Gear Review

Scarpa Spirit 4

1. ski mountaineering
2. solid on the downhill
3. fit takes work
4. weight: 8lbs 1oz/pair

Scarpa's popular Spirit 4 Alpine touring ski boot improves upon its predecessor, the Spirit 3, primarily by offering a stiffer forward flex, thus enhancing the quality of downhill performance.

The Spirit 3's apparent forward-flex softness (especially in the more aggressive forward lean setting) struck me as the boot's biggest liability—along with Scarpa's considerably contoured last, which can prove quite challenging when it comes to bootfitting. The Spirit 4, I'm happy to say, largely erases any flex concerns via the addition of a fourth buckle, an adjustible rear spoiler, and some extra shell heft, though bootfitting challenges are likely to remain.

Like Garmont's excellent Mega Ride, the Spirit 3 and 4 employ a hinged-tongue rather than the overlapping cuff construction traditionally found on Alpine ski boots.

The hinged tongue design proves well suited to the climbing, skating, and gliding duties of an Alpine Touring boot, though at the cost of downhill performance.

That said, both the Mega Ride and the two Spirits offer their own unique sweet spots in balancing these opposing duties.

The Spirit 4 and the Mega Ride are distinctly different boots with different feels, but they are also the two best boots within their cohort, so it makes sense to compare and contrast their performance.

I should also note, with some tinge of sadness, that modern Alpine Touring boot design seems to have moved on a bit with the advent of new overlapping cuff boots like the Factor and the Radium. If downhill performance is your singular concern, neither the Spirit 4 nor the Mega Ride remain King of the Hill, and you are best advised to look elsewhere. However, these older hinged-tongue boots remain hard to top when it comes to climbing performance.

GOING UP:

Why do you find Scarpa Spirits climbing high on the world's biggest mountains? Pedigree, for starters. Scarpa brings its formidable experience as a climbing and mountaineering boot maker to the table, and that experience translates into climbing-specific features such as the Spirit 4's generous range of motion in walk mode, plus top buckles that won't pop open when you're cramponing up.

Versatility and customizability is another strength. Perhaps no other boot on the market is as friendly to user modification as the Scarpa Spirit. A partial feature list includes skier cant adjustibility; the effortless ability to swap different tongues (included) to change the boot's forward stiffness; two-position forward lean adjustment (19 & 23°) with an additional +/- 2° screw; and the remarkable ability to remove all buckles, buckle anchors, and the even the cuff pivots using only hand tools for a stunning range of customization.

Compared to the Mega Ridge again, the Spirit 4 also features a distinctly higher volume interior. This extra room pays dividends in brutally-cold high altitude environments, allowing space to wear thicker expedition socks layered with vapor barrier liners, and even sneak a heat pack under your toes. Heading to Denali for a little summit tour? The Spirit is a serious contender for the job.

DIALING IN THE FIT:

Of course, that extra volume cuts both ways. The Spirit 4 rewards if not demands extra effort to customize the boot to best fit the user. Of the major A/T boot choices, it is arguably one of the least likely to fit well "out of the box"—and volume is only part of the story here. Inherent to the design of the Spirit 3 and 4 is a humped interior shell (the "last") which may or may not match up to the natural shape of your feet's arches.

The Spirit 4 comes with the excellent Intuition liner and no stock footbeds. Scarpa goes so far as to suggest you can ski the Spirit 4 sans footbeds, relying solely on the liner's ability to support your feet after the thermofitting process. While the Intuition liners are remarkably solid once they've cooled (they don't seem to pack out hardly at all), I soon found the boot's performance too sloppy without footbeds, in part because there was simply too much interior volume for my feet.

Adding custom footbeds or orthotics is sure to bring you grief, however, as there is no flat surface to seat the footbed upon. Some combination of grinding and remolding is all but certain to get your orthotics to work, and many skiers will still at least notice the sensation of having the boot's humps under your arches. Recent reports suggest there are aftermarket boot boards available to rectify the problem. If so, I haven't seen anyone selling them as yet.

ON SNOW & SKIING COMPARISONS:

Once I got the fit sorted out, I was highly impressed with the downhill performance of the Scarpa Spirit 4 (as I was with the Spirit 3). The boot has a lively, powerful feel to it, inspiring confidence on the downhill. The flex in my subjective opinion is consistent with the Mega Ride, which is going to mean soft by most people's standards, but still well within the acceptable range for a wide variety of skiers and conditions.

Note that the Spirit 4 includes two extra, stiffer tongues, which you can easily swap in, no tools required. The stiffer tongue beefs up the boot's forward flex—but be warned that this is an imperfect solution. Adding the stiffer tongue to the Spirit 4 makes it feel as if you've just stuffed a stiff piece of plastic down the front of the boot, which in fact you have. The flex profile is not progressive nor particularly appealing. Heavier skiers might find this more acceptible; for me, it negatively impacted the boot's feel.

Lateral stiffness in any case is quite good. Going head-to-head versus the Mega Ride, I found the boots similar in downhill performance overall, but I had to give the subjective nod to the Spirit 4's feel. It is just a tad sweeter, with a more solid and natural feel coming in and out of the turn—and little to none of the Mega Ride's often-distracting shell distortion. In fact, the boot performed well enough to make me wonder if I wouldn't be skiing it as my primary touring boot if it wasn't for that damned hump in the last.

Then again, the downside of the Spirit 4 versus the 3 is considerably more weight. I measured the size 26 Spirit 3 at seven pounds, 2.5 ounces per pair. In comparison, my sample size 27 Spirit 4's weigh just over 8 pounds without footbeds—a substantial difference. And finally, on the subject of pure downhill performance, I am forced to point out once again that both of the new overlap boots (the Factor and the Radium) offer a big performance leap that even the heavier Spirit 4 cannot match.

CONCLUSIONS:

To me, the Spirit 4 is the boot the Spirit 3 should have been. If the 4 weighed essentially the same as the 3, I'd easily call this the best compromise of downhill skiing performance and uphill climbing comfort—in other words, the ideal Alpine Touring ski boot (admittedly with some grousing about that damned hump last).

But the 4's weight pushes it nearly a pound past the Mega Ride's, forcing hard questions as to which boot will better suit your needs. Does that pound matter to you? Go with the Mega Ride. Thinking instead about that sweet downhill turn? The Spirit 4 beckons.

Yes, the Spirit 4 is no match on the downhill for the new overlap boots, but for many ski mountaineers I suspect that difference will be offset by the Spirit 4's considerable climbing ability. And when the objective turns to multi-day expedition work, it's hard to envision a better boot (unless Scarpa can up the Spirit 3's forward stiffness without adding extra weight).

Bottom line: the design of the Spirit 4 may be showing its age a bit compared to the new crop of overlap ski boots, but thanks to a combination of features, versatility, and performance both up and down, the Spirit 4 remains a strong contender for ski mountaineers looking to nab serious alpine touring objectives (Scarpa Spirit 4 review sample courtesy Scarpa North America).

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