THR's Gear Shed podcast opens the season with a roundtable discussion about lighter-weight touring boots. The roundtable includes Adam Fabrikant, Slator Aplin, and Gear Editor Gavin Hess. In discussing this boot class, we'll set somewhat arbitrary limits and call the gram-counting confines as limited between 1000g-1250g. These boots are marginally beefier than a pure skimo race boot and a bit leaner than what we coin the 2+ buckle boot and even more robust boots in the freeride class. 

For some context, boots in this class, what Adam Fabrikant refers to as the Race+ category on the podcast, include (but are not exclusive to) the Dynafit Blacklight, Scarpa F1 XT, Tecnica Zero G Peak Carbon, Atomic Backland Carbon, Fischer Travers, Salomon S/Lab MTN Summit, and the La Sportiva Skorpius CR II (and soon to be available Kilo). The MTN Summit and Skorpius CR II are light enough and possess suitable ROM and friction to be included here, but trend towards the more robust 2+ buckle realm. 

(You can hear our podcast on 2+ buckle touring boots here.)

What you'll find isn't so much a specific boot recommendation; these are all excellent boots if they fit your foot and style of skiing, but a discussion of when we use these boots, likes and dislikes, and some notes on liner choice.

If you have specific questions regarding the information (and opinions) presented in the podcast, you can comment on the website or email us on The High Route's contact page (editor@the-high-route.com). 

Thanks for listening. 

The High Route is a reader and listener-supported project, and we'll be releasing our first print edition of The High Route later this winter. You can learn how to support us here.  

You can find us at the-high-route.com: Yeah, there are two hyphens for redundancy, which is a good policy in the mountains. And according to Barry Wicks, don't-fear-the-hyphens®.

The theme music for The High Route Podcast comes from Storms in the Hill Country and the album The Self Transforming (Thank you, Jens Langsjoen). You can find a link to the album here—there are so many good songs on this album. And if you think you've spotted a UFO in the past or visited the 7th dimension, "Beautiful Alien" is a good tune to begin with.