Scarpa Put a BOA Dial on the New F1 RS—Here’s What Happened

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Two-buckle ski touring boots are having a bit of a moment right now. For years, these types of lightweight slippers were designed to do one thing: make going uphill as easy as possible. Skiing downhill? Well, that turned out to be more of an afterthought. As someone who loves backcountry skiing, but is in it primarily for the descent, I never really understood the appeal of these kinds of boots. Why bother going uphill faster if I dreaded the way down? Sure, there were moments of brilliance in the last few years (boots like the La Sportiva Skorpius CR, or some of of the mid-generation Dynafit TLT models), but even those were plagued by breakage issues, incompatibility/fitment problems, or last shapes that resembled nothing like a human foot. However, the last two seasons have provided a new crop of two-buckle ski touring boots that prove the Euro boot designers might have finally understood the assignment.

I’ve been beyond impressed with the downhill performance from boots like the Dynafit Blacklight 2.0 and La Sportiva Kilo (+ the new stiffer Kilo XTR), and have spent much of the the second half of the season touring on the all-new Scarpa F1 RS, a mid-weight ski mountaineering and general-purpose workhorse. Scarpa likes to classify their boot models using modifiers like LT, XT, GT, and RS–with RS generally indicating the stiffest, most downhill-oriented versions of a particular model. In my mind, the new F1 RS boot falls into the jack-of-all-trades category, meaning it combines excellent walkability and uphill performance with enough plastic and a stiff and damp enough flex pattern to actually drive big skis on demanding descents. With that, it can compete with both lighter boots like the Blacklight 2.0 and heavier 4-buckle boots like the Tecnica Zero G Tour Pro.

Scarpa’s new boot is also the first lightweight backcountry-specific boot to use BOA‘s H+i1 system–something we’ve seen all over alpine and crossover boots for a few seasons now. In fact, it’s technically not even a two-buckle boot, since the BOA replaces the lower buckle. Loads of touring boots have had flimsy old-school BOA closures in the past, including other versions of the F1, but this is the first use the modern heavy-duty BOA H+i1 system on a lightweight boot.

Scarpa F1 RS Specs

• Size skied: 28.0
• Sizes available: 24.5-31.0
• Stated Flex: 115
• Binding Compatibility: Tech, AT
• Range of Motion: 60 degrees
• Forward Lean: 15, ± 2 degrees
• Stated Last Width: 101mm
• Stated weight: 1340g

Fit

I’ll be honest and say that getting Scarpa boots to fit my feet has historically been a struggle, which is why I was very surprised to find that the new F1 RS fit me nearly perfectly right out of the box. In the past, I couldn’t even get my foot into lower-volume boots like the F1 LT or 4-Quattro in my proper size. In comparison, the F1 RS fit me like a slipper.

As wider last widths seem to be becoming the norm in ski touring boots these days, the stated 101mm last width isn’t a huge surprise. I did find, however, that the forefoot and heel pocket felt quite a bit narrower, especially when compared to a boot like the Zero G Pro Tour, which features a very roomy toebox. Instep height is somewhere in the middle of the road on the F1 RS, and the innovative use the BOA H+i1 system allows the boot to very comfortably wrap the top of your foot and not deform too much under flexion–more on that later. Overall, I’d put these into the medium-volume category (for recent reference, they are lower volume than the Dynafit Blacklight 2.0, but higher volume than the La Sportiva Kilo).

The boot’s cuff height feels quite tall, something I think some skiers might take issue with, especially those with sensitive calf muscles–but it does help give the boot a nice progressive flex. The liner itself adds a significant amount of perceived cuff height, so if you do swap that out for something like the ZipFit Espresso, that might change. I appreciate that Scarpa also gives this boot a more aggressive forward lean (15 degrees). Finally, the stock Intuition liner is pretty amazing. It’s a tongue-style liner with medium-thickness foam and a stiff plastic tongue that’s very warm, heat-moldable, and supremely comfortable once broken in.

