Dynafit TLT 6P Alpine touring boots

[Quadzilla]

Today was a pretty fun day as I went to Alpenglow in Tahoe City to get fitted with new AT boots. One thing I have learned in the past is skiboots need to be tried on and fitted in person and not some sort of online purchase. I like Alpenglow in Tahoe City as they are staffed by actual BC skiers committed to the sport and do community things beyond the actual store. I usually work with Jeff, very knowledgable and knows what he is talking about. I decided last year that I wanted to lighten my uphill load, maybe sacrafice some downhill power and have a boot with tons of ROM. So, I decide on a Dynafit TLT6P ski boot as the foundation. So boot choice was made but I had great concerns about the size and fit. I normally wear a 28.0 in all my ski boots and never had a problem where I had to punch the plastic in the shell. Fortunately Alpenglow just got in 28's and 29's. So, I had a choice and a comparsion side by side. Shell fit in the 28 was about 1 cm and about twice that in the 29. That put up a red flag right away. The Dynafit liners are somewhat thin. So I put a 28 on one foot and the 29 on the other. 28 felt like a performance alpine skiboot fit and the 29 felt decent. locking both boots down, they felt strong and powerful so my confidence was up that these boots could easially drive my BD Justice which is 185 and 115 underfoot. Still which one? 28 or 29? Talking it over with Jeff and following my gut instincts, I chose the 29's. I am confident they will hike better, be warmer and not hurt at the end of the day after alot of uphill vert. Still ski the down good enough. These boots will never see a resort so I guess we will see. Dynafit size chart says the 29 is the right size for my US 11 foot. Done deal.
Some features of the TLT6, light weight in the 6# catagory, huge ROM and stiffness of a 4 buckle AT boot. I have two skis that these boots will push, 184 Volkl NanuQ/Dynafit Speeds and 185 BD Justice/Dynafit Speeds.

[Dostn8r]

How do they fit over your instep? IME as long as the boot holds your heel in the pocket well, the rest is frosting. Am guessing you have a normal to high instep. If that is the case, I concur, a 29 is the better choice.

[Quadzilla]

How do they fit over your instep? IME as long as the boot holds your heel in the pocket well, the rest is frosting. Am guessing you have a normal to high instep. If that is the case, I concur, a 29 is the better choice.

I would say that my instep is average. I have a decent arch. One foot has a little higher instep due to a broken foot years ago. These boots do not press down on the instep. Heel pocket is at best average and at some point may need to be shimmed. I tried the boots with the stock cheesy footbed so a good footbed will help and bring my foot further back. The difference between the 28 and the 29 is length. In the 28 my big toe was pressing up against the front with liners in. The 29 didn't. The overall feeling was similar in both. So, might be a pick your poison kinda thing, shim work on the bigger boot later or visits to bootfitter for punching early on. I don't want to punch these boots the shell is extra thin. I think I will be OK, Jeff who has the same boots and the earlier generation TLT5 and sells and tours with skiers on the same boot. He thinks I will be happy with the size . IMO, a little extra volume is bad in a teleboot but not as big a difference in a AT boot. I would most certainly give up a little on downhill power for comfort on the up.

[Quadzilla]

OK, just got a couple of days on these boots, unfortunately there isn't enough snow to tour yet so I took them to the resort and skied some firmish manmade to test them and see if I need to work on the fit before I get on a tour and find out there is a pinch. The boots have three options to tune the boots for the conditions and the skis you are using. There is two tongue options as well as skiing them without the tongue. The tongues are either very stiff or average stiffness. During my testing I skied them with the ave tongue and tongueless. I used a pair of Volkyl NanuQ backcountry skis that are 184 and 96 in the waist. Mt. Rose has skiing from the top but only two blue trails open and 1500 vert. The snow was what I consider "westcoast firm" so not icy but you don't want to fall on it either. I did 30,000 vert in two days actually not full days but a few hours eachday. The boots with the ave tongues are impressive and have plenty of power and was laying down some nice turns but not realy railing turns, just afraid to lay the skis over. The skis are grippy but light and when pushed they chattered. I expected that as they are way light and no metal or exotic layup. I also skied the setup a bunch tongueless and the difference was noticable but still doable with plenty of margin in control. So, I am very impressed with the boots and I think they will ski these skis and my 115's as well as my Radiums that I had previously. They won't see any resort duty and I am confident they will be great climbers. I will continue to add impressions as I get them in touring mode.

[Big Steve]

Just got a pair of TLT6Ms (CL liner) from Telemark-Pyrenees for $562 shipped. I would have purchased locally but no local shop had the 30-30.5 shell in stock.

I have 125+ days on my old beat-to-**** TLT5Ms (gen1, forward lean lock plate DIY modded to equivalent of current more upright mode of TLT6/One/Merc/Vulcan). First impression TLT5M/TLT6M comparo:

Respective weights are closer than I thought, probably because I got the lighter CL liner, which is not available in NA.

TLT6 with CL liner seems to be a bit wider in the forefoot. I needed to punch my TLT5s, not sure a punch will be necessary with the TLT6.

TLT6 lower buckle is a huge improvement, more adjustable, more solid anchor, stays closed. Upper hinged buckle is also an improvement, one I've seen before on my One PXs (sold to bud cuz due to instep issues).

Heel hold is excellent on both.

TLT6 seems to ski a bit better, but time will tell. Nice progressive flex for such a light boot.

I will miss the forefoot flex for walking, scrambling and touring, but I won't miss the popped out rivets and water intrusion.

Looking forward to using the 3-tongue options. I skied my TLT5M 50% w/ and 50% w/o tongues, and often wanted a 'tweener option.

