Vintage, bellowed F1s and F3s? The New Scarpa Boot? The death of 75mm?? One boot will never be able to do it all. So is it time for telemark skiers - wearers of 20-year-old T2s and-all - to embrace the boot quiver?
Ahhhh, the family picture - The Crispi boot must be an in-law....
Each year, all eyes in the telemark world invariably – if unknowingly and involuntarily - turn to ISPO. At least everyone on the downhill-oriented end of things awaits the show with bated breath - some without really knowing it. The Internationale Fachmesse für Sportartikel und Sportmode held in Munich each year is arguably the most important outdoor industry tradeshow in the world, and - as the premier European outdoor market - often offers a first glimpse of the next season's gear from the manufacturers across the pond. That includes our dear friends at Scarpa, who have been tantalizing the free-heel world for the better part of a decade with the promise of a new, modern line of telemark boots.
The first whispers of a new vanguard in Scarpa telemark offerings seem to have made their way to the ears of the free-heel skier all the way back around the late aughts, as the promise of NTN was beginning to see reality. In a February 2011 article on his blog EarnYourTurns, Craig Dostie called on Scarpa to come to the table and help telemark bound into the future on modern boots, saying "Scarpa has shown in the past that they not only have the ca-hones to lead where others follow, but they also have good instincts on what needs to be done." Dostie continued: "So I’m both pleading and provoking Scarpa to stop waiting for the tele market to grow and provide a reason for it to grow."
But while the AT-exodus seems to have mostly abated, telemark has enjoyed no grand surge in numbers enough to yet move the needle for any boot manufacturer - and not a one has taken the plunge on telemark's behalf. Instead of seeing any new boots come to life, many in the tele sphere have met their demise. From Scarpa the lovingly remembered Tx NTN boot, not to mention 75mm stalwarts T-Race and T1 are no more. Meanwhile Crispi and Scott both appear to have stalled innovation all together. The news for years has been of losses, never gains.
But this year could be the year for news of the new Scarpa boot, possibly with an unveiling at ISPO in November - though rumors of a 'line' of boots has been left behind as the language from Scarpa now seems decidedly singular. Speaking on the Blister Gear: 30 Podcast in July, Scarpa NA CEO Kim Miller spilled ever so few beans about the prospect of the new telemark boot. While speaking of Scarpa’s long arc of using Pebax ReNew in their boots (going all the way back to the T2 Eco in 2009), Miller said, “we’re working on a new telemark boot,” continuing, “this is pretty close to ready, it is also made out Pebax ReNew. I’m guessing that if we will launch this…well, I shouldn’t say because I’m not positive, but, let’s say it’s in the next year or two; season or two.” With that the prospect of the new telemark boot seemed all the closer, with the hopes of telemark’s entry into a truly modern gear paradigm – a reality that is only missing boots – hopefully all the nearer.
But with this new, lone (and still very much hypothetical) boot comes a near future for telemark – long in the making – that is poised to coalesce around a monolithic, singular piece of gear. While the launch (whenever it is) will prove exciting and is much needed for telemark – maybe as much from a momentum stand-point as anything – it will invariably push the turn’s retail down one path, unavoidably putting an unrealistic breadth of expectations and years of hopes on one piece of equipment.
And that may in fact change little going forward; instead of revolutionizing telemark retail, it may yet become but an option given to a telemark populace used to making do. While the existing options in telemark footwear are at once workable, limited, unsatisfactory, and mysterious; options exist – on several incompatible norms – that beg the free-heel skier to delve into a nebulous and convoluted world to find solutions to their equipment problem. A problem the new Scarpa boot may do little to alleviate. That solution is the boot quiver.
Much conjecture has swirled around the Scarpa unicorn boot. Disparate hopes – from novel uses of futuristic plastics to infinitesimal weights long sought by the dozen or so but loud free-heel skimo racers – have framed the discussion of said boot. But as small crumbs of info have come from testers, and as the reality of a single boot has supplanted the hopes of an entire line, the overarching expectations of the pragmatic is that the new offering will smack right into the meat of the bell curve: not too heavy, not too light; good walk mode with decent range of motion; something that would work at the resort and in the backcountry; and hopefully continue the solid telemark sensation with the use of PeBax (though some worry this has become an afterthought compared to weight and features).
