For the time being we’re on a vacation from global warming, as the northern hemisphere snowpack reached record levels this winter.

Colorado, yesterday.

If the snowy season had been hot and dry, we’d have heard endless spew from the “Warmists” about how doom was now upon us. Instead, much climate change rhetoric seems to have died down to a potent silence. Meanwhile, despite our well used jackets we still feel the climate has warmed, but as always we’re skeptical about associated politics and preaching.

But summer is just around the corner, so expect the shouting to begin anew. To that end, here in Colorado I expect we’ll get a warming event fairly soon, and when that hits our overburdened mountains the floods may be of epic proportions (both floods of water and words).

Meanwhile,fourteener skiers here in Colorado are pounding our epic snowpack. Ted Mahon completed his descents of all 54 peaks with his and Al Beyer’s stunning new route on Capitol, as we blogged a few weeks ago. Next in line is Frank Konsella, who’s headed for Mount Harvard this weekend as his last descent of what looks to be a well executed project.

Konsella’s fourteener ski list starts with a 1996 descent of Torrys. As was the case with my somewhat lengthy ‘teeners project, Frank got energized to ski them all quite a few years after his first, and picked them off quickly after that. While I admire and enjoy Chris Davenport’s having skied them all in 12 months, and Mahon having a fairly fast project as well, it’s nice to see Konsella bringing it down to earth. Fact is, unless you’re leading a lifestyle with tons of free time and job flexibility, and are blessed with a string of good snow years, you’re simply not going to do complete ski descents of all 54 peaks at a scorching pace. Thus, unless you’re going for a record like Dav, my recommendation is to leave off the speed effort and simply enjoy the process. Oh, and one other thing, don’t leave the hardest for last.

Text and photos by Lee Lau

This is a followup to my previous WildSnow Scarpa Skookum review, with emphasis on the subjective feel of the boots as opposed to quantitative measures. I got my impressions of the boot’s skiing and touring ability by comparing the Skookum against other boots that I have recently used: Garmont Mega-Ride (1650g), Dynafit Zzero 4 carbon boot(1585g), Dynafit ZZeus (1800g); Scarpa Spirit 4 (1870g). The Garmont MegaRide in particular is a four-buckle Dynafit compatible boot veteran now into its fifth year and serves as an adequate baseline for subjective impressions.

Lineup, Skookum in middle, Spirit to left, Mega Ride to right.

I skied the Scarpa Skookum with 185cms Salomon Guns, and with 178 cm Dynafit Manaslu skis. Both skis were mounted with Dynafit Verticals. The boots saw use over a five day period of ski touring; 2 days in powder and 3 days in corn and spring slush.

Reviewer’s biases
My ski touring career spans about 13 years, starting out on leather telemark boots and three-pin bindings and migrating to alpine touring setups consisting of Fritschi Diarmir Freerides and Dynafits with a variety of skis. My touring time mostly consists of day-trips, weekend multi-day trips and two or three multi-day traverses during a season. I weigh 155 lbs and ski mainly in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia in the Vancouver/Whistler/Squamish area. Local mid-winter snow is usually of the higher water content variety, thus necessitating bigger skis paired with boots that will drive them.

Approaching Anniversary Col in the Joffre Group - 1100m approach skinning

Touring - skinning performance
Skookum comes with two tongues: an incredibly rigid orange tongue and a silver, soft touring tongue. The tongues can be swapped without tools. I first tried the Skookum with the stiff alpine tongue and found that tongue-boot combination to be underwhelming. Even with all buckles undone, the boot felt stiff and blocky; almost like skinning in an alpine boot.

Scarpa Spirit 4 also comes with two tongues, similar to Skookum.

I was disappointed as my previous experiences had been to the effect that Scarpa’s boots were superior touring boots, having some of the nicest progressive flex patterns among boot manufacturers. Thankfully, my faith in the joy of Scarpa boots on the skintrack was restored when I put the touring tongue on the Skookum. The touring tongue transforms the boot; there’s a nice amount of freedom in the foot and gliding on the track feels natural. For me, the Skookum has that magical Scarpa touring feel - when you use it with the touring tongue.

