I've been following this forum for over a year, however I've kept quiet the whole time. I've been meaning to share my experience with the NTN system, and it's a bit of a quiet day at work, so I figure today is the day! P.S. I'm a forum noob so I might be posting this in the wrong thread, don't be too hard on me.
Background; I picked up my first tele gear 3 winters ago after a few times renting, I decided that this was definitely the next step in my ski progression. My first day ever on tele, I was asked, "wow man, how many years have you been telemarking?!"
I managed to assemble a decent economical intro set up with a pair of used Scarpa T2Xs that are a half size small for me and hurt my toes after a full day, some super passive Voile SX bindings, and Karhu Kodiaks for planks.It didn't take long for me to start ripping hard, and having soo much fun on the setup. As I continued to gain comfort, I was soon hitting moguls, and steeps. Venturing off into the steeper terrain, I started having a really annoying issue where my binding would release during turns. A few people said it was due to the binding just not being active enough, and that brief moment in the steep turns the boot was coming out. This quickly became unbearable as it made my descent of Mt. Mansfield VT, towards the notch a bit more tedious than necessary. I tried tightening the bindings, and the end result was having the binding rip out of the ski and staying with my boot one beautiful spring day while ripping corn moguls underneath the Expo chair at Tremblant.
I decided that after two seasons, I had outgrown my intro set up. I did a bunch of research, and after finding a great deal on NTN Freerides and Scarpa TX Pro boots, I decided to take a gamble and go NTN. I bought the gear in the summer, so you can imagine my anticipation for my first ski run (bindings mounted on beauty K2 Sideshows). I had read often that some people required up to several days to adjust to NTN… however I found that despite the higher binding tension and stiffer boot, just two runs in I was ripping hard and loving the new set up. It felt amazing to know I could charge hard and not worry about the release problem, the control was phenomenal, and to my great relief, I was able to bend the knee and more or less keep the finessed style I had developed on my passive bindings.
The new set up felt revolutionary for me. I felt the control to ski lines as aggressively as on my alpine skis, yet I had the free heel and good flex. It didn’t take long though for the magic to start wearing off… after about just 4 outings on the new gear, I started noticing a crack on the boot’s bellow. It wasn’t so much a crack, it looked as if the plastic was wearing down. I thought maybe it was due to the outside of the boot dragging on ice while bent and hitting carving style turns, I knew I had taken good care of my boots and that I had not impacted them on any rocks or anything. The wear on the below progressed and 2 outings later, I found out what it meant to have “shot bellows”… I felt like I was skiing with a flat tire.
I sent the boots in to Scarpa warranty, where I very much appreciated the friendly and responsive customer service, but I admittedly was disappointed when they told me the repair would not be covered by warranty because they believed the break was due to impact, or leaving the boot on a heat source. While waiting for the repair, I was back to skiing on my old setup (which thankfully I had repaired). Scarpa was able to put a rush on the fixing job, because as I explained to them, I needed my gear for a 2 week ski trip I had planned at Red Mountain, and Nelson/Whitewater/backcountry.
I received the boots in time for my trip, and wanting to believe Scarpa’s diagnosis of the cause of the problem, I told myself I would be ok. After just a half day of skiing (terrible crud conditions due to “worst BC ski winter in 40 years”) at Red, I reached down to the bellow during lunch to notice that the same problem was starting to manifest itself. I managed to get 7 days of skiing out of the boot, until I started having the flat tire accordion feeling bellow just in time for coming down the Half Dome in Whitewater’s sidecountry (note that a couple of the buckles actually broke off during that descent as well…). Luckily this all happened on my last day of skiing out west, as I changed my flight to get home early and take advantage of winter conditions and fresh powder closer to home, I’m glad I had my trustee pair of 75 mm Scarpa T2X’s waiting for me back home.
I sent the TX Pro’s back to Scarpa, and this time they acknowledged that the wear was not due to misuse, but that I must be “overflexing the bellow”. I find it very unfortunate that a bellow can be overflexed, I just want to telemark the way I like, and not do half assed super slight knee bends which NTN seems to encourage. Instead of fixing the boot they sent me some TX Comps. I used them a couple of times at the end of last winter, and I’ve got to say I’m disappointed. While ripping groomers was actually fun enough with them, they are not the right boot for me: it takes way too much effort to initiate a proper telemark turn. Fighting against the boot and binding to be able to ski moguls and glades is not how I envision telemarking. I’ve noticed videos on youtube of people skiing freestyle telemark where they aren’t even dropping knee… If I was charging Alyeska, or doing some racing, maybe I would appreciate the TX Comps, but for my finesse mogul and glade skiing, they did not feel right. I’ll use them a few more times next season to see if I can break them in a bit, but I was able to find a pair of used T1’s which fit very well, and I have a strong suspicion that I’ll be really happy with my new BD01’s and back to the 75mm.
Again, the service I received from Scarpa throughout this whole experience was excellent, and I thank them for it. After a season on the freeride bindings and TX Pro boots, I have to say that the product is flawed… a boot should not break that easily. I’m no engineer, but I think that having the connection to the binding under the ball of the foot ends up putting a lot more strain on the front half of the boot, rather than behind the heel, where pressure is distributed across the entire boot. That is my experience, and I noticed that the metal on the bindings themselves is starting to bend and crack. I’ve seen plenty of posts regarding broken freeride bindings… Aaaaanywho, I can’t wait to test out yet another “new” setup (used BD01’s, used Scarpa T1’s, and used Dynastar Cham 97’s and will probably put some more BD01’s on my beauty K2 Sideshows). I’ve got a good feeling about this one. The ski dreams have started… winter must only be 4-5 months away…!
From what I've read, it looks like the comps have a solid fan base. Does the plastic on the underside of the boot bend for you guys as well, where the connection to the binding is made? Seems like just two days of use, and the plastic around the underside of the boot is starting to bend out of shape.
