The new Tx Pro from Scarpa
Bounding down the slope, pressed into lunge, I feel the rigid, active feedback of telemark’s belated entrance into the modern gear paradigm. I’m skiing Scarpa’s new Tx Pro, a vastly overhauled model in the eminent bootmaker’s storied if seldomly updated free-heel line. But updated it is. Finally. Some 15 years of stagnation has left free-heel, downhill skiing with eminently usable, if woefully antiquated footwear, especially compared to alpine counterparts. But at last telemark is getting its modern, marketable boot, slated for release this fall.
And what a long, twisting path telemark’s protracted struggle for modern gear has been.
Free-heel bindings first took a marked step toward modernity with the advent of the New Telemark Norm (NTN) nearly twenty years ago; an attempt to leave duckbills and cables in the past that still hasn’t quite accomplished such. Makers then jumped into the innovative if heavily DIY fray of free-heel tech-toe bindings, leading to a wave of homespun creations that eventually pushed manufacturers to create their own.
But the boots have been slower to evolve. Many a Dynafit telemarker has taken to using discontinued but apt gear as their boots of choice, such as the old stock, first generation Scarpa alpine touring boots - soft, tech-toe laden footwear from the George W. Bush years that curiously also came with bellows.
But the entrance of the new Tx Pro could be a vision of where the telemark boot evolution is finally headed - toward models with a stiffer, rigid flex and unmatched uphill specs that are - and this is a big deal in telemark - widely available at retail. But the release also points to another direction, toward options in the nordic-oriented cross-country downhill space, a free-heel realm of interest to manufacturers with its many users. To call this inflection point anything but a new dawn for the sport’s gear would be to risk understatement.
Duct tape and all - Scarpa's aged F1 (right) and F3 bellowed alpine touring boots - what many touring (two) pinners have been using for the past ten-plus years.
The new Tx Pro is stiff, sleek, and armed to the teeth with modern features - it is almost untelemark-like in its new fangled nature. A modern walk-mode sits alongside large, fiddle-free buckles, all with a touring-centric weight never before seen in an aggressive downhill telemark boot. It’s at once an odd and exhilarating ski experience - innovative telemark boots feel both novel but almost unnatural. But perhaps the new Tx Pro hints at a new dawn, where the old ethos of cobbling things together or holding onto them for the better part of a generation may one day be augmented with widespread modern gear availability for telemark.
This moment marks both a changing of the guard in the telemark culture but also an inflection point in the sport’s history. Years ago, as telemark went from backcountry darling to the no-one-cares-you-tele also-ran, the bigger manufacturers (Black Diamond, Rossignol, K2…) axed their free-heel offerings as most telemark skiers of the aughts - many not all-in to begin with - bailed for Dynafit bindings. Scarpa’s decision to finally take the plunge and release the vastly revamped Tx Pro - the most modern telemark boot ever by an order of magnitude - is thus a watershed moment in the sport, its timing speaking to a possible resurgence in participation for aggressive telemark skiing. And it beckons newcomers and defectors alike to join the fray on equipment that not only telemarks, but now has fewer disadvantages on paper compared to alpine counterparts than ever before.
But as someone used to skiing flexible, telemark-tech-toe cable bindings paired with my soft, old-stock F3s (one of Scarpa’s bellowed AT boots from the aughts that isn’t unlike a T2, Scarpa’s classic, soft, three-buckle, duck-billed tele boot), the new Tx Pro feels like a wake up call - like the momentum of the new vanguard in telemark gear - New Telemark Norm bindings, and all - may at last be unstoppable.
I feel at once powerful and uneasy on the new boot, it’s soft bellows but rigid cuff flex leaving me standing higher than usual, lunging shallower than I’m comfortable with. But perhaps that’s an ankle-flexion-loving dinosaur speaking.
The new boot dovetails with the taut, new age telemark bindings, a powerful paradigm that the Tx Pro completes. While it’s a new day in gear specs for telemark - especailly for soft boot lovers - it's also something of a continuity in telemark’s stalled evolution, especially on the new telemark norm. The revamped Tx Pro in many ways is the next logical step for those who have already taken the plunge on newer boots and bindings, and may help usher the sport's gear onward in a more singular direction.
