 Poster: A snowHead
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I am switching to hardboots for my splitboarding and have narrowed my choice to this boot. But it seems that I can only find it at online retailers and no physical shop. I have never put my feet in hardboots before and then I understand that this boot has kind of a specific fit even for a hardboot. So I want to try it at a shop, check sizes (I am 45 or 44.5 for street shoes or snowboard boots) etc before committing to the bag of money the boots are worth. Does anyone have an idea where I can find them, preferably in London?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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You're basically doomed. This season seems to be the best ever for getting specialist ski mountaineering gear in the uk, and kit is still very thin on the ground.
What you need to do is to go shopping for a weekend in somewhere like Chamonix, and then you'll have the opportunity to try alternative boots if it turns out that the TLT5s are a poor fit for you (and they definitely don't work for everyone).
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I bought some TLT5s without trying from Telemark Pyrenees and luckily, they fit.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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you basically haveno choice for what I suspect you want to do. forget it if you have a wide foot, otherwise take the plunge. the garmont option sucks. better still just buy the Deeluxe XV Spark and some Karakorum bindings. better still forget it, take up touring skiing, splitboarding costs the earth for massive product comprmise
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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splitboarding costs the earth for massive product comprmise
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fair comment
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Well, this is going a bit offtopic, but I strongly disagree with splitboarding being a compromise. I have done quite a few kilometers of touring and many thousands of vertical meters on a factory split Never Summer Summit with the Spark Burners split bindings and Forum Destroyer soft boots. Yes, it's rather expensive to get quality gear, but I don't find any compromise compared to the solid boards I have ridden in the 9 seasons I have been snowboarding.
Skiing is a very good solution for the ascent, but for the descent nothing beats the snowboard in my opinion. On the other hand touring in softboot is a compromise and the TLT5 seem to be the best boot out there for splitters. Plenty of sb carving boots that suck for touring and plenty of touring boots that suck for snowboarding...
Anyway, it seems strange that such premium product is nowhere to be found. Or maybe it's exactly because it's premium.
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moridinbg, Does it not seriously affect the torsional rigidity and edge hold?
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It definetly does not. If you hold the board in your hands it seems to twist a bit, but I couldn't notice it riding. I was at Les Deux Alps last March, when the conditions were pretty bad, so it was pretty much only piste riding on very hard, icy ski runs and didn't have any troubles with edge hold.
But I have used the Spark bindings, that have a solid aluminium plate, that holds on the pucks and has good contact surface with the board. A friend got a Prior AMF factory split, but used the Voile universal kit, that is basicaly a skinny aluminium plate on which you mount your normal snowboard bindings. I sold him my Sparks and the difference is night and day. The Voile plate is from the soft 5051 aluminium, so it twists and it's mostly the bindings plate, that gives the two halves torsional rigidity.
I suggest anybody, who has doubts about splitboarding to pay a visit to splitboard.com forums and to watch Jeremy Jones' Deeper and Further (:
Another try, does anybody has or know somebody, who has, a Mondo 29 or 29.5 TLT5s and would agree to let me try how do they fit on my feet? Not even about riding.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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moridinbg, hmm, I guess having your feet/bindings across the board (rather than 'along' like with skis) could help a bit with stiffening the board up.
I confess I don't really know anything about (split)boarding, so excuse the possibly stupid question, do they put an edge in the centre for climbing traverses in split mode?
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Well, after some phone calls and visiting shops, I am pretty much positive that this boots are not available anywhere in the country, without pre-ordering. On the other hand right now they are very cheap at http://www.glisshop.co.uk/ - £334 + free shipping.
Snowinn has them for a few quid more, when you include shipping. Everywhere else it is 400+.
I am kind of confused. Are the brits so lazy, that there is so little demand and offering for AT boots? At least that's what a guy in one of the shops offered as explanation (: Looks like the TLT5s are a mini-revolution in low-weight alpine touring and are all over the place in shops around Europe...
@clarky999, yes, the bindings are holding the halves together for the most part. And you have two pairs of chinese hooks, that provide some rigidy too, by pulling the halves. And I believe all manufacturers are putting an inside edge now and many DIY guys are starting to do it too.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| moridinbg wrote: |
| Are the brits so lazy, that there is so little demand and offering for AT boots? |
The UK is a small market, AT skiing is a small and specialist segment of that market and TLT5s are aimed at an even smaller number of people within that segment. I bet that the Alps aren't exactly packed with shops selling em either, let alone the flatter and warmer bits of all the adjoining countries. That's just the economics of it.
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