Features + Usability

The most visible “feature” on the new F1 RS is perhaps the novel integration of BOA’s now-famous BOA H+i1 dial. I say novel, because Scarpa is using the dial in a way no other boot brand is. Instead of placing the dial on the lower scafo, the boot’s designers placed the dial on the upper cuff, and run the cable through a pulley-fed redirect to the forefoot. In practice, that does two things:

First, it places the BOA dial out of the danger zone from bumps and accidental knocks, while also placing it closer to the walk-mode lever and upper buckle for faster transitions. One of the main selling points of a two-buckle-style boot is fast transitions, so that’s a nice touch.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, the redirect means that the BOA cable doesn’t de-tension when you flex into the boot tongue. It’s a subtle effect, but it’s way better than the opposite: that “shearing” feeling some users found from the first generation of BOA placement on boot lowers–eg. you’d flex hard into the boot with your ski on edge, and the boot felt like it was opening under pressure.

Speaking of transitioning the boot, the walk mode lever, upper buckle, and elastic Booster-strap style powerstrap are all in close proximity and easy to operate with gloves on. It’s not a quite a skimo-race boot transition, but it’s much better than having to undo four buckles, mess around with your liner, fumble with a complicated walk-mode lever and curse your friends while they drop into your hard-earned pow turns before you.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning the type of plastic Scarpa uses in the boot. Historically, most “stiff” touring boots have used carbon-reinforced Grilamid plastic to achieve a stiff flex without the weight of traditional plastics like PU. The problem with lightweight Grilamid is that it doesn’t absorb energy and bend the way thicker, heavier plastic can. It’s stiff, but in a way that can feel really weird to anyone used to skiing alpine boots. It’s very hard to achieve a progressive flex with Grilamid, meaning boots have a very on/off stifness to them, without a suspension-like shock-absorbing feeling.

For the F1 RS, Scarpa mixes Grilamid Fiberglass LFT with softer Pebax plastic, that allows this relatively stiff boot to be more flexible over the instep and in the front of the cuff. In practice, that makes the boot easier to get on and off, but more importantly, it facilitates a progressive flex pattern more akin to traditional alpine boots.

Performance

For me, the ultimate test of performance of a two-buckle boot is whether it can drive big skis and how it feels in variable snow conditions deep in the backcountry. Ultimately, that’s where I’d be bringing this type of boot-a long walk deep into the mountains to ski something rad…and if I’m skiing something rad, I’m bringing my fun skis. So that’s what I did. In fact, I dove straight into the deep end with the F1 RS and took it on an 8-day ski touring trip to the Golden Alpine Holidays Vista Lodge, a heli-access backcountry lodge deep in BC’s Esplanade Range. I paired it with my favorite pow touring ski of the moment, Salomon’s 116mm-underfoot 1900-gram QST X and a pair of Marker Alpinist bindings.

The trip was an emotional rollercoaster of conditions (shoutout weird weak La Niña), but most days we toured a minimum of 4500 vertical feet, skiing a huge variety of terrain from mellow alpine bowls, to steep faces to technical pillow lines. Snow quality ranged from firm alpine windboard, to bottomless blower pow, to some of the heaviest and densest 20+ percent moisture content snow I’ve ever experienced. In other words, probably the best week of conditions for testing backcountry gear I could have asked for.

Admittedly, I was a bit hesitant about not bringing the boots I’ve loved best for a few years now, the Zero G Tour Pro. But, my pair was slowly giving up the ghost, with broken buckles, nearly unusable amounts of ankle pivot play, and a liner with a few too many holes in it. I committed to the Scarpas for the week, and don’t think I could have made a better choice.

