Gear > Ski > Ski Touring > Touring Boots > Scarpa Spirit 3
New for the 2006 season the Spirit 3 is the fruit of Scarpa, Italian ski and alpine boot manufacturer, experience in ski touring boots.
At 3440 grams in size 271 it is a slightly heavier boot than the Scarpa Matrix (3360 grams) but compensates with better downhill performance. The boot is a dual-injection Pebax design giving a mix of rigidity, strength and lightness. The high-cuff Plusfit TT liner can be moulded to different foot shapes. Hopefully this will be a more adaptable Thermo liner than that supplied with the Matrix. Some people have experienced fit problems with the Matrix liner at the extremes of boot sizes. The old liner also had some wear issues.
A non-thermo liner is available for rentals. This is in hard wearing Cordura but adds another 600 grams to the weight.
The boot is a three strap + Velcro powerstrap design. The rear spoiler gives better balance in freeride type terrain. It has forward lean and canting adjustments It features the same heel-retention strap as the Scarpa Tornado but loses one of the toebuckles. The remaining toe buckle uses Scarpa's inside-outside system to better distribute pressure over the forefoot. As a serious touring boot it is available with inserts for Dynafit bindings as well as fitting all standard ski touring bindings. The boot uses Scarpa's Skywalk Vibram sole with a wide tread designed to reduce snow build up beneath the binding.
Boots are available in 24.5 to 31 Mondo sizes. Retail price is: 395 .
1 Measured with our digital scale
I've done about 80,000 meters in my Spirit 3's over the last couple of season. They are a nice comfortable boot, on my feet at least. However they have a number of weak points. There are two rivets that hold a piece of flexible plastic to the front of the boot, these wear through the inner shoe and are not possible to cover. The sole wears very quickly and I've had one of the buckles rip off.
On the plus side the boot is high and fairly stiff, excellent for slightly wider skis and good edge control on hard snow. The sole also gives good grip on snow.
davidof, 9 May 2007
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