Scarpa Spirit 4 Review

First off, I want to thank those of you who gave me the info on the Hurricane. I ended up ordering a pair of Spirit 4's, mostly because I wanted the Dynafit capability. Another consideration is that since I seem to do quite a bit of booting on rocky ridges, I also really do like the rockered sole of the Spirit rather than the DIN-style sole on the Hurricane/Tornado.

So I've now had a chance to do about four hours of skinning and a few short runs in somewhat marginal early-season snow conditions. I'm comparing these Spirits to a pair of Lazer's that I got in about '98 or '99. I've always really liked the Lazer's for their weight and comfort and they were about as good a choice as there was back when I bought them. Today's bigger skis like a little more drive from a boot, however, and the Lazer's tend to be pretty soft.

What I could tell right away is that the Spirt is a MUCH more powerful boot than the Lazer. Skinning in the Spirits doesn't seem to be appreciably less comfortable, so that was a definite plus. I think they *are* slightly heavier than the Lazer's, but there is just a great deal more control in the Spirit when compared to the Lazer.

I'm actually looking forward to making some lift-served runs with these boots once our ski area opens. With the Lazer's, I usually just put up with the boots inbounds while I was headed to or from the out-of-bounds. The Spirits seem to feel like they would be pretty skiable even on hardpack (and possibly even bumps!).

So, I'm very pleased with my overall first impression. They walk and climb well and ski great.

The overall "feel" of the boot is pretty similar. I was quite pleasantly surprised by the roominess in the sixth toe area. I got the boot in a 27.5, which was just borderline LONG enough, but the width was perfect. The Spirits do have the Intuition liner, which is different from whatever (I don't even know) came with the Lazers.

I do have custom footbeds in the Lazers and those have been VERY comfortable boots. I haven't done anything yet to the Spirits because I thought I'd skin in them for a few hours to get a feeling. So far, there's a little bit of a rub spot on the inside of one heel, but I think maybe I didn't have that boot tight enough. Other than that, they feel great.

ZOOKEEPER: Does the Matrix use the same tongue attachment as the Lazer? The reason I ask is that I was told years ago that the standard Lazer tongue could be easily replaced by a Raichle Flexon tongue, which would stiffen the boot up considerably. I never got around to doing it, but Flexons are pretty available at thrift shops, etc. Maybe zion zig zag could find a pair of Flexon tongues if that would work too?

Pretty wide. I think I'm an E in a street shoe (although I don't buy many street shoes anymore so I'm not too sure ).

When I first slipped on the Spirits, I was very surprised at the width of the toe box. I would call it the widest toe box I've ever felt in an AT boot.

You thinking of coming over to the dark side? :

That sounds much more like it. I couldn't imagine you fixing that heel problem of yours.

Wow.

Congratulations.

I think it's a good time for you to be getting out. Those fires are just getting more and more dangerous as the years go by. On that same theme, thanks again to you and all the other firefighters. That's rough work (even if you were mostly behind the lines the last few years). I'm glad somebody is willing to do it.

Boots and feet are really unpredictable.

I tired Adrenalines and Endorphins last winter because I really like the overall shape and flex of the Garmonts. I couldn't even stand in the shop for more than 10 minutes without serious cramping in both the Adrenalines and the Endorphins. For whatever reason, my foot really fits a Scarpa and just plain does not fit a Garmont. That's kind ounexpected because the prevailing wisdom seems to be that Garmonts should fit my wide forefoot better than Scarpas. I guess that's why wearing them in the shop is the best route.

My wife is on Garmonts and loves them.