Of boots and such...

[Cannatonic]

Cannatonic, what was the shipping on those from the UK?

the surplus Alico's? not sure, the total was around $75, I think the shipping is more than half that, he does air shipping. I think it's like 25 pounds for the boots & 34 for shipping.

[bgregoire]

Another Cripis 75mm boot to look out for...the BRE.

Seems like an updated Sydpolen. Nice looking boot.

https://www.oslosportslager.no/produkt/ ... ign=Kelkoo

[Cannatonic]

I saw those - looks like the Sydoplen is going to become this model next year. Crispi makes really nice boots. Everything about them is well done, including the quality of leather. You can't really tell how good the leather is until you ski them a bunch of times. I'd love to see a warm-weather Antarctic with no thinsulate or Gore-tex and full grain leather.

[Sencho]

Sorry to jump on a relatively old thread, and as a new member no less, but The Alico ski march boots on ebay.uk are too good a deal to ignore. In fact it was looking for information about them that lead me telemarktalk in the first place. Great forum!

To Cannatonic (or anyone else in the know): I'm wondering how the Alico ski march boots fit relative to regular shoes, or excursion boots if anyone has experience with both of those boots. Cannatonic mentioned the Alicos fit like other leather boots but I only have excursions. Now I'm looking for some leathers to pair with my new 145cm Hok skis for when I don't want to have to carry my excursions.

To get to skiable snow in the part of Japan I've moved to from Canada, I have to take a train for a couple hours, and hike snowless roads and trails for 2 or 3 more hours. Doing that in excursions isn't something I'd like to do, but once worked in I figure I could do the whole lot in Alico ski march boots. Does that sound reasonable, or would hiking in them be as bad as excursions? I was planning on buying Alpina Alaskas eventually, but spotted the ski march boots, and figured they might work well enough for a fraction of the price.

Thanks for any advice you guys can offer.
I'll post about my hoks, and boots... when the snow finally comes back to these parts.

[dorthman]

I'd probably just get a pair of comfortable trail runners, hikers to travel, approach in. I have alaska's - they're a very comfortable, warm boot - but I'm not sure id want to be sitting in, walking around, traveling in them for 6hours before I even start skiing.

[Sencho]

Thanks Dorthman!

I agree that something lighter would definitely be more comfortable for the way in/out, but was hoping I could get by in leathers. When I go winter hiking & camping without skis (my best hiking buddies don't have appropriate skis yet) I always wear Scarpa Mantas right out the front door and find them comfortable all day. They are fairly burly hiking boots and only a tad lighter than Alaskas, at just over 1kg/boot vs the 1.175kg/boot listed for the Alaskas, BUT the Mantas don't have a duckbill. Can anyone chime in on hiking will duckbills? I've hiked about 45 minutes in Excursions, and didn't enjoy it.

[GLB]

Does skiing with leather (or any similarly floppy boot) make you a better skier? Mainly for the fact you need very good balance and pressure control to ski even the easiest of slopes.


To answer the original question. Absolutely yes. I am a prime example of this. I learn to ski while I was in the Military. We used the nato ski with nato bindings and rubber cold weather white bunny boots. This system is not user friendly and sloppy to say the least. Latter on in my career I was made an instructor to teach basic mountaineering and skiing with the same ski setup and I perfected my skiing over the years in XC, Alpine, and Telemark. At that time I had never skied with modern equipment in fact I use to take my issued skis to civilian ski slopes and ski all but the more difficult black diamond runs. I got a kick out of some of the comments from some guys who could not believe I could run the slope in a perfect S with such equipment. Latter on I tried the modern equipment for the first time a Blackdiamond tele ski with Scarpas hard boots and I felt like I could ski off any mountain with that set up in comparison. I could not believe it was that easy with such equipment. With the sloppy military equipment I really had to concentrate on the fundamentals and make the skis work and with the modern set up especially the boots it did a lot of it for me.

[Johnny]

Latter on I tried the modern equipment for the first time a Blackdiamond tele ski with Scarpas hard boots and I felt like I could ski off any mountain with that set up in comparison. I could not believe it was that easy with such equipment.

I felt exactly the same the first time I tried plastic boots...

But I think every telemark skier should start with leathers... The thing is, it requires a lot of determination, which could end up in giving up... It's terribly hard, both on the body and the ego... But when you learn how to ski with floppy shoes, the reward is that they are a million times more fun in powder than anything else... That's the price to pay for ultimate bliss... And that is the secret doctrine of telly...

I used to hike a lot with 75mm... (Not with plastic boots, I wouldnt hike one meter with Excursions...) It's not terrible, but not bad either... On snow and steeper terrain, the duckbill is actually very useful for getting a grip... Now I hike with NNNBC and there's no difference than a normal hiking boot...

[MikeK]

I used to hike a lot with 75mm... It's not terrible, but not bad either... On snow and steeper terrain, the duckbill is actually very useful for getting a grip... Now I hike with NNNBC and there's no difference than a normal hiking boot...

I was going to respond the same. The NNN-BC Alaska feels like a stiff hiking boot. I haven't hiked much distance with it, but it feels fine.

[Sencho]

Since I couldn't find any size related reviews of Alico ski march boots I had to take a chance and it paid off. I order new pair from gijoearmystores on UK ebay. They got to Japan in ten days, which is impressive, but better still they were only 8000 yen (about $100 Canadin) including shipping.

I wear size 11 US regular shoes, Excursions in a 28.5, and Scarpa hiking boots in a 46 Euro, so I went for the Alicos in a UK Size 11. With one pair of thin ski socks and one pair of thicker wool hiking socks they fit perfectly width wise (I have slightly wide forefeet), and I have a little extra length than I need but not excessively. They will need breaking in, but after that they should be great. Also, even if I opt to wear trail runners for the hike in, they weight 1030g a boot, which is about 400g less then one of my Excursions.

Now back to the original topic: does skiing in lighter boots make one a better skier? I hope so, because that's the direction I'm trying to head, and having watched some videos of the xcd guys like Cima, I would have to wager that skiing a lighter setup requires you to be a better skier.