Scarpa Gea Ski Boot
February 29, 2012
Getting ahold of ski boots to test is really not that easy; also it’s a pain in the ass. Getting the liners molded, the cant adjusted, bindings adjusted, etc. takes up time that I’d rather spend skiing. That and the time it takes to coordinate getting them and sending them back makes it really not that cost effective for me and if I end up not liking the boots, it’s really sucky. I put up with this recently because I really wanted to try the new line of Scarpa boots, and predictably I had binding problems and other issues all winter long due to trying to get everything set just right between several pairs of boots and a stable of skis. But anyway, I got to try the boots, so here’s the result of my extended test (a big THANK YOU to Scarpa for lending these out for a few months to make it all worth it).
I’ve skied on Scarpa Star Lites for years and years, and many of my companions have skied on the Star Lite counterpart, the Diva (which I wish I’d purchased all those years ago but are no longer available). We’ve all loved the Scarpa line because they seem to just fit our feet really well. The Star Lites are the first boots I had that didn’t cause excruciating pain. So when I pulled the Geas out of the box and saw that they are shaped completely differently, I was a little perplexed. Looks like Scarpa has completely redesigned the shape of their boot. But I’ll get into that in a minute.
The big draw of the Geas is the weight. They are just barely over two pounds each. That is featherweight for a ski boot, and balm to a skinner’s soul. My ski partner picked them up to load them into the car and said “whoa, these are ‘nothing’ boots!” The funny part was that he actually skis the men’s version of the same boot, but since his are literally almost twice the size of mine (he’s a GIANT), they’re much heavier. I did enjoy skinning in these simply because they are super light.
That’s unfortunately where I had to part ways with these boots. They skinned well but I could never get comfortable in them enough to decide that I actually would buy them. My biggest problem was that the cuff is just too high; it impedes my calf muscle and I can’t get the boots tight enough to ski steep stuff properly without causing a lot of pain (even with my standard heel lift installed; they’d be debilitatingly excruciating without that). The first day I skied in them I cranked them down and spent the 1,500 feet of vertical wishing I hadn’t, which sucks when the snow is perfect but all you can think about is skiing as fast as you can so you can unbuckle your boots. Pain like you would not believe. I loosened them up and they didn’t hurt as much, but I like a nice tight fit while I’m skiing so that was a bit of a bummer. Maybe the top buckle is too high for me as well; not sure exactly.
The other problem I had that I attribute to boot design is that the velcro power cuff, which is really nice and wide and therefore useful for cinching down, is too short to loosen enough for the skin up. You have to leave it completely undone (which, with velcro, is dangerous for base layers and just plain annoying for the wearer) to get maximum range from your walk mode.
I did like the spring-loaded clips that make it easy to keep track of your buckles in walk mode.
The main buckles were a lot easier to work than the ones on my Star Lites; something I’ve noticed about newer boots in general. Progress on the buckle-evolution front! I like it. Some people who tried the boots really liked the way the entire front of the boot swivels up and out of your way (lots of good pics of that on the Wildsnow review here), but I actually disliked this feature because I kept pinching my fingers in the mechanism and found it annoying and cumbersome to operate. Yes, yes, I know, operator error, but man does it hurt to pinch your fingers when they’re already cold and moving to “numb”. I think this design was meant to make lacing up your liners easier, but I thought lace-up liners were a thing of the past and was surprised to see them on a new pair of boots. I don’t bother with the laces and took them out, so it’s not a requirement, but I don’t see the point of using old technology on such nice new boots.
I also found it strange that, though I went down a shell size in the Geas, the sole length was actually longer than my Star Lites. I think there’s more boot out in front, with a longer toe piece than in past boot designs by Scarpa. It was a little weird to click into tech bindings with the pivot holes so far out in front of my actual foot. Once in the binding, all seemed fairly normal, but I thought it strange to make a longer boot; the reasons for doing this I couldn’t discern.
I was feeling like I really should like these boots more but as the winter went on I found that I kept reaching for my Star Lites again and again and before too long all my skis were adjusted back to Star Lite spec and I’d stopped skiing on the Geas completely, a sure sign of incompatibility with the boots. This was much different from my experience testing the Star Lites, when I refused to send the sample pair back until I’d secured a pair of my own so I didn’t have to stop skiing on them. I recently skied with a friend whose Divas are looking a little beat up; when I commented on their condition she said she’d tried the Geas but they didn’t fit her foot so she returned them. So it’s not just me.
I think that taller skiers might like the Geas better because of the higher cuff; it might fit a longer leg better. Maybe it’s a foot shape issue so I encourage you to give them a try if you want a super ultra light pair of ski boots for the backcountry. Still, I’d like to see the power cuff issue addressed and I would like to be able to get into the boots without having to swivel a piece of plastic around, which you really can’t do with the Geas.
