La Sportiva Vanguard Boot

I wander how they compare to Maestrale RS 3.0. They are pretty the same weight and flex. Are there any significant differences?

I originally purchased the Vanguard in February of 2022. Working as an avalanche educator and ski guide I really put these boots through the ringer for the second half of the ski season, making turns in them all the way through until late June of 2022. I am still skiing this boot but as of today (December 21, 2022) I received a warranty pair of boots after some breaks and worn out parts, which I will go into more detail about below.

Sizing: I bought these boots in a 27.5. In other brands I am typically a 28/28.5, my regular street shoe size is 10.5 or euro 44 (10.5+). After significant time contemplating in store between the 28's or 27.5's I went 27.5 as the heel felt more snug and any problems in the front of my foot seemed fixable with a light punch or heatmold. This resulted in a pretty performance 1 finger + shell fit for a touring boot. The wide last made this fit feel roomy enough for me, aside from my right toe (bigger right foot) bumping the front of the boot and getting cold compared to my left.

Over the months skiing this boot I did have doubts about the fit, I found I was getting pretty significant top of the instep pain while at the resort in this boot that heat molding never really solved for me. While touring for whatever reason I noticed this less. Aside from that the fit in general has always felt proper.

I eventually bought some new insoles for the boot which made the