Finding the Next Splitboard Hardboot
When Phantom Snow Industries announced they would no longer be making their acclaimed splitboard hardboot, it couldn’t have come at a worse time. I was just starting as Alpenglow Sports' splitboard buyer and I was chosen for this role thanks to my emerging leadership in the hardboot splitboarding space. I had been describing that time as the Golden Age of Hardboot Splitboarding and one of the main characteristics of that era was choice! We had two dedicated hardboot splitboard boots and riders could choose which one they rode. A golden age indeed!
After selling all of my Phantom hardboots in a matter of months, we settled into a new phantom-free world, one that I hadn’t quite defined. This world was centered around the Key Equipment Disruptive Boot, our last remaining option. This boot has rave reviews online but I have been having a really hard time figuring it out. I’ve had the boot since last season and it's been whirlwind of experimentation. I’ve tried three different liners, three different footbeds, two different strap placements, two different straps, and even took shears to the boot, cutting out plastic to redefine the flex.
So I went back to the drawing board and started riding in every ski boot that I could get my hands on. Fortunately, I work for a ski shop with a large selection of demo boots and strong industry connections. In this early discovery phase, I identified six characteristics that consistently delivered the best riding characteristics.
What Makes a Good Splitboard Hardboot?
Three-piece Construction
A splitboard a hardboot should have three-piece construction. Three-piece boots stand in sharp contrast with two-piece boots as they derive their flex from a plastic tongue. Both the Phantom Slipper and Disruptive Boot are three piece boots. The three pieces are lower shell, upper cuff, and tongue. Three-piece boots were first pioneered for backcountry skiing as an attempt to get better range of motion in the upper cuff while walking, which they quickly achieved. Three-piece boots deliver the walk mode improvements that we need out of our hardboots.
Removable Tongue
From there, a splitboard hardboot should have an easily removable tongue. The Phantom Slipper tongue slides into place and can be removed without removing any hardware. 99% of riders do this on their first day. The plastic tongue makes the boot ride like a ski boot and I was so against it that I removed all the tongues from Alpenglow Sport’s Phantom boots even before they sold. I showed folks the tongues in the box and told them that the first thing they should do is throw that in the trash. The key boot requires two screws to be removed to extract the tongue. Unfortunately, the Key boot cannot be ridden without its tongue. It becomes way too soft to drive your toe edge.
Link Lever Compatible
Enter the Link Lever. The Phantom Snow Industries Link Lever is the magic that made the Slipper HD the defining splitboard hardboot of our time. The spring-loaded walk and ride mode lever connects the upper and lower cuff while in ride mode and delivers the softboot-like flex they became famous for. I have ridden a half dozen different ski boots and none of them get even close to this riding experience until I add the link lever. I even attempted adding the link lever to the Key boot! I am convinced that the link lever is the only way to deliver the experience that riders deserve. The next splitboard hardboot needs to be link lever compatible.
Diagonal Strap Compatible
One of the other modifications that Phantom pioneered is the addition of a “diagonal strap” on their Slipper and Slipper HD. The diagonal strap comes over the ankle just like your ankle strap would on a softboot binding. This strap gets you your heel hold on toe-side turns and delivers a familiar feeling that I really enjoy. Key Equipment also modifies their ski boot (the Roxa RX Scout) to have a diagonal strap. I went one step further and swapped in the Phantom Diagonal strap to get better ride feel. This modification is necessary as most ski boots have a forefoot buckle (or two) that's lower on the midfoot, and upper-cuff buckles around the calf. These deliver a foreign experience and should be avoided. The next splitboard hardboot needs to have a diagonal strap.
Wide Fitting
My experience fitting Phantom Hardboots is that splitboarders tend to have wider feet. I think, whether we knew it or not, this is the reason many of us switched to snowboarding in the first place. We stepped into ski boots and they did not feel right! Snowboard boots, in contrast, delivered the comfort we had been seeking. That’s why I think the next splitboard hardboot needs to be a wide boot to begin with. And those are rare in skiing! Starting with a wider boot means we’ll have to do less modification to the shell to deliver a comfortable experience for more riders. The Phantom boot is only 99mm wide (in size 26) and that meant I did a lot of shell punches to make them fit. The next boot will start out wide and deliver better comfort out-of-the-box.
Wow Factor
The last thing that the next boot needs is wow factor. As Phantom's only demo center on the west coast, I watched countless customers come back to the shop grinning ear to ear and raving about their experience. That boot had wow factor! Nowadays, my customers walk through the door with Key boots that are "Pretty good!" Hardboot splitboarding is lacking its wow factor and we need to find the next boot that delivers it, and fast! I don't yet know what that wow factor will be but I think we'll know it when we feel it.
