hard boots for snowboarding

[johngchrist]

Im thinking about getting some Hard boots to use on my split board. I've never ridding hard boots with and have no idea what to look for or what diffrences there are between rideing in soft and hard boots.

So what diffrences should I expect?

What should I look for when buying?

[johngchrist]

http://www.tramdock.com/tramdock/LIF...swatch=LIF0084 ????????

[half-fast]

lot of boarders use these http://cgi.ebay.com/GARMONT-GSM-SKI-Mountaineering-BOOTS-size-27-5-Black_W0QQitemZ8731058362QQcategoryZ62215QQrdZ1QQc mdZViewItem

[Meathelmet]

Well, you "can" use classical snowboard hardboots in your split,but there might be some issues with the ramp angle.

Some people i know have used Kofflach and Asolo high mountain climbing boots in their snowboards on high ascent/descents. Gives warmth and climbability, but lacks support in upper cuff. That you can get by with some customisation (well,maybe some booster straps and higher and thicker liners?).Some of those have complained a bit off the lack of support on the toeward edge on hard snow,if they havent modded the boot.

I even have once seen a guy that rode a split with garmont megarides, a randoboot...
Dont know if he was riding with the walk latch on or what.

Hmm, i could be tempted to test that some day...


The biggest difference i think would be the catching the edges since you are much more rigid on the board and cant even out the small núances that you do with the soft boots.Especially the transfer from back edge to toe edge could be the most tricky part....Brr..the tought itself is giving me shivers...

Why do you need stiff booties? Ankle problems or are you just tired of messing up with lace-up crampons and loosing the in some couloir?

[Buzzworthy]

I learned to board on hard boots, plate bindings and a 170+ stiff race board with square tail. That is what my roomate had, so I used it.


Get ready to go REALLY fast.

Edging back and forth is definately different, as meat said, got be on it all the time.

With a split, I would not want a really hard boot though, IMVHO. Thinking more of the skin up, but if it had a "stiffening" mechanism on the boot for the ride down, that sounds good to me.


My unwanted 2 cents, if that.

[powdog]

You might look to some European snowboarding websites. It was about half-and-half, between soft and hard. What's your shoe size when boarding? Raichle boots (except for the Flexon Comps with the stiff tongue) are pretty soft forward. An Alpine Touring boot is softer than any high performance alpine ski boot, but new, they are sort of expensive (AT or Randonnee is still a small niche). You might try on with your splitboard some burly plastic telemark boots.

[johngchrist]

checkin out the splitboard.com thanks for the info

[bcrider]

This thread is a reminder that I need to write an article about this topic for my site. Thanks.

Lots of good info from meathelmet and ctarmchair. I echo their comments.

The beauty of it is, you can use pretty much whatever set up you want on a splitboard, you just gotta figure out what works best for you. There are lots of things to consider from feel and performance to price and availability to the conditions in which you plan to use them.

Here is a poll that we did on splitboard boot options that people are using. Of course this thread in no way represents the opinion of the entire splitboard market, but it does give a good idea of what some folks are using for splitboarding.
http://talk.splitboard.com/talk/view...946&highlight=


I am a long time softboot (and step-in) user and for me the feel of the descent is the most important thing to me. I don’t want to compromise the ride. While some will say there is no compromise…it’s pretty easy to spot the hardboot steeze. There are advantages to AT, PMBs, and snowboard hard boots when it comes to the ascent (especially at high elevation) and they are also are more durable than softboots.

One fallacy to point regarding softboots is that they ARE crampon compatible...you just need to use a strap crampon. While strap crampons would not be recommended for ice climbing they will be just fine for glacier use and general ski/snowboard mountaineering. There are lots of strap crampon choices out there. The softboot you plan to use will play a role in the performance as well.

Crampons for softboots
http://talk.splitboard.com/talk/view...146&highlight=
http://talk.splitboard.com/talk/view...684&highlight=

I’ve noticed a lot more folks using plastic boots for splitboarding recently and I must say that I’m a little intrigued to try them too. They problem is that there is no real snowboard specific hardboot in the marketplace. We have to choose from AT ski boots which obviously have different flex patterns than snowboard boots. The other drawback to AT boots is the damn price. $600 bones is a lot of money for fricken boots. Still, you can find used ones and I recently picked up a pair of Lowa AT boots for $125 that I will be giving a chance a few times this winter. We’ll see…I’m going into it with an open mind and looking for forward to trying them.

Here are some other random threads that may also be useful to you.


AT boots
http://talk.splitboard.com/talk/view...t=7&highlight=
http://talk.splitboard.com/talk/view...722&highlight=
http://talk.splitboard.com/talk/view...703&highlight=

Step-ins
http://talk.splitboard.com/talk/view...=10&highlight=
http://talk.splitboard.com/talk/view...975&highlight=

La Sportiva Nupste
http://talk.splitboard.com/talk/view...157&highlight=

Solomon Malamutes
http://talk.splitboard.com/talk/view...721&highlight=

PMBs
http://talk.splitboard.com/talk/view...t=8&highlight=

Boreal boot
http://talk.splitboard.com/talk/view...302&highlight=

Stance Angles
http://talk.splitboard.com/talk/view...254&highlight=

Hard vs Soft…the controversy
http://talk.splitboard.com/talk/view...945&highlight=


Good luck and happy splitting!

[andrewjesaitis]

I can't speak to the performance of hardboots with a spitboard, but I originally learned to ride in hardboots. In fact, since I was racing at that point and cheap, I just was using really stiff ski (alpine) boots. The reason I switched to a soft boot setup, was primarily for comfort (snowboard boots didn't have that vice like feeling of my race boots). I felt like I lost a lot of edge control, but for me the only time this mattered was when it was icy and at that point I would rather be on skis anyway. I don't know if others found this, but I found soft boots to be more forgiving too (that might just be my interpretation of losing that snappy edge control). Over all I think it depends what kind of riding you primarily are doing. For me, I wasn't riding ice and really didn't take into consider climbing performance of my softboots b/c most of "climbing" with my board is just marching up the bootpack to the ridge.

[johngchrist]

THanks for the awsome post Bcrider super helpful stuff