Scarpa Star Lite A/T Ski Boot
December 23, 2008
ON SALE at REI.com for $439! I canNOT believe that price. Click here to purchase!
Shhh, don’t tell Scarpa about this review. I am supposed to be using these boots as part of an “extended test” and I want Scarpa to think I still need three more weeks with them. Just between you, me, and the Internet, though, I knew I loved the Star Lites from the first day I wore them. And just now my brain jammed with joke possibilities, ranging from “they had me at something something” to an extended discussion about that show that had women dress up in wedding dresses for this millionaire guy they hadn’t met but who had somehow chosen one of them to be his wife. He announced his pick and came out on stage to meet his new fiance and they started playing that Savage Garden song that goes “I knew I loved you before I met you” as this poor woman stood there on national television looking like a poster child for Hideously Trapped In Incredibly Awkward Yet Entirely Of Her Own Making Situation syndrome. It was really obvious that neither of these idiots even liked each other let alone were fulfilling some star-crossed destiny that made the lyrics of that song at all applicable. Too funny. And after that debacle, someone picked up the ball and made a show about two dozen ditzy gold diggers competing for a dude who was only pretending to be a millionaire – but the girls didn’t know he was a fake. Comedy GOLD!
OK, now that the Scarpa folks are bored out of their minds with that reality show recap and have all stopped reading, we can talk about the boots. The Star Lites blew all the other boots out of the water. It really was love at first buckle. And bear in mind that since the pair I used are just tester boots, I didn’t bother to bake the liners to fit my feet, so they’re still shaped to fit some other tester’s feet. Ick – I try not to think about that. Anyhoo, even with the liner fit slightly “off”, I was really happy with the general fit and feel. The Star Lite is a three-buckle boot for ski mountaineers who really like to shave weight from their equipment. If you recall, last year I tested the Scarpa Divas and wondered if the fourth buckle on those boots wasn’t superfluous. The Star Lite proves that it is indeed, because I didn’t miss that fourth buckle at all. The ankle strap just sucks your foot back in the boot and eliminates heel lift and shifting. The top buckle combined with the power strap provide plenty of support to the lower leg for driving today’s big fat skis.
My first day on the Star Lites was a touring day with my superlight powder setup, and I can’t imagine a better fit for these boots. The Star Lites are Dynafit compatible, light, and nimble – just perfect for long tours and great powder; my raison d’etre, as it were. More weight = more tired, and the Star Lites are as streamlined as it gets for ladies who like to shred. I didn’t feel as if I was sacrificing any power or feel by using such a light boot. Then I thought perhaps it’s unfair to only go out skiing in perfect conditions; all boots and skis feel good on sunny powder days. So I bit the bullet and really put the boots to the test by clicking them into my latest test setup – big, massive, burly planks with big, stiff, powerful bindings. With no powder in the forecast, I decided to see just how much power the Star Lites packed within their dainty white-and-gold shells. I hopped on a chairlift and set out to ski the crusty mank on my monster boards and the Star Lites. Those big skis required some drive to make them turn through the crust and needed a responsive boot to get them gripping on the ice, and the Star Lites delivered. More than I had hoped they would, to be honest! The boots are well-balanced and shaped to fit a smaller foot for efficiency in transferring weight shifts to the ski. As with the Divas, I didn’t feel as if I had to smash my shins against the front of the boots for control. I could just balance in the center of the ski because the boots held me in just the right position to cue the skis. I think of this as the “new” aggressive stance – it’s not as oriented towards power/drive/shin-bruising methods of pushing into the skis, it’s more of a nuanced, controlled, balanced way of pushing the limits. I sure hope that makes sense to someone besides me. It’s just that skiers seem to be moving towards flow rather than forcing tons of turns. That’s not really news to anyone, but I think that ski boot technology has evolved along with ski style and the Star Lite seems very flow-oriented. Om, namaste, and all that stuff.
The Star Lites don’t come with the spare extra-stiff tongue like the Divas, but I didn’t miss it. The power strap gives plenty of lower-leg compression and the forward lean of the boots is naturally pretty aggro. I still had to supplement with a heel wedge, as per my usual, but I think that’s more of an issue with my own anatomy since I have that problem with every pair of ski boots I’ve ever tried. Still, I am tempted to try the stiff Diva tongue on the Star Lite and really do some charging. I wonder why the extra tongue is just a Diva thing?
I also appreciated the comfy, flexible walk mode for long tours and, well, walking. The walk-ski mode lever took a little bit of force to flip, which I guess is OK since it’s unlikely to flip accidentally. It might also have been an issue from the tester boots being kind of rode hard. You never know what those tester boots have been up to before they arrive in your hands. Still, I didn’t want to give them up even if they were well-used so I prepared my best puppy-dog eyes in an attempt to get Scarpa to let me keep the boots. As it turned out I couldn’t wait that long and went ahead and just bought my own pair. And for a girl who gets multiple pairs of boots to test every year, actually spending money on boots is a pretty ringing endorsement.
