Ski Boots – What You Need To Know For FreeRideBeyond owning safety equipment (transceiver, shovel and probe), we believe ski boots are the best kit investment you can make. Boots that fit well and are suitable for your style, level and skiing objectives, will not only give you a level of comfort that you will not find in a rental boot, but they will also aid progression in your skiing and may help you explore more terrain.
Unhappy feet can make for a serious case of the grumps
We love technical kit of pretty much any kind, but we particularly love our FreeRide boots – as any experienced FreeRider will tell you, unhappy feet can make for a serious case of the grumps. However, if you own a non-FreeRide specific ski boot that meets the fit, style, and ability criteria above, then you’re good to go FreeRide! If however, you have more specific goals, like hiking beyond lift-accessed terrain, then you’ll want to look for something more technical. A Freeride specific boot will make it easier to boot pack up a ridge, skin into untracked terrain or scramble over rocks.
If this is where you are at, then there are three features you’ll want to look for:
Boots with these features are a big step towards unlocking more of the mountains. Your primary focus, however, should be finding a great fitting boot with an appropriate flex for your skiing style and level. Never forget that – in our sport, it’s all about the descent!
This feature allows you to switch between the Hike and Ride modes. When in Hike Mode – also referred to as Walk mode – the Upper Cuff is unlocked to allow articulation over an increased range of movement. Hike mode is usually activated by a lever or handle at the rear of the boot. This increases comfort when boot-packing or skinning. When in Ride Mode, the boot acts as a regular alpine ski boot: the Upper Cuff is locked into place, only allowing slight movement, mostly from the flex of the boot material.
Also, and we put this last because riding comes first, if you are faced with a ski-boot walk back from a heavy aprés, you’ll want all the help you can get.
To understand what a Tech Fitting is and why you’ll want one, it’s helpful to know about the main binding types. There are several ski binding types, the most common being Alpine, Tech and Hybrid bindings. Tech bindings are sometimes referred to as Dynafit bindings – this is a legacy of early pioneering development, although many manufacturers have recently joined this market.
Alpine Bindings
Alpine bindings fit with regular Alpine ski boots. They work by locking in place the toe and heel lugs of the ski boot with mechanical jaws. They also feature a safety device, a tension adjustment mechanism known as DIN. This allows the binding to open and release the boot from the ski when a predetermined force is applied, for example during a fall. This reduces the chance of injury and of course is responsible for one of our favourite types of fall: the yard sale!
Tech Bindings
Tech bindings are lighter weight bindings that rely on two sets of pins to hold the toe and heel of a ski boot in place. These bindings must be matched with a boot that features a Tech Fitting – metal pin sockets that connect the toe and heel of the ski boot to the ski. The pins of the bindings slot into the pin sockets, but do not feature the DIN mechanisms used inAlpine bindings. When initially developed, the main selling point for these bindings was that they could hold the boot toe lug in place whilst allowing the heel to be raised – this meant that they could be used for uphill travel in the form skinning or ski touring and were mainly used with Ski Touring Boots.
Hybrid Bindings
A solution for uphill travel and downhill performance and safety
Hybrid bindings are the next generation in binding evolution, attempting to provide the best of both worlds: a solution for uphill travel in the form of skinning and the downhill performance and safety of an Alpine Binding. The options available in this category are ever growing, and they are currently dominated by Hybrid Binding pioneers Salomon and Atomic with their Shift binding and Marker with their Kingpin binding, as well as several others.
Development has led to incompatible standards, so make sure your choice works with the rest of your setup.
There was a time when ski boot soles were only made of hard plastic. This was to ensure the boot fitted into alpine bindings and met the relevant safety standards (ISO 5355 if you were wondering…). Thanks to advances in rubber compounding, the same can now be achieved using rubber. There are several advantages of this:
We recommend choosing a boot with rubber GripWalk soles. This gives all the benefits mentioned above, as well as a rockered sole to aid ergonomic footfall.
Unfortunately progress in sole development has led to incompatible standards, so whatever you choose, just make sure it works with the rest of your setup. You can see the main sole and binding compatibility combinations below.
Ski boots are your connection to your skis and they should feel like an extension of your body. Beyond the, this is the most important thing to get right. What are the best boots you’ve ever owned and what was their killer feature? Let us know in the comments.
Want to know more? Check out — Power Straps & Spoilers – What You Need To Know About FreeRide Ski Boots
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