I didn’t actively dislike them, I just never really liked them, if that makes any sense. They do the job. They’re just a little too “buggy” for me. I kept expecting to work out the kinks as the season progressed but it just didn’t work for me. Color shouldn’t matter, I know, I know, but the ick-green of these boots turned me off as well. Man, I’m fussy, eh? I think – THINK – that the new Scarpa Blinks are still molded on the old-style last, meaning that they’re shaped the same as the Divas and Star Lites (and have a better color, heh); I’ll try to get a pair on my feet so I can report back.
Scarpa Star Lite A/T Ski Boot
December 23, 2008
ON SALE at REI.com for $439! I canNOT believe that price. Click here to purchase!
Shhh, don’t tell Scarpa about this review. I am supposed to be using these boots as part of an “extended test” and I want Scarpa to think I still need three more weeks with them. Just between you, me, and the Internet, though, I knew I loved the Star Lites from the first day I wore them. And just now my brain jammed with joke possibilities, ranging from “they had me at something something” to an extended discussion about that show that had women dress up in wedding dresses for this millionaire guy they hadn’t met but who had somehow chosen one of them to be his wife. He announced his pick and came out on stage to meet his new fiance and they started playing that Savage Garden song that goes “I knew I loved you before I met you” as this poor woman stood there on national television looking like a poster child for Hideously Trapped In Incredibly Awkward Yet Entirely Of Her Own Making Situation syndrome. It was really obvious that neither of these idiots even liked each other let alone were fulfilling some star-crossed destiny that made the lyrics of that song at all applicable. Too funny. And after that debacle, someone picked up the ball and made a show about two dozen ditzy gold diggers competing for a dude who was only pretending to be a millionaire – but the girls didn’t know he was a fake. Comedy GOLD!
OK, now that the Scarpa folks are bored out of their minds with that reality show recap and have all stopped reading, we can talk about the boots. The Star Lites blew all the other boots out of the water. It really was love at first buckle. And bear in mind that since the pair I used are just tester boots, I didn’t bother to bake the liners to fit my feet, so they’re still shaped to fit some other tester’s feet. Ick – I try not to think about that. Anyhoo, even with the liner fit slightly “off”, I was really happy with the general fit and feel. The Star Lite is a three-buckle boot for ski mountaineers who really like to shave weight from their equipment. If you recall, last year I tested the Scarpa Divas and wondered if the fourth buckle on those boots wasn’t superfluous. The Star Lite proves that it is indeed, because I didn’t miss that fourth buckle at all. The ankle strap just sucks your foot back in the boot and eliminates heel lift and shifting. The top buckle combined with the power strap provide plenty of support to the lower leg for driving today’s big fat skis.
My first day on the Star Lites was a touring day with my superlight powder setup, and I can’t imagine a better fit for these boots. The Star Lites are Dynafit compatible, light, and nimble – just perfect for long tours and great powder; my raison d’etre, as it were. More weight = more tired, and the Star Lites are as streamlined as it gets for ladies who like to shred. I didn’t feel as if I was sacrificing any power or feel by using such a light boot. Then I thought perhaps it’s unfair to only go out skiing in perfect conditions; all boots and skis feel good on sunny powder days. So I bit the bullet and really put the boots to the test by clicking them into my latest test setup – big, massive, burly planks with big, stiff, powerful bindings. With no powder in the forecast, I decided to see just how much power the Star Lites packed within their dainty white-and-gold shells. I hopped on a chairlift and set out to ski the crusty mank on my monster boards and the Star Lites. Those big skis required some drive to make them turn through the crust and needed a responsive boot to get them gripping on the ice, and the Star Lites delivered. More than I had hoped they would, to be honest! The boots are well-balanced and shaped to fit a smaller foot for efficiency in transferring weight shifts to the ski. As with the Divas, I didn’t feel as if I had to smash my shins against the front of the boots for control. I could just balance in the center of the ski because the boots held me in just the right position to cue the skis. I think of this as the “new” aggressive stance – it’s not as oriented towards power/drive/shin-bruising methods of pushing into the skis, it’s more of a nuanced, controlled, balanced way of pushing the limits. I sure hope that makes sense to someone besides me. It’s just that skiers seem to be moving towards flow rather than forcing tons of turns. That’s not really news to anyone, but I think that ski boot technology has evolved along with ski style and the Star Lite seems very flow-oriented. Om, namaste, and all that stuff.