Finding Inspiration
The process of snowboarding in self-modified ski boots is a comical one. You’re doing everything you can to make the boots softer and your first tool is riding with the upper cuff completely unbuckled. Next you’ll try riding it in walk mode, which rarely works! During this time, I found myself saying and experiencing similar things to a group of snow-sliders I never would have thought to find common ground with: Tele skiers. Last year was a big year for Tele. The main tele boot maker had released a highly-anticipated new boot and everyone was coming to Alpenglow Sports to try one on. These folks told stories of riding their boots in walk mode and taking off the buckles to soften them. I quietly thought,” Same!” Then I looked closer at what was right in front of me, and the answer was right there.
Announcing our Next Splitboard Hardboot: The Scarpa TX Pro
16 years in the making, Winter 24/25 saw the release of the new Scarpa TX Pro and it has everything that a hardboot splitboard boot should have. It’s a three-piece boot with incredible range of motion in the upper cuff. The tongue can be removed by unscrewing a single screw! It is a perfect candidate for a link lever swap, which we are developing now. It comes with a diagonal strap already installed! No modifications necessary. It’s wide! There’s only one boot wider in all of backcountry skiing and that extra room at the toes feels amazing! The wow factor is apparent from the moment you put on the boot.
Softboot Feel in the Lower Shell
What blew me away with this boot is the familiar softboot feel in the lower shell. The lower shell of most ski boots is the most foreign part. But in a tele boot there’s what’s called the “bellows” which is a flex point at the ball of your foot. You know what else flexes at the ball of your foot? A softboot. This is the wow factor! Walking in this boot delivers the familar, comfortable flex of a softboot. The climbing experience is so comfortable I quickly remarked, “this is best climbing boot I have ever felt.” Wow is right.
The bellows are pictured here. The red plastic helps the book break at the metatarsals.
What blew me away with this boot is the familiar softboot feel in the lower shell. The lower shell of most ski boots is the most foreign part. But in a tele boot there’s what’s called the “bellows” which is a flex point at the ball of your foot. You know what else flexes at the ball of your foot? A softboot. This is the wow factor. Walking in this boot delivers the dynamic, comfortable flex of a softboot. The climbing experience is so comfortable I quickly remarked, “this is best climbing boot I have ever felt.” Wow is right.
Lateral Stiffness in the Upper Cuff
Maybe the biggest miss in the Disruptive boot and others is the necessity to tour with the upper cuff completely unbuckled to get more range of motion. Unbuckling the upper cuff creates “slop” on the left and right of your shin, which undoes the main benefit we need from our hardboots: Lateral stiffness in the upper cuff. We need lateral stiffness to control our ski and unlock the benefits of hardboots while climbing. Thanks to the tongue-free, three-piece design of the TX pro, you can climb with the upper cuff buckled without any limitation to your range of motion. This is the same experience as my Phantom boots, which I keep completely bucked throughout my entire tour. TX Pro delivers the skinning experience that we all gravitated towards when we first discovered hardboots.
More questions about the benefit of lateral stiffness? Please read our full article on the benefits of hardboot splitboarding.
Link Lever Compatible
Things are looking good! We have a designer and machine shop in Reno working on the conversion, and are involving Alex and the team at Phantom! We’ll take the best solution we can create and attempt to get it manufactured locally. Our goal is to deliver modified Scarpa TX pro boots to our customers. We aim to have these boots for sale and demo by next season. The TX Pro has made this easy for us and we anticipate being successful!
Next steps
Being prescriptive about what comes next is kind of a joke. Frankly, I have no idea! I've never made a splitboard boot before! Thankfully, I have the support of a great team here at Alpenglow Sports. Hampus at Key Euipment and Alex at Phantom are two great mentors for me. I’m looking forward to a spring of splitboarding objectives and will be bringing my frankenboots along for the ride. I’m looking to better understand fit and durability. I have a lot more mods I am focused on testing. I’ll post updates to the Splitfriends email group and on Alpenglow Sports’ Instagram page.
Join Splitfriends
Splitfriends is a curated group of splitboard community members, industry folks, and Alpenglow Sports splitboard customers. The best way to join splitfriends is to buy any single piece of splitboard gear from Alpenglow Sports. I pull a list of all splitboard customers before every email newsletter, so please join the group! It’s been such a pleasure to bring this group together and share exciting updates and splitboard-specific content.
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