Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

It looks like it might be time for new boots, I've had my head in the sand for a few years, looking for some ideas about what boots to maybe look for.

A little about me, I'm tall, and I tend to ski pretty much every kind of terrain I find, steeps, trees, steep trees, I do try to avoid the cliffs. I mainly ski on G3 El Hombres, but sometimes pull out my old Atomic TM 22's.

I started on leathers in the 90's... went to Garmont Veloce's in the 2000ish time frame, moved to Syner-G's in maybe 2008ish? Tried some 4 buckles through that time, don't like them at all.

My foot seems to fit Garmont better than Scarpa, they just float around inside of those. Haven't tried BD or Scott...

Hoping to find a similar 3 buckle to the Syner-G's... I live in the Roaring Fork Valley.. was hoping to try them on, but they seem to be missing from many of the stores.

Well.. what do you think?

Welcome to Ttalk iceclimb!

Don't have much advice for you, but a 3 buckle to check out is this boot:

http://www.crispi.it/en/345/xp-man/47/s ... llow-white

Might be tough to find out west, but there is a distributor here in the east. I like Crispi because I like the way they fit my foot. They are high volume and wide. FWIW a Scott/Garmont Excursion fits my foot shape well too.

Here is some commentary on that about the older XP:

http://offyonder.com/2011/01/review-cri ... ark-boots/

Good luck with your search, I'm sure some other members who have better experience with plastic will chime in.

I would look for a boot with a thermo moldable liner. My scarpas conformed to my fat feet and they also work for my wifes skinny feet. I love my T2 ecos.

If you have Garmont feet, I would go fo Scott boots...

Its the very same boots... And Scott seems to be the only company with good taste when it comes to color and style...

If you're buying new boots, anything with 3 or more buckles will come with a good thermo liner.

scott boots are from the same mold as the garmont from a few years past. one thing i've hated about those boots, is if you ski low you will get a toe pinch from a design flaw in the bellows. Its been that way since the prophet and voodoo were first made. The toe plastic is weaker than the bellows, so it deforms and crushes your toe the further forward and down you go. A lot of people do not have a problem with this because they ski with a high and tight stance, or they don't T-turn.

Good Luck & let us know what you find!

From looking on the Scott website it looks like they aren't making the Excursions anymore, I don't see any Tele boots listed, unless they have multiple sites, Though I still see the Scott Excursion boots on other websites for sale. Glad I bought a pair last year. Well and some Fischer BCX 675's though they look a bit different in this years model, they look a bit taller. Are the duckbills getting killed off?

Yeah, it looks like Scott is only offering the Voodoo and Minerva telemark boots for this year.
http://www.scott-sports.com/us/en/produ ... ?q=&page=0

I've been skiing a pair of Crispi CXP (older version of XP) for a few years now. It's a good boot. Not quite as well made as the Scarpa T2eco, but the flex is much less stiff. The CXP makes for a good touring-for-turns boot if used with a Switchback or similar binding. The combination of the boot's soft-ish flex and the free pivot makes for comfortable touring. Having a 3-buckle boot (as opposed to something like a 2-buckle Scarpa T4) helps me with the downhill turns.

I have a pair of old Crispi CXT (2 buckle similar to T4) but the CXP is better in every way, and has a similar flex, while giving better support due to the 3 buckles.

Crispi boots are under-appreciated, IMO. Their fit might be a little weird for some, but they fit me much better than either Scarpa or Garmont, so I'm stickin' with 'em.