From another world

By Noah Howell Ranked #5 - Alpine Touring Boots January 10, 2012

At this price these boots better hike up the hill all by themselves! And they are so light that they feel like they do. I thought there would be no way that they could ski well, but they actually do with a skinny ski at least.

I bought them for some skimo races and mainly for long technical traverses. I've had them out for several trial runs and been very impressed.

FIT- Luckily I tried them on and went one full size larger than I normally wear. I'm usually a 28 and I fit nicely into the 29's. They are slim fitting like Scarpa tends to be. So far I haven't put in an insole and they feel great. My guess is I'll go without for racing and put some in for comfort on really long outings.

BOA- They use a boa system to tighten the lower part of the boot. It works fine. For speed it seems like you don't want to play around with this much. Just find a tension that works and stick with it. If you pop the plug then they loosen up a ton and you'll take some time tightening it back down.

UPPER CUFF- This is a pretty slick system that tightens the cuff and engages/disengages the walk mode all in one move. This takes some fiddling to get the cord at the right length. Too tight and it's very difficult to flip the latch into place. And too loose your boots aren't snug for the downhill. I find that leaning forward helps decrease the leverage and make it easier to engage.

ROM- The range of motion for touring on these is incredible. I have hiking boots that feel more restrictive. They honestly feel like tennis shoes.

DOWNHILL- They will ski! I'm driving small sticks, but they don't feel like fruit boots. I'm really surprised they can get that sort of performance out of that lightweight of boot.

COLOR- Wow they stand out.

DURABILITY- They seem really well built and much more sturdy than I was expecting.

View Details: Scarpa Alien 1.0 Alpine Touring Boot

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