The Star Lites don’t come with the spare extra-stiff tongue like the Divas, but I didn’t miss it. The power strap gives plenty of lower-leg compression and the forward lean of the boots is naturally pretty aggro. I still had to supplement with a heel wedge, as per my usual, but I think that’s more of an issue with my own anatomy since I have that problem with every pair of ski boots I’ve ever tried. Still, I am tempted to try the stiff Diva tongue on the Star Lite and really do some charging. I wonder why the extra tongue is just a Diva thing?
I also appreciated the comfy, flexible walk mode for long tours and, well, walking. The walk-ski mode lever took a little bit of force to flip, which I guess is OK since it’s unlikely to flip accidentally. It might also have been an issue from the tester boots being kind of rode hard. You never know what those tester boots have been up to before they arrive in your hands. Still, I didn’t want to give them up even if they were well-used so I prepared my best puppy-dog eyes in an attempt to get Scarpa to let me keep the boots. As it turned out I couldn’t wait that long and went ahead and just bought my own pair. And for a girl who gets multiple pairs of boots to test every year, actually spending money on boots is a pretty ringing endorsement.
Scarpa Diva A/T Boot
June 27, 2008
It’s summer! What better time for a ski boot review? Okay, so I’m a little behind on my gear review pile. But Scarpa said they won’t be making changes to the boot so this review still applies to next year’s Diva. So in a way, I got to test a prototype!
This boot was tested by two, count ‘em, TWO Geargals. One of whom (me) does the writing, and the other provides thoughtful, technical appraisals such as “I love them! They’re white, and they’re called Divas!” Hmm. Guess I’m on my own on this one.
They are pretty and have a cute name, but there are other reasons to love this boot. They’re light. They’re Dynafit compatible. They have Intuition moldable liners (heaven!). They’re nicely stiff, and even if they’re not stiff enough, they come with an extra super mega-stiff tongue that can be swapped out with the hinged, flexible touring tongue. Scarpa told me “it’s like getting two boots in one!” which I’ll just have to take their word for because not only am I a touring skier, I’m a lazy touring skier who doesn’t like to carry extra things and therefore never lugged the extra tongues up any mountains to test them out. I also didn’t want to sit in the snow trying to swap out ski boot tongues, so I never even tried to see how easy or difficult it was to do. Bad tester! I’m, er, sure they’re really nice tongues though.
So, I only skied the Divas with the flexible touring tongue, but even so, the boot was plenty stiff for me, a welcome relief after trying other mushy touring boots. The micro-adjustable four buckles made for a snug, custom fit, though with the genius instep strap, the fourth buckle almost seems superfluous. That instep strap is probably the best idea ever (except for all of the other “best ideas ever” I’ve mentioned in this blog) because it completely eliminates heel lift and lateral slop. It’s awesome! Not in the classic sense of awesome as in “inspiring awe” but awesome as in “totally rad!” Look I said I was behind on the reviews. You’re stuck with “awesome.” And awesome is how these boots ski – in all conditions they were solid and dependable. I was surprised at how well the boots performed on ice and in various other lousy ski conditions – usually a light boot means a performance trade-off, but not this time. For serious alpine touring divas, the Diva really is the holy grail. Do all rave reviews fall back on that hackneyed metaphor? Gads, I’m slipping.
The instep strap buckle itself, while an excellent design, is kind of nonintuitive and a little strange to adjust – at first look, it appears to be kind of a ratchet type of system, which I guess it is, but it doesn’t really ratchet. You just shove it through the buckle and then strap it down. It would be nicer if you could ratchet it tight when it’s already buckled, so that you don’t just have to just guess how much to shove through. My other tester reported problems with ice buildup in the buckle when she’d undo it while skinning up. I didn’t have that problem, mostly because I skin with my boots buckled, but I can see how it could happen.
The Divas shine in the uptrack, as well, in large part thanks to that very nice flexible touring tongue. I think that the hallmark of a good touring boot is that you really don’t notice it much while skinning, and the Diva fits that bill perfectly. While trudging up the mountain (otherwise known as “touring”, but come on – it’s just trudging up the mountain. No amount of sugar coating will change that), you don’t have to think about, be distracted by, or otherwise notice the Divas. If you’re coming from a heavier boot, you might notice how light the Divas are, but that is an acceptable distraction for certain.
Lowa Struktura Pro Lady A/T boot
January 27, 2008
I liked the Struktura as soon as I put it on – once I got it on. My pair inexplicably shipped with a super low-tech non-standard liner, with no assist loop at the back, a low cuff, soft ankle support, and finger-slicing narrow laces. I try not to swear in this blog, but these things were a B*TCH to get on. No loop in the back? On an A/T or downhill liner? What the….
