Hiking is an integral part of the Alaska XP DNA. Of course with 75mm boots its a real pain, but I never had any problems hiking with any NNN-BC boots, feeling a huge improvement over 75mm. But yes, the Alaska XP is much better! It's a superlight, super-comfy high-end hiking boot that can also ski. The flex for walking is much more natural than any other ski boot I have ever tried. I can feel that it was very well tuned for that purpose...
I took a walk in the woods with the Baby Alaska in one foot and the Alaska BC in the other. Big difference. Hiking is much more comfortable on the new XP. And so is climbing on rocks and steeper trails. They are even fun for trail running! (Seriously!) You won't find a more natural integrated walk-mode in any other ski boot on the planet...
Nope, they cannot be locked in retracted position. But I already thought about that. I thought about a simple kind of C-clamp that I could put under the boots to keep the pins inside while hiking. Or at least something to protect them. Just a simple piece of metal that could be bent to fit between the pins... I will work on this during the summer... Or that could be @Bri7 next project... But I am pretty sure either Rottefella or some third parties will come up with something like that in the future... Depending on the return rate for bent springpins...ᚠᚨᚱ ᚾᛟᚱᚦ ᛊᚲᛁᛖᚱ wrote: ↑Sat May 08, 2021 12:41 pmThe XP boots sure look good and I think the pins won't cause too much trouble, too bad they can't be locked in the retracted position, or can they?
Actually, I kept it quite simple saying that the flex point was simply moved a bit backwards. But the truth is that it's much more complex than that. The whole forward flex is quite impressive, I can see that it's the fruit of a lot of experimentation. The more I wear the boots, the more I get accustomed to that new flex. And the more I get used to it, the more I think it's truly beautiful... I really can't wait for snow to complete this very exciting experiment!
What you say is important. Because we have been used to a certain flex with duckbills for several decades. And the same is true with NNN-BC soles. That flex is in our genes. It's engraved in our brains. It's hidden deep inside our muscle memory. And we can't change that in only a few turns. It's totally normal that the first time you will try XPlore boots, you might feel a bit confused about the new flex. Hence the reason I emphasized this point in my review...
So I don't think it would be a good thing at all to change the flex of NNN-BC or Vibram 1015 Ferret soles that we've been accustomed to for oh so many years... Let's first see that you guys think the the XPlore first...