The footwear specialists of Calzaturificio Dal Bello have picked up this year’s ISPO footwear award for the LITE version of their Virus ski touring boots. The ISPO jury thought the boot was innovative, offering a better package while reducing overall weight.
Lightweight (by that we mean under 2500grams) ski touring boots are proving very popular at the moment. The V.i.r.u.s. LITE is said to address the problem of wider skis which require more energy transfer from skier to board. The Virus Lite is very flexible both forwards and backwards when climbing but offers near alpine stiffness for the descent. It has a two part “split” tongue that can either increase flexibility or stiffness depending on adjustment and something called “Quadrablock Stability Pylons” that ensure optimum boot / binding interface. The three buckle design offers more stiffness than a lot of four buckle ski touring boots although the position is somewhat upright. The double-hinge buckles remain in place when the buckles are open which is neat. They also have a green vibram sole for walking. The boot sole has some flex which helps when walking. The inner boots are, as you would expect, heat moldable. The boot has Dynafit inserts so can be used with their binding range or any of the third party bindings such as those from Felisaz, G3 or Trabb. What is really amazing is the boot weighs just 1700 grammes a pair in 26.5, you can find the boot for around 549 euros in the shops.
Posted by
davidof on Saturday, 13 February, 2010 at 09:37 PM
I was lucky enough to ski the prototypes of these all autumn and early winter. They ski so well my Alpine boots haven’t been outside, and probably won’t be needed again. Even my trusty Scarpa Spirit 4’s are now redundant, although I did make the scary mistake of skiing them for a comparison day.
I now ski the production version of the lite, with the only modification being a stiffer tongue (from the tour version). I don’t think I need any other ski boots any more from Superfat monster skis on the steeps to lightweight skinny skis on long tours these boots drive everything so far.
Posted by on Wednesday, 07 April, 2010 at 01:56 PM
That is a pretty good recommendation Tom. I’m beginning to regret my Scarpa F3s (maybe I’ll troc them?). How did you find the fit like width-wise?
Posted by
davidof on Thursday, 08 April, 2010 at 12:14 PM
Found them pretty similar to my Spirit 4’s. Quite roomy width and height wise.
Definitely go for the shortest shell size your foot fits into.
My foot measures 27.1mm and the shell says 25.5 on the sticker!
Posted by on Thursday, 08 April, 2010 at 02:41 PM
This is the worst boots that I have tried in my life. Many review online are fakie review. This boot is really nice but it is not ocmparabvle with other boots of dynafit, scarpa or garmont. This is a boot for who do ski touring in light, very light way. Don’t believe to internet review, there are too much fakie review.
Posted by on Monday, 17 May, 2010 at 10:20 PM
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