These are an absolute dream to walk uphill in. As I mentioned, we toured A LOT, and they’re not only light and agile, but very comfortable. I’ve found that boots with too much going on inside (in terms of overlapping plastic layers, liners, etc.) tend to create hot spots, pressure points, and other undesirable sensations over the course of a long day with many transitions. The very simple overlap design of these eliminates much of that. I put them on each morning and didn’t take them off until late in the afternoon, without really thinking twice about them. I didn’t have to fuss about with the liner to get things to line up or mess with buckles to dial in fit for each lap. Instead, it was a matter of just closing the top buckle, tightening the power strap, and going skiing. When bootpacking, the Vibram sole provided plenty of grip, and the AT/ISO 9523-compatible toe/heel lugs play nice with all crampons I’ve tested them with.

Downhill skiing on these actually took me a few laps to get used to, since I’ve never really experienced a lightweight boot with this progressive a flex pattern. The boots feel very energetic, which turned out to be really fun once I adjusted my skiing a little bit. They’re stiff, but not in the on-off way of the Grilamid-only boots I had become so used to skiing. I found that driving a bigger ski like the QST X, especially in weird snow, actually took a lot less effort than I expected. The progressive nature of the flex (meaning it gets stiffer the more you push into it) really allows you to relax a little bit and let the boot/ski combo do much of the work of shock absorption.

The best way to describe the downhill capability of the boot once I took a few runs on it is that I didn’t really think twice about it–kind of the best possible outcome, if you ask me. It allows for very natural skiing, takes the edge off rough snow surfaces and bigger impacts (airs, drops, hidden compressions), and feels very supportive when putting wide skis on edge. The boot’s energetic/rebound-y nature makes hop turns in steep terrain feel much easier than it would in heavier boots.

Finally, as someone who often gets cold feet in thin-walled backcountry boots, I found the F1 RS and its high-density foam Intuition liner to be very warm. On the BC trip, we experienced some extremely cold and windy days, and I never had problems with cold feet, even when standing around in the snow digging snowpits.

How does the Scarpa F1 RS compare?

The F1 RS’s performance begs comparison to two other boots I’ve spent a ton of time in over the last few seasons: Dynafit’s Blacklight 2.0, and the Tecnica Zero G Tour Pro. In a nutshell, the Scarpa boot falls somewhere in the middle of the two in terms of downhill performance. Dynafit’s Grilamid-only boot is lighter, but is missing some of the nice progressive flex characteristics of the Scarpa and Tecnica. The one-move Hoji Lock walk mode system is nice, but Scarpa’s simple lever/cuff buckle transition is pretty darn quick too.

On the other end of the spectrum, Tecnica’s Zero G boot is still one of the best-skiing touring boots ever made. It’s really stiff, damp, and feels about as close to a resort boot as I’ve ever found in the backcountry. The downside? Transitioning between walk and ski mode is a chore, and I’ve had all kinds of durability issues from beating mine into the ground. In most snow conditions Scarpa’s boot has nearly the same skiability, it walks slightly better, and the transition is far more efficient.

What type of skier is the Scarpa F1 RS best for?

I never thought I’d say this, but I think we’ve come to a point where a two-buckle boot like the Scarpa F1 RS is going to be “enough” boot for most backcountry skiers–especially if your ski days involve a lot of walking and tons of transitions. I’ll likely have this become my go-to boot for everyday ski touring and technical steep skiing/ski mountaineering in the Tetons and beyond, thanks to its unique combination of uphill efficiency and downhill capability in the form of stiffness mixed with a really smooth and progressive flex pattern. Besides everyday ski touring use, it would make a great boot for a big objective like a Haute Route-style multiday traverse, a ski descent of a peak like Mt. Rainier, or skiing the Grand Teton.

While it’s certainly no match in all-out stiffness to bigger, stiffer 4-buckle boots like the Tecnica Zero G Tour Pro, Tecnica Decoy Pro, Scarpa 4-Quattro, Dynafit Tigard, or the like, Scarpa’s F1 RS offers a very unique take on the two-buckle boot problem, with a powerful, progressive flex with plenty of “oomph” to drive big touring skis.