot setup. Even though the Spark Fuse Soft Splitboard Binding is great it doesn't help much with traversing firm sidehills.

These boots are difficult to get in, to have my heel drop into the pocket, but I imagine this will get easier with time.

I have a fairly wide foot and once I baked the liners I had the room needed for comfort and warmth around the bellows. The cord holding the rubber ball to open and close the tour/ski latch broke the first time I used it. I drilled out the cord and threaded a simple cord through that is holding nicely for the time being.

I also used these boots hiking Glory Bowl on Teton Pass after doing a tour up West Mail Cabin on the West side of the pass. It is a pleasure to have a firm toe to use on the firm and snowy steps heading up to the top of Glory.

Bottom line: I think you will be seeing many more snowboarders using hard boots for splitboarding and backcountry riding in general and the F1's are the best I have found!

For more in depth reviews check out my website - www.stephenkoch.com' (HARD BOOTS VS. SOFT BOOTS FOR SNOWBOARD MOUNTAINEERING –)

View Details: Scarpa F1 Boot

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