First ski, so take with a grain of salt.
- Not being able to step into the binding RELIABLY is real. Maybe it gets better over time, but, just in terms of easily engaging the binding, I would rather deal with NNN BC (on that one point);
- The soles are really stiff -- see below;
- Unless the soles soften in flex quite a bit, I see no way one can keep back foot BOF on the ski in tele turn;
- I used the stiff flexor and it seemed fine for up and down on Voile Objectives (XCD, not K&G);
- I have minor toe pinch on one foot, not the other. I have low volume / wide foot and have one extra insole in the boot to help fill the space. I'm trying
@Tom M's idea to help, but it may not work with these boots (see below);
- The boa laces are kind of nice, but I wear gators and, so far, have not been able to adjust the laces without removing gators, which is a pain (but, no worse that standard laces);
- I REALLY wish the boots had a 3rd lacing zone across the top of the arch, to pull the foot back into the heel pocket, WITHOUT having to tighten the other laces so much. I am able to do that quite nicely with the Alfa Guard -- leave toes loose for warmth and comfort, but still have my heel firmly seated;
- The heel pocket of the Free is MUCH more comfortable than the Guard;
- I know the Alpina boots are too narrow for me, so the Free is the most easily purchased alternative.
I'm pretty happy with it. Skied several inches of powder (could push pole basket down about 9" - 12") on the Objective BCs and had big smiles -- would have skied more but ran out of legs for the up and daylight, and still had to ski back inbounds and down 2,800' of firm piste as is was getting dark (I think that was much easier for me on the Frees and Xplore binding than it would have been with Alfa Guard and NNN BC).
Below is fix I'm trying (borrowed from
@Tom M) for toe pinch.
(Do you see any bend in that sole? Boot on right is locked down on the BOF and heel lifted, the other sole is in its natural shape. I see a tiny bit of flex in the sole of the right boot, but nothing that would allow a skier to keep BOF on ski in T Turn (and that's with a Voile Strap cinched down tight over the BOF to try and get some bend there -- cinched tight, then raised the heel).
Note: So I think the toe pinch is not caused by the sole flex, but is caused when the ankle is flexed forward in the boot and compresses the top side of the boot, causing the top material to try and find a place to go, to take up the compression -- the top of the boot is pressing down, rather than the boot actually having a break across the toes or BOF.
Maybe that's just semantics, but I think the dynamic is different than the break at the BOF in most footwear, because of the very stiff sole.
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