Out of curiosity, I scoured stores both online and off, and it seems that the Struktura is supposed to come with a better liner with a higher cuff, stiffer ankle, softer, thicker laces, and an ASSIST LOOP AT THE BACK (see photo – see the loop?). I called Lowa to basically give them a chance to say “whoops, our bad, here’s a better liner” but no luck. The first customer service agent I spoke to was sweet, but clueless – didn’t really understand the concept of an assist loop. She transferred me to a tech guy, who told me politely but firmly that I probably just got a “sample pair” with an incorrect liner, and that it was just too bad because there was nothing he could or would do. Why Lowa ships boots with crappy “sample” liners, I’ll never know, and it probably doesn’t matter because the tech guy also told me that Lowa is getting out of the A/T market here in the US.
So, although the boot pictured above shows the correct liner with assist loop and all, the boots shipped to me do not have that liner. Since Lowa couldn’t provide the “real” liner, I am forced – forced! – to review the boot I got, crappy liners and all. So here we go. I tested the Struktura in a backcountry setting the first day, and at the resort the second.
I can barely get these boots on my feet, for starters. The liner, like I said, has no assist loop and is soft at the ankle, so when I tried to grip the sides and force my foot in, the ankle just collapsed and my foot got repeatedly stuck halfway into the liner. After breaking a sweat and saying many bad words, I got the liners on, and tried to tighten the laces on the liners. The laces are meant to hold the liner onto your foot instead of onto the shell, eliminating the blisters that just seem to come with skinning up thousands of feet. It’s a good idea, but these laces were about .5mm thick and not burly enough to grab with my bare hands and tighten, especially in 15 degree weather at the trailhead. My ski partner had to squeeze the sides of the liners once I got them on my feet so I could tighten the laces with thickly gloved hands (to avoid being cut by the knifelike laces) just to make them remotely fitted. To add insult to insult, the laces wouldn’t even stay tied. Bah! Once the liners were on, the shells were easy, and off we went.
I have notoriously difficult feet, especially in ski boots, so to wear these boots two days in a row for over 5 hours at a time without having to remove them to regain circulation in my feet was a dream come true. Skinnng up with the buckles either undone or very loose was quite comfortable and much like wearing a stiff hiking boot. No pins and needles or pressure points on these boots. The boots weren’t broken in at that point, so after tightening the buckles for the downhill portion, ski mode was a little too stiff, so I skied in walk mode, which was pleasantly adequate for the fluffy powder of the day. Once I got the skis pointed downhill, I forgot all about my quibbles with the boots; they skied well. Might have something to do with the amazing powder, but I’ll let Lowa have this one. For the comfort in climbing and the responsiveness while skiing, thumbs up.
I had some problems with the buckles coming undone; something Lowa promised to have addressed with their new buckle retention system. The buckle retention devices, meant to keep buckles closed while skiing, didn’t seem to function worth anything as evident from the number of times I had to stop and rebuckle the boots, until I tried to get the boots off that night. The third buckle on the right boot just would not let go. My partner had to hammer at the clasp to get it off. I wouldn’t complain about this if that buckle hadn’t come loose a dozen times while I was skiing. As it was, it’s rather exasperating.
The next day I put these boots to work at the resort. I had similar problems with buckles not staying closed, and still wasn’t able to ski comfortably in ski mode for too long, but bear in mind the boots aren’t broken in and the liner issue was significant. Unfortunately for Lowa, I suspect these boots would ski a lot better with the higher, stiffer liner they’re supposed to have, but the short, flabby one my pair came with was ineffective and frustrating. However, I skied annoying, icy, choppy runs (all that was open that day) and the boots performed surprisingly well for being in walk mode AND having crappy liners. I felt like I had to choose between two evils; though – if I cranked the buckles down so that they would stay closed, I had too much pressure on the top of my foot, but if I buckled them firm-but-comfortably, the buckles would come undone. In ski mode this seemed to be less of a problem.
All in all, this is a backcountry boot most at home in the backcountry. The pair I tried was just not burly enough for hard charging at the resort, making me think that it’s not the boot for super extreme backcountry runs either. In two feet of perfect powder, they were amazing even in walk mode – I forgot I was wearing new ski boots on that run. For mellow bumps, powder, and perfect groomers, they were fine. For ice, hard bumps, and chop on anything steep, they were tough to control and were too flexible. That’s actually fine by me, as they are in fact a backcountry boot and not meant for the resort. There are backcountry skiers who find chop, bumps, and ice in the backcountry, but I’m not one of them. I ski the powder, and that’s what these boots seem to be made for. With a better liner – maybe I’d have a different opinion.