[NOBS]

Hey big Steve, big fan of your insights across the sites. I'm on Maestrale RS, am 5-11" 190, ex crappy racer on east coast. 45yrs old, max speed limit on east coast alpine screwing around is around 50-55. Been touring for two years, mostly just up laps of 1300' before taking kids to the hill. Alpine setup is Lange rx130 with zipfits, so used to stiff setup. Maestrale rs have a fun flex but heel hold is kinda loose in the intuition. I'm thinking tlt6p could be an answer, but then I see you like the tlt6m.... And as I recall you are a big dude. Can you explain the conundrum? Do you not like to rip it on the AT platform? I can rip decently on the RS, but nothing like the plug boot feel. As I age, I want to go lighter but still feel supported and locked down. Wondering if dynafit has better heel pocket and if vulcan, tlt6 etc might be a bit stiffer with better heel hold. Thanks for any insights.

[Big Steve]

a bud is looking to sell his Spirit 3s. They'll work for ya.

nice try, nobs

[NOBS]

Thanks and my apologies for being new to AT skiing. Where I live my only practical access to AT boots is via the internet, which makes it a guessing game. I ski 28.5 Alpine boots and 29.5 AT boots (RS), but the heel hold isn't as great as I'd like. I've read that the dynafits (TLTs, Vulcans) have really tight heel pockets. Would appreciate any useful info on heel hold and last fit for a d-width foot.

[Big Steve]

NOBS, I figured you were punking me with the "55mph screwing around" and "ripping in the BC" talk and snob spelled backwards thing. Still not sure, but I'll play. The new Dynafits (One, Mercury, Vulcan, TLT6) have great heel hold. Re your D forefoot width, I'm a D forefoot width, punched my TLT5s, will likely get a punch on my TLT6, no punch necessary on my Ones (which I sold to a bud due to instep issues). The only way you'll know what fits is to actually try them on, keeping in mind that a bootfitter make more room in spots if required. Re fore-aft stiffness, you're asking the wrong guy because the RS is as stiff fore-aft as want/need and IMO lightweight touring boots like TLT6 (M or P) are designed for touring, not ripping. All the boots you mention are very stiff laterally, but have a broad range of fore-aft stiffness. Check out the TGR comparative AT boot flex thread, which assigns the Vulcan a 130 rating (way too stiff for me), the Mercury a 110, the RS a 105 and the TLT6P a 100.

[NOBS]

Thanks big Steve...no punking here, I'm not that kinda internet d-bag. Just a guy in boston who skis in Maine and gets out to UT a couple times a year. The 55mph thing is from my gps app... Keeps me interested when all we have is hardback ****, so I pull out the old 27m GS boards and see how fast I can go on our max 32 degree slopes....actually 52 is the best I can do and keep it under control.... If you had to live here you'd have to find a way to entertain yourself as we'll....avg snowfall at my hill is 110"/yr. Anyway, I'm in UT next week and hoping to check some tlt6p boots out.... I figure if I'm gonna spend more time working on AT skills, then try to go super light with good downhill power.... Maybe a good complement to the RS. When the next gen of heavier AT boot comes out, might try that. I appreciate your feedback.... I read all the blogs, etc and I know you are experienced, engaged and thoughtful.

[NOBS]

By the way, nobs stands for no b.s.

[NOBS]

Finally, not sure if this is getting off point, but I'm really interested to try the tlt6p on my k2 backups and my nunataqs in some steeper conditions. The k2s are on speed rads and the volkls are on ft12. I had some pre-release issues in December on the rads in some 14" new snow on no base in rocks and trees...as a newbie, this scared me, because I can deform edges/sidewalls on my jesters and never pre release like that. So you see, just looking for beta from the guys that get to live the life on the west coast/Rockies.

[Big Steve]

I had some pre-release issues

If it was a lateral release it was likely user error, probably iced up or dirty toe dimples, but too small of a heel gap can sometimes allow the ski to decamber resulting in the heel getting bumped and releasing at the toe. The latter is quite rare and I've never seen it on anything other than a very soft ski underfoot. Doubt that could happen with Backups for Nunataqs if the heel gap was correctly set. Vertical releases can happen if you get sprung out suddenly from a hole -- it's happened to me (250 lbs.) two times in hundreds of days on Dynafits.

[NOBS]

Thanks big Steve....not sure how I released. Snow was 14" deep with no base and I was jump turning off rocks on 30-35degree slope. No ice in pin sockets cuz I was lift served. Had din set at 9, but vertical was set at 9 also... I was under impression that new towers in new dynafits prevented shoving out of the toe. But I also mis-calibrated the heel gap with that new spacer dynafit is shipping...I tightened it flush instead of aligning the lines... Maybe that was the issue. In any case, bought a pair of tlt6ps today on bit of discount and hoping my d foot will fit. Biggest complaint with RS is the loose heel pocket, but I love the last. Heading to UT for a week this Saturday and hoping the tlt6 last will be okay. I gotta believe at 250 you can't have too narrow a foot? Worst case I'm out $10 on the return shipping if they don't fit...do you recommend baking the dynafit CR liners at 220F for 10 minutes, with toe caps etc to dial the fit? Appreciate your feedback

[Big Steve]

not sure how I released. . . I was jump turning off rocks on 30-35degree slope.

But I also mis-calibrated the heel gap with that new spacer dynafit is shipping...I tightened it flush instead of aligning the lines

Did you see this? http://www.wildsnow.com/2599/dynafit...ce-shim-gauge/

you need to double-check your heel gap by taking boot out of binding heel, snapping back down again, then pushing heel unit firmly towards boot heel before checking the gap again. Idea is to take up any lingering slack in the 2013/2014 heel elasticity system so you don’t end up with too wide a heel gap.