Review of the Scarpa Spirit 4 and the Scarpa F3 boot

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http://www.doglotion.com/ski-boot-re...carpa-spirit-4


Summary

It's a trite observation that the Scarpa Spirit 4 and the F3 are different boots for different skiers for different conditions. Given my preferences and where I ski (heavy coastal snow), the Scarpa F3 doesn't fit my needs. Frankly if I wanted a boot for situations and tours where I knew snow would be light, downhills wouldn't be challenging and where I had a lot of flat approaches I would get the F1 over the F3. If I wanted a boot for technical downhills, I wouldn't get the F3. Given my particular biases and preferences, I wouldn't have the need for the F3.

Despite its weight, the sheer comfort of walking and touring in the Spirit 4 combined with its beautifully balanced downhill performance makes it an appealing one boot quiver. Scarpa has hit a home run with this boot in terms of the trade-off between uphill and downhill. Unless you're a big hard charger who straightlines Alaskan faces, this is plenty of boot.

Scarpa F3 - Cayoosh area; Duffy Lake

Scarpa F3

Pros:
* Relatively light
* Very comfortable touring and bootpacking boot
* Tremendous liner
* Matches up nicely with light skis in predictable snow

Cons:
* Requires installing a shim on your skis (solved by new Scarpa shim coming Jan. 2008)
* Not as light as the lightest touring-biased boots (eg. Scarpa F1)
* Does not have the Scarpa F1 "touring cuff"
* Requires finesse and balanced stance for difficult conditions

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2315/...fca677.jpg?v=0

Scarpa Spirit 4 - Kokanee Glacier

Scarpa Spirit 4

Pros:
* Superior tourability among the 4 buckle boot class
* Easily customizable
* Tremendous liner
* Will comfortably drive even big skis

Cons:
* Relatively heavy
* Ribbed buckles are of questionable durability
* Clunky when hiking

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2205/...22f21a.jpg?v=0

so you'd rate the spirit 4 over the new dynafit zzero 4 buckle jobbie?

nice review

I thought you could use F3's with naxos?

or was that the Terminator X I'm thinking about?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ulty_guy

so you'd rate the spirit 4 over the new dynafit zzero 4 buckle jobbie?

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I am trying to decide between the spirit 4 and the dynafit zzero 4 as well, and would be interested in hearing your opinions between the two, LeeLau.

Jon, ulty - from the review and comments on the Carbon Dynafit

To compare, the Spirit 4 with the either the green or black touring tongue felt at least as stiff and as comfortable in the downhills as a Garmont MegaRide modified with an Intution liner. However, neither boot has the lateral stiffness of the Dynafit ZZero 4 buckle carbon.

How big are you guys?

What kind of skis are you using?

The Dynafits flex when skiing is a little harsh - like a linear travel fork. The Scarpas flex feels like butter (in a good way) in a very progressive fashion.

The Dynafit is lighter then the Scarpa by a good chunk

The Scarpa Intuition liner is a proven quantity. The Dynafit liner is not yet proven.

Different tools for slightly different needs right? So its a tough one to answer

Thanks for the review on the F3. Definitely an intriguing boot. Did you get to keep 'em? If you're looking to sell, lemme know.

i'm avg (5'10" 175) and plan to use 180-185 light fatties. i like the whole 'butter' thing cause i already ride flexons so that seems pretty similar. only problem is that i have really narrow and thin feet and scarpa have been too big in the past.

Did you think there was much difference between the Spirit 3 and the Spirit 4?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LeeLau

To compare, the Spirit 4 with the either the green or black touring tongue felt at least as stiff and as comfortable in the downhills as a Garmont MegaRide modified with an Intution liner. However, neither boot has the lateral stiffness of the Dynafit ZZero 4 buckle carbon.

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There is a huge difference in stiffness between the green tongue and black tongue. With which tongue are you comparing the Spirit 4 to the Megaride? Doesn't make sense to use both tongues in your comparison.

I'm really digging the Spirit 4. My only minor complaint is that the heel retention strap buckle is a bitch to get my gloved finger underneath to release it for touring. I like hiking with the top two buckles open and for some reason the buckle is so freakin close to the shell, I have problems getting my finger under it. Pretty minor inconvenience for how good it hikes and drives fat skis. Maybe I just have club fingers.

groups - There were so few F3s in North America I only had the boot for a limited time.

ulty - I have wide feet with flat arches and fit the Scarpas well. I'd highly recommend trying before buying. I suspect the Spirit 4 would be more then enough boot for you.

laser - the F3 is Dynafit only. I got it to fit in my Fritschis but it's not "recommended"

skinny - I wish I had also requested a Spirit 3 from Scarpa to try out. Given how much I liked the Spirit 4 I can only wonder if the lighter Spirit 3 was more then enough boot for a light guy like me

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mountain Junkie

There is a huge difference in stiffness between the green tongue and black tongue. With which tongue are you comparing the Spirit 4 to the Megaride? Doesn't make sense to use both tongues in your comparison.

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I know. I struggled with this one. In my MegaRides I couldn't find much difference in skiability between the stock touring tongue and the black tongue. The variable that made the most difference to me in stiffening up my Mega Ride was not using the black Scarpa tongue or using the booster strap but in using an Intuition liner as opposed to a G-Fit liner.

This was the same for me with the Spirit 4. I simply didn't find that much difference between the green and black tongue.

Bear in mind that I'm a light guy who generally speaking, likes soft boots.

So, to answer your question, neither the use of the soft or stiff tongue made much difference to me in boot stiffness in either the MegaRide or Spirit 4. The Megaride with Intuition liner felt as stiff to me as the Spirit 4

bump ....

Here is my $0.25 worth on Spirit 4:

I bought them in Dec. 06, and started to use them in Jan. 07. Prior to that, I was using Megaride for a couple of years. I used Spirit 4 from Jan to April until I re-injured my knee while hucking with Dynafit (not a good idea, the toe piece opened up on me.). I was back in business from late Sep. to now.

Liners - the ones that came with the boots at that time were not Intuition liners (I think this year the boots came with Intuition liners.) The Scarpa liners then were just terrible. I had Intuition refitted me with their liners, and now I am very comfy. I was told by Crystal of Intution when she was fitting my boots that they have picked up the contract to supply Scarpa and it appears this is the case.

Tongue - I could not feel the skis with the green tongues, but then what do I know about skiing?

Bindings - use both Dynafit and Naxos with Spirit 4. No complaint here.

Skis - Main skis are Bro, Gotama & Mantra (I like 'em heavy planks) - Drive them all fine over all kinds of conditions, except ice which I try to avoid as much as I can.

Lee mentioned about the boots being easily customizable. Well, I spent hours trying to customize them just to test out various combinations. Real fun. Maybe I should have spent those hours skiing instead.

The rest Lee has already discussed. Overall, these boots are keepers, and are made for walking (and, let's not forget, skiing).

I question the point of the green tongue. I switched to the black tongue straight away and it has been great for uphill and down - uphill including some fairly long (1600m ascent) days of hut to hut touring