Still, I wonder about this stiff flex - and how this one boot - with more varied expectations on it than a single piece of footwear could ever shoulder - will be accepted by a telemark populace that is at once impatiently excited for modern equipment, but also comprises a group with an infinite continuum of desires and opinions for how their turn should feel.
Scarpa North America CEO Kim Miller feels that pressure. And he and Scarpa have taken their time coming to the task of disrupting telemark boots forward, letting the binding innovation cool down before making a play for the modern free-heel market.
And the flex of the boot was always top of mind. “The flex is the most subjective part of a tele boot design,” says Miller. “The vast majority of the boot testers liked the new boot and flex. This was true across the core cross sections of the test team and included the variables of skier weights, bindings, skis, use and test condition.”
Years of testing and myriad spec models brought the Tx Pro to its current state - a touring workhorse on par with mid-level AT options (read: the ones most people enjoy touring and skiing on) that ushers the skier toward a modern take on The Turn. And that makes sense. The new Tx Pro is perhaps the last giant step for telemark away from the classic 75mm Nordic norm and toward the New Telemark Norm (NTN). Though questions remain on the future of Scarpa’s softer boots.
Released in 2007, NTN’s high-leverage bindings eschewed the cable/cartridge connection of old for a stout underfoot platform under the ball of the foot. The norm and its ability for features (ski breaks, step-in functionality, to name a few) was tasked with replacing the old guard; the duckbilled boots and cable bindings of the 75mm-wide Nordic Norm. But that transition was initially half-baked and poorly received, leaving telemark skiing splintered between two main norms and eventually several subnorms.
While that schism led to innovation in binding design, it marooned the boot manufacturers, leaving them unable to pinpoint what direction the telemark interface would collectively move toward. But now the sport is leaning evermore toward NTN (and tech iterations of the norm), with sales of the new guard far outpacing the old. The new Tx Pro - with its tech toe compatibility, touring ability, and rigid skiing sensation - is thus an unequivocal step toward a telemark future first sprouted nearly twenty years ago.
Though a lover of soft boots and soft bindings, I dive into the new TX Pro. At first rebuffed by the resistance at the cuff, my feelings toward the boot mellows as its stiffness at the cuff does in turn. The boot indeed breaks in over the course of a month, though it retains its own characteristics; the operative sensation being a rigid performance. Instead of allowing my usual powerful, deep loading of the uphill ski, I am nudged toward a more nuanced back ski weighting, using more of the front ski from a higher stance - a more modern take that not only dovetails with how the strong, resistive new telemark norm bindings flex, but feels less committing - though maybe also less typically telemark than the deep lunge I usually take.
Finding a stride on the new Tx Pro
My nuanced if opinionated feeling on the boot is nothing new in telemark, a sport long marked by a population known for their fierce independence and often fiery assessments of gear.
In an effort to distill the telemark community’s ever present opinions on their equipment, Scarpa will be instituting a feedback program to coincide with the Tx Pro’s launch. “It sounds pretty analog, which it is in some ways, but we’re going to open up a survey that’s going to go with every pair of boots,” says Miller. “There’ll be a little card with a QR code on it where you can go to the survey site.”
“It’s all about listening at this point, we’ve done all the talking we can,” says Miller, a wide grin coming to his face. “Now all we can say is ‘we cooked the meal, you know, you’re just going to have to taste it.’ The wine has been waiting for you for years now and we think it’s ready, so pull it out of the box and let’s see what you think and give us your feedback.”
Regardless of any opinions or feedback that may come, Scarpa will bring to market what telemark skiers have not only long yearned for, but what the sport has desperately needed. It’s a resolute move forward for a sport so niche it has at times felt the path into the future was never guaranteed.
And the boot indeed feels more natural as time goes on. While my chattering uphill ski gives me some pause, I am reminded that many will love this boot, and, as Miller says, “we never expected one boot to be perfect for everyone and this is just the first step in the NTN Tele boot evolution.”
This NTN Tele Boot Evolution from Scarpa - its first step being the revamped TX Pro - could revolutionize telemark equipment. And it comes at a time when the energy of the sport seems to be rising with a fresh, modern vibe that borrows more heavily from mainstream ski culture than telemark has in decades. Instagram influencers in their stylish, contemporary way, have lauded the new boot to fanfare, while a core set of retailers have lined up to stock the boot this fall.