Bootpacking and hiking
Spring skiing missions often involve foot travel, be it walking or climbing. Thus, in my opinion a ski boot is of acceptable quality should allow the foot traveling skier to get to their objective safely and in decent time, with at least a modicum of comfort. With that criteria in mind, Skookum passes. It’s certainly neither a 5.10 rock shoe nor a light, comfortable approach shoe, but it works. The boot’s sole has grippy lugs; it accepts crampons easily and the generous cuff movement and support allows a certain amount of flexibility for mildly technical moves.

Skiing the Joffre Peak spine line.

Skiing
If my comments are lukewarm with respect to the Skookum’s bootpacking/hiking performance and tourability it may be because the Skookum design is biased towards the downhill end of the uphill/downhill trade-off. To that end, Scarpa’s designers have succeeded. With the alpine tongue, I found the boot to be too stiff - almost dead in its feel. A heavier skier might need that support and appreciate it, but at my light weight the boots seemed to isolate me from feel of my skis. With the touring tongue installed, the boots were transformed. The fabled Scarpa progression was evident; small variations in fore-aft lean allowed me to control downward motion with confidence. The Skookum’s lateral stiffness is also more then adequate - laying turns through powder then dropping through variable snow with equal ease. (I received and skied prototypes that will be re-designed to introduce more progression into the production version of the boot. This will likely make a really good boot even better.)

I never did get to try the Skookum in hard-pack or groomers. I suspect that they would shine in that situation (especially with a narrow-waisted ski) due to their stiffness when equipped with the stiff alpine tongue - but that is not typically the primary reason for the ski tourer to purchase a boot.

Some quibbles: The catches on which the Skookum’s buckles engage are prone to icing up. A well - placed prod with a ski pole solves that. The Skookum buckles are difficult to engage, particularly when using the stiff alpine tongue. Perhaps some camming mechanism could be designed into the buckles?

Lee’s test zone — skiing Mt. Matier.

SUMMARY
Skookum is incredibly tuneable and is the closest I have seen to a one boot quiver; versatile enough for inbounds, general backcountry and traverses. Perhaps that is because Scarpa hasn’t really approached the Skookum as if it was one boot but has seen fit to accessorize it with various options that garage mechanics, hobbyists and professional boot fitters around the world have for years used to customize boots (eg., different tongue flexes, booster straps etc.).

In summary, Skookum tours well, is comfortable on bootpacks and hikes — and does drive those bigger skis just the way I like.

Cons:
* Relatively heavy
* Almost too stiff when used with the alpine tongue (lighter skiers should use the touring tongue)
* Buckles could be better

Pros:
* Smart design offers incredibly versatility with interchangeable tongues, removable spoilers, Booster straps etc.
* Terrific Intuition stock OE liner
* Will comfortably drive big skis

Intro, by Lou Sr.:
Here at WildSnow world HQ, we’ve got enough jackets to outfit the porters for a deluxe Annapurna expedition. Yet sadly, most of our jacket quiver are really not that great. Some fit poorly, with too-short sleeves or a high waist that shows off your trim rear but also causes dread “back gap,” that fearful condition that’s nearly bad as plumber’s crack. Others jackets are weighty for what you get in performance, or have hoods that fit like they’re made for shrunken heads hanging from some guy’s hut rafters in New Guinea.

Even so, a few gems can be found of you shop hard and are willing to accept inevitable imperfections. To that end, we work with closely with two clothing companies in outfitting our adventures: Cloudveil and Outdoor Research (OR). We also like some of the offerings from Marmot, and North Face comes up with nice stuff as well.

Most of Cloudveil’s clothing is definitely oriented to a trim fit — appreciated by those such as myself who grew up in those days when mountain clothing was supposed to cling our fine forms, or by present day athletes who’ve gotten their body fat to the point where anything but a shear cut feels like they’re wearing a circus tent. More, Cloudveil’s garments have simplicity and functionality that appeals greatly to us.

