Gear > Ski > Ski Touring > Touring Boots
Ski touring or randonnée or boots are generally shorter, lighter and more flexible than alpine ski boots. They will also feature a ski/walk position to give a lot of flex while climbing. The sole of the boot is contoured rubber to give grip when walking around on hardpacked snow. This sole means that they should not be used in standard alpine bindings as the release cannot be adjusted reliably.
Randonnée boots have improved enormously over the last 10 years in terms of performance and the top of the range models can be used equally well on piste in a variety of conditions. There are still some older designs on the market as well as super-featherweight competition models which are not suited to large, freeride type skis. Touring ski boot fitting is pretty much the same as for alpine or downhill models. The latest thermoformable inner boots make fitting more complicated as the boot will never fit perfectly until the inner is heat moulded. It is very important that boot sizing is correct for thermoformable inners. Contrary to some claims the inner boots will only adjust a small amount and error can increase inner boot wear, be painful and expensive to correct.
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