“The Tx Pro was leading the pack early on [in preseason sales], out of the chute, across all ski boot models, which was really interesting,” Miller says. “We were seeing the response on the consumer level but also on our retail partners level, and that was of course the real vote of confidence.” The sport’s burgeoning approachability, coupled with Scarpa’s hypothetical introduction of other models in the new line, could be monumental for the sport at a time when it feels poised for a tipping point.
And the next steps Scarpa takes could indeed bring an array of modern telemark boots that may catapult more users to the sport, and more innovation from manufacturers. “The next logical step would be to replace the TX Comp and add a stiffer model with tech,” says Miller, alluding to the possible future ubiquity of two-pin, Dynafit-style bindings in telemark.
“The first intention was to replace the Tx Pro / Tx Comp family. So the next thing that is in works, I’ll say, is the next Tx Comp version,” says Miller. “And obviously the basic DNA will be very similar, but it will be kind of turbo charged in certain ways to make it the Tx Comp.”
Miller hints that an update in materials could be in the works for the new Tx Comp, especially compared to the previous model. “There’s a whole range of new options that we’re trying to make sure that they work well.” That dynamic is especially operative with the tech-toe interface and the stresses that can come from their use in a stiff telemark boot.
“Beyond that - we’ll base a lot of the Comp development on what we’re seeing in the Pro, in the first year of use, and make any tweaks that we learn from that,” says Miller.
But Miller and Scarpa have more abstract notions on the deeper future of telemark boots, especially considering that the new telemark norm has never fully replaced the classic duckbilled, 75mm Nordic norm that still covers use-cases that neither the current NTN boots nor the new Tx Pro does.
“The bigger vision for NTN should not be limited to what we see and know today, and the opportunity in innovation and new products that help Tele Skiers and Rugged Touring Skiers add or transition between 75mm and NTN needs more work, ideation and development,” says Miller. “We are thinking about this from both directions, where 75mm and NTN meet in design but cross over in actual skier use and goals.”
Miller says Scarpa is especially interested in the rugged touring space - a subset of skiers who dabble in the downhill realm, some of whom may be just starting out, often on second-hand gear, exploring cross-country skiing locales - from snowbound golf courses to trailheads - and who could become full fledged skiers. “I think of Nordic skiing, rugged touring, as the gateway to backcountry skiing in many ways, and that’s where you get the bug. So feeding that is very important,” Miller says.
As abstract as that prognostication may be for the future of soft, 75mm telemark boots, it could speak to the norm’s continued availability. Scarpa sees those models as not only filling the needs of aggressive telemark skiers still on the Nordic norm, but also fulfilling the role of feeder - being the possible gear choice of those entering the sport.
Miller even sees other avenues in the long-range evolution in their boots - always far from guaranteed - as possibly being on another free-heel platform. Speaking to the future outlook of what could be, Miller hypothetically asks “should we make boots that fit in a different binding norm, like a rugged touring binding norm, for example.”
In fact Scarpa’s could soon look to the T2/T4 family of 75mm boots for potential updates. “For the moment, 75mm, the boots that we have in the line, are in the in-line for some updates and considerations,” says Miller. “Before we start working on those in earnest we want to really think about - and this is where the business case comes in - how do you make this commercially viable, and how do we build a business case that says ‘a new T2 would be as successful as a new Tx Pro was.’”
Still, Scarpa is dedicated to the new telemark norms for their future cutting-edge boots. “The NTN system and relevant tech systems have replaced 75mm - not for everyone, I mean I realize there’s a lot of systems out there - but for us in terms of development and what we think is most sensible in terms of investment for that level and that performance range.”
With that, telemark enters uncharted waters, the proverbial dark side of the moon of modern gear offerings. In that mysterious abstract may lie multitudes of potential telemark skiers - on various norms encompassing numerous philosophies - brought into the fold on the promise of contemporary gear instead of the previous paradigm of (often incorrectly) perceived archaic equipment; a notion that has long repulsed those looking for lighter, cooler gear options, but has also bestowed the sport with a certain insular purity. And the hardscrabble gear of telemark has played its part, aiding free-heel skiing’s identity as deeply tied to an ethos of independence; of embracing a soulful if harder turn.
But the operative movement for telemark is illustrated clearly by the new Tx Pro, an aggressive, modern take on telemark that promises to only be a first step.
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