Park on touring boots?

[JibbaTheHutt]

so its come time that i either need to either replace the liners and soles of my boots or invest in a new set. So, having purchased my first touring set up recently im wondering whether i should maybe go down the hike and ride route?

problem is im still wanting to ride park on the days where there isnt any pow to be had and into the spring, how do hike and ride boots generally hold up in the park? considering im comfortable hitting all jumps and rails, and in reality dont see myself doing any touring for more than a couple hours tops.

 

[schusson]

I would stray away from hitting park hard in AT boots. Granted, i did take my Freedom SL's into the park this year and they held up pretty well.

 

[VD.]

Sounds like you'd be going for a 'freeride' boot for the amount of touring you're planning on, basically a downhill boot with a watered-down walk mode, something like a Lange XT130 or Rossignol Alltrack Pro. If so, yeh you'll be able to ski park without finding your boots too much of a hindrance. Sure you could go for a boot quiver, but unless you're throwing down pretty hard in the park it'd probably be unnecessary.

 

[BengoUnchained]

Sounds like you'd be going for a 'freeride' boot for the amount of touring you're planning on, basically a downhill boot with a watered-down walk mode, something like a Lange XT130 or Rossignol Alltrack Pro. If so, yeh you'll be able to ski park without finding your boots too much of a hindrance. Sure you could go for a boot quiver, but unless you're throwing down pretty hard in the park it'd probably be unnecessary.

I have Lange XT-100s and can back this up. It's an alpine boot with a walk mode, albeit a shitty one. I'm newish to touring so I don't have much to compare it to but to get any cuff motion whatsoever you have to loosen the top buckles all the way when putting the boot into walk mode. I know this helps with most AT boots but is required for this boot. My point is just that if you don't mind this minor inconvenience you get a pretty decent alpine boot on the way down or at the resort.

 

[elcornholio]

The 2016 Dalbello Lupo appears to have a tech toe and heel and I'm sure it could work easily for both park and touring.

 

[onenerdykid]

"Touring" is a pretty general catgegory, as it covers everything from stupid light carbon rando race boots to heavy ass alpine boots with simple walk modes.

Hitting the park with a pin-binding-only setup is probably not the setup I would recommend but for sure you can use an alpine boot with a walk mode in a normal alpine binding, as others have said.

 

[JibbaTheHutt]

"Touring" is a pretty general catgegory, as it covers everything from stupid light carbon rando race boots to heavy ass alpine boots with simple walk modes.

well i did say hike and ride boots, i obviously have no intention of riding park in fully fledged at boots.

 

[minihef]

I ski park fairly often in a pair of Cochise and haven't had any issues.

 

[ReetsAdeets]

I usually ski in some older Salomon Ghosts, and have toured in them quite a bit. I also have some Garmont Radiums, a fairly beefy AT boot, that I have quite a bit of time in. The biggest difference I notice is the lower height of the Radiums, which feels sketchy after skiing in the Ghosts for a while. Skiing in the Garmonts doesn't necessarily dissuade me from hitting anything, but I do feel like I have less control and like I'm going to break my leg off at the cuff when I first get in them. If you want to ski one boot in and out of the resort and in the park, definitely get something that is basically a DH boot with a simple walk function. For the times you do get out touring, the difference won't be too bad on the way up, and on the way down you will enjoy the ski down more than you disliked the skin up compared to doing it in an AT boot (but really you won't even know because you just have one boot).