As for OR, they’ve recently made stupendous efforts towards a clothing line that’s deep and varied, with everything from feather weight rain shells, to more bulky layers with comfortable fits, rounded out by hand and foot gear that’s the foundation of the company and is still one of their strengths.

I’ve got to give Louie credit for working hard this winter to find backcountry clothing that functioned correctly but still had the youthful, loose cut look he wanted. To that end, he latched on to an OR Motto Jacket and Cloudveil’s uncharacteristically loose fit pant, the Headwall. Sadly, the Headwall is discontinued this year, but perhaps Cloudveil has something similar in the works. At any rate, here is Louie’s take.

Cloudveil Headwall pants & OR Motto jacket
By Louie Dawson

For a while now I have been looking for ski clothing that is functional enough for backcountry and still fits the way I want. Most clothing that is made for AT skiing works great but is usually not loose fitting.

Louie in his Cloudveil Headwall pants and OR Motto jacket.

The Headwall pants are nice and baggy but still designed for backcountry or ski area use. They are fairly minimalist, the only feature that I don’t need is the built in belt system, since I usually use a normal belt. Although they are probably too much for really warm spring days, they haven’t been to warm or to cold so far. The heavy softshell fabric insulates fairly well, and the vents combined with breathable fabric ventilate nicely.

I prefer a limited amount of pockets to keep things simple, but I also like to have a back pocket to put my wallet in. Headwall pants have two pockets in front and two in back, the perfect amount. There was mesh on the thigh vents that only allowed them to open two inches or so, which limited the ventilation. I slashed the mesh out with my pocketknife on a recent warm day, and they now work much better (though I have to watch out for mosquitoes).

Of course, the headwall pants have their flaws. They have a built in elastic and Velcro belt system, that does not work very well and seems like a lot of weight, especially since I like using a real belt more anyway. The fit is also a bit strange. I am a skinny guy, and the waist on the medium is just right while the legs are way long. The aforementioned mesh in the vents was an unneeded feature but that was easily fixed. Also, one of the back pockets has a zipper, and one doesn’t, this results it the open one filling up with snow on deep days, I am considering just sewing it shut.

The Motto jacket from OR is a fully waterproof softshell made with Ventia fabric (softshell combined with a membrane, like Gore Windstopper but it seems more waterproof). Ventia is heavier than a waterproof hardshell, but more breathable. Most other softshells I have owned were only waterproof as far as their DWR treatment lasted. This is not the case with the Motto; it has protected me from the heaviest snow and rain I have used it in. It gives up a little in breathability over DWR treated softshells, but not to much, especially since it has pit zips.

The fit and sizing of the Motto are perfect for me. The cuffs fit over my gloves nicely, and the hood is oversized so it fits over my ski helmet. Unfortunately, the big hood is also a disadvantage; I used the Motto for some bike errands on a rainy day, whenever I tried to put the hood on, it fell over my eyes it is so big that the edge of the hood reached the bottom of my nose. That said, since this is a ski jacket the advantages of the oversized hood outweigh the disadvantages, at least for me.

Motto has four pockets: ipod pocket on the inside, two on the front outside, and one in the back. The front pockets are positioned above the waistbelt of the pack — a terrific feature. The construction is top notch, it is fully seam taped and they use quite a bit of welding. The hood and the powder skirt are removable, which reduces weight a little and a makes carrying a big pack more comfortable. I usually use it with the hood but without the powder skirt. The hood attaches with a zipper and four snaps, so you can hardly tell it is removable when it is on. The only issue I have with the Motto besides the big hood is that it is a little on the heavy side.

The Motto and Headwall combo is a superb all around system, perfect for everything from the lifts to spring corn runs. I don’t get hot or cold that easily, so I only wear a thin base layer under them, and they work great. They both have backcountry functionality combined with the baggy freeride look that I like.

Weights:
OR Motto jacket (large): 31.3 oz
Removable powder skirt: 2.7 oz
Removable hood: 4.0 oz
Cloudveil headwall pants (medium): 24.3 oz