What the telemark faithful can expect then is a boot in the jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none category. While that is sure to satisfy many – and quench at least something in the throngs of free-heelers who’ve longed for boot innovation – the fact remains that the new boot may do little for those needing a specialized option, and will unsuccessfully fill the current gaps in offerings in telemark gear, especially on the new telemark norm that the boot will be part of.
Telemark will remain without a more versatile, T2-style NTN boot, and, maybe more glaringly when compared to the vast offerings in alpine touring gear, telemark will remain without a light touring boot available new and DIY-free at retail (more on this later). With backcountry skiing being core to telemark history – not to mention how influential backcountry marketing has become to the economics of ski gear at large – telemark’s continued path without a best-in-class light boot would be a stark reminder of how pervasive the lack of available boot options is in the sport.
But true to form, the telemark faithful have made workarounds. Meet the vintage F1 and F3 alpine touring boots from Scarpa – early versions of their AT boots that had tech fittings front and back, and – most consequentially – bellows.
Scarpa released the first version of the F1 in mid-2000s, an early and far cry from its current miniscule AT boot that goes by the same name. While the new version retails for a stout $899 and weighs a lean 2300g per pair (sorry jealous tele-skimo folks), the original F1 had a modern-for-the-time walk-mode, fashionably bright-yellow color, and a bellows over the forefoot for ergonomics in the stride. In a 2005 review, Lou Dawson wrote of a telemark skier approaching him during the test of the F1, wondering what new tele equipment Dawson was climbing on. The free-heeler asked, “what kind of gear is that then?” to which Dawson replied, “It’s rando buddy…fastest uphill and the most fun down.” Dawson elaborated: “What confused the telemarker were my Scarpa F1 randonnee skimo boots. With a forefoot bellows to allow metatarsal flex, they look just like telemark boots.”
This novel use of a telemark-like bellows continued with the F3, released by Scarpa later in the decade. Dawson again reviewed the-then latest in the AT world, writing on WildSnow that, “obviously, the stand-apart feature of the F3 is a metatarsal bend ‘bellows’ not unlike the ubiquitous plastic telemark boot. Difference is that this bend is not tuned for adding power to a telemark turn, but rather to add ergonomics to your stride while using Dynafit bindings.”
The F3 was made more stout than the F1, with Dawson continuing, “Scarpa also makes another boot, the F1, that does the same thing. But the F1 is more a dedicated randonnee race boot that’s slightly less beefy in downhill mode.” No one could have known that these two AT boots, complete with Dynafit compatibility, different weights/specs, and a bellows installed for a better walk experience, would almost two decades later represent the pinnacle of light touring telemark boots – a DIY telemark touring line that to this day has no equal at retail.
This couldn’t have happened without Mark Lengel’s Telemark Tech System, the first known, available-for-sale free-heel binding that incorporated the Dynafit tech toe. Telemark skiers had dreamed of using the two-pin technology for free-heel skiing, but Lengel was the first to bring it to market via his Salt Lake City based company in 2011. And the first boots that could work in his system were the vintage F1 and F3 from Scarpa – then the only ski boots available that had both two-pin hardware installed, and a telemark-necessary bellows.
What’s ensued is more than a decade of Craigslist scouring for the now discontinued boots – the lightest bellowed ski boots available anywhere. And with that scour has come hoarding, and multitudes of DIY fixes – from installed instep buckles, to carbon shims; even aftermarket, DIY NTN connections have found their way onto the boots. The telemark faithful have tinkered on, using these boots to create the lightest touring setups available – in large part because nothing comparable is available at retail. A reality that will continue, even with the release of the new telemark boot from Scarpa. If a telemark skier wants a specialized touring boot, collecting these old randonee boots is the only option - point goes to the boot quiver.
While Scarpa and Crispi indeed make new model boots compatible with the latest tech bindings, these offerings have done little to quench the thirst of backcountry oriented telemark skiers. And while the new Scrapa boot remains a figment of the free-heel imagination (and maybe even after it's a reality) the hoard is on.
Join us next week for the next instalment in the series: Do You Need To Hoard a Telemark Boot Quiver? Part II: Compatibility Blues
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