Wasatch Solo: Going Gentle, January 8, 2022

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

--Dylan Thomas

Good turning on the NW aspects, three-inches of powder on a solid base. The SW aspects are still a bit too thin, my pole often hitting ground during the skin up.

KPF is brushy, easy to skin up but hellish to ski down, ski tips often grabbed/tripped.

Looking down KPF towards the NW.

Rudy’s Flat under 83cm (32in).

Antelope Island from 7,900 feet.

29 degrees and 38 degrees (Fahrenheit and slope).

Mid Rectangle Bowl (7,800 feet) under 85cm (33in). Enough to ski but still thin. We need a series of big storms to set the winter right.

New boots on the skin track, Dalbello Quantum Free Asolo Factory 130. I bought these for their thicker liner to add some warmth, for the sake of my old, freezing toes now that I regularly get the Reynauds. Plus the Dal’s are stiff, they can easily handle my Helio 105’s, whereas my Atomic Backlands sometimes struggled on the 105’s. If the snow wasn’t soft and forgiving the DH could get ugly. My goal with new boots was to find some warmth while keeping it light. A tall order. I sized them myself because I don’t trust boot fitters anymore, they dictate rather than listen, which is annoying and has led to some shitty fitting boot. My last professionally-fit boot, a Dynafit TLT-6, was the worst fit I’ve ever had. The fitter constantly refuted my input, she had a fix for every issue - and there were many - so rather than admit the boots were wrong for my foot it became her personal odyssey to make them work. In short, I got shoe-horned into the wrong boot. After five-years of pain and many lost toe-nails, I bailed and bought some Scarpa F1’s, a big improvement but still not perfect. Since the TLT6 experience I’ve never gone with a pro fitter. This time, to get the right boot and the right fit, I did the rocket-test in the store to narrow the field, then bought three pairs of boots. I wore them around the house for three weeks in various combinations to find the right boot with the best fit. When I made the choice for the Dalbellos I returned the losers for full refunds $$. Here’s the try-out summary:

1 - Scarpa Maestrale - STRIKE 1: the warmest of the three and very comfortable, but heavy and the range of motion sucked, almost like an alpine boot even when in walk mode. Plus the sole length for a size 27.5 was 315mm, a full centimeter longer than my current rigs (Atomic Backlands and Scarpa F1s, both size 27.5) which meant I would have had to re-mount most of my skis.

2 - Fischer TransAlp Pro - STRIKE 2: Based on reviews these were the boots I planned to keep, but the fit was horrific. Even with the buckles maxed-tight I could still lift my heels substantially when walking up and down the stairs. The length was good because my toes were slightly curled against the front, so I tried footbeds but that pushed the problem (too loose at instep) forward, into the toe-box, albeit with even more toe curling against the front. Those Fischers were huge in the instep. They would’ve been a blister factory on the heels and a purple-toe-nail factory at the front, bar none. Neon green Fischers (Travers and TrasnAlps) are all the rage right now. Every other boot I see now in the BC is a Fischer, but I swear those things are molded for an Alien. I have an average size foot with a common shape, I’m still puzzled why they fit so strangely? I wonder how the masses of Fischer users make them work? Just know, for my foot the Fischers were a terrible fit, almost as bad as my TLT6s. Count me out.

3 - Dalbello Quantum Free Asolo Factory 130 - HOME RUN! Great fit on all fronts. My toes were initially slightly curled, but with time the liners will compress and the toes will be fine. They have great range of motion when in walk mode, they feel light, airy and svelte, and when you transition to ski they are as stiff as my Nordica Supercharges (race boot). I’ve now skied in the Dalbellos six times, without heat molding. Natural packing results in a better fit, and without any guessing. My foot does the molding over time, albeit with some pain, but ultimately the boot is molded snuggly and with precision.

Heat molding and shell punching? Don’t even think on it. How many tales of whoah do we need? There are countless stories of BC skiers destroying expensive boots when they go full-on ‘McGeiver' with a heat gun, thinking they’ll get ‘Mod-Line-of-the-Year' when attempting to 'punch’ the shell. When the heat gun comes out it becomes a guessing game, with zero science. The inside of a boot cannot be precisely mapped to the outside of the shell where the heat will be applied. Let the demolition begin. It’s like flossing the wrong tooth to find that kernel stuck in a molar. Before you know it your mouth is bleeding and you’re still probing for that kernel. If you are an educated engineer working in plastic thermo-dynamics then, yeah, maybe you are qualified to mess with a boot shell, but most of us are clueless. The best remedy is to buy the right boot and with the right fit from the start. Don’t shoe-horn anything. If that is required you are simply in the wrong boot.

Once you find the right boot, go forward with the correct mindset: no boot is perfect, there will always be an element of discomfort. For the best performance, both up and down, your feet will always hurt, even if just a bit. The only way to have zero foot pain is when barefoot on a north-shore beach on Kauai. Do you ever watch World Cup ski racing? If so you know the first thing they do upon crossing the finish line is they reach down and unbuckle their boots. Their fit is extremely tight and painful, yet they perform as needed. The more you ski the more you’ll demand performance.

So far the Dalbellos have exceeded all expectations right out of the box. Unlike my F1s, and to a lesser degree the Backlands, they require very little fiddling at the transitions. This has much to do with the double cuffs which allow for tight, upper-buckling even when skinning, so no need to pull up pant cuffs to mess with the “DH fit” by cranking the upper buckles (the F1s are the worst, velcro buckles, huh??). All that's needed is to flip the lever into ski mold and you’re ready to ski. That is no lie, buckle tight when skinning and that double cuff moves like a well-oiled machine. Flip into to ski mode and that double cuff is rock solid. It's an ingenious design. Also, the Dalbellos were $100 cheaper than the Fischers, presumably because Fischer charges a premium due to their unprecedented popularity. The Dalbellos were a clear winner on every front.