Touring Boots: For those of you who avoid lift lines like the plague, these tele boots are suited to climbing and touring in the backcountry. They are first and foremost -- lighter weight. They have lower cuffs for more freedom of movement, generally less buckles and are made of a softer, easier flexing plastic. The Scarpa T-3 and Garmont Excursion are good examples of these boots. Although we may not see many of these in the West these days, they are great options for touring rolling terrain and will give enough support to make some turns on low angle hills. Even if we do not have all of these in stock, we can special order anything that our manufacturers carry.Give us a call to check availability.

All Mountain: Many of us here in Crested Butte split our time between the lifts and the backcountry, because both are so fantastic. So we are always looking for that perfect all-purpose-does-everything-well telemark boot. We don't really want a tele boot as light as the T-3 or Excursion because they don't allow us to put the power into our bigger skis, but since we are often skinning up to the peak for our turns, we don't want to carry the big monsters either. Just about any telemark boot could be forced into this category, but we think there are some clear choices. Namely, the Garmont SynerG, the Garmont Venus (for her), the Crispi XP or the Scarpa T2X or T2X Women's. Each of these tele boots has three buckles, higher cuffs and stiffer plastic than their touring cousins, but lack the power, weight and stiffness of their bigger brothers and sisters. Also great for intermediate or beginner skiers who are learning how to flex that tele turn.  

For those who value performance, stiffness and control over all else. It's a gross generalization we know, but the skier in this category generally skis lift served terrain and isn't so concerned about weight and touring ability. That said, we will be the first to acknowledge that more and more people are taking these things into the backcountry because they are willing and able to sacrifice weight for control. These boots have substantially higher cuffs, three or four buckles, are made of a much stiffer plastic and could be used to anchor a small boat. (Well, ok, that's an exaggeration). The king of this mountain has always been the Scarpa T-Race, a niche boot. The more versatile and useful boots in this category include the Scarpa T-1, the Garmont Ener-G, Garmont Elektra, Scarpa T1 Lady , and the Crispi X-R, which are all excellent choices for skiers that are primarily in bounds, but enjoy venturing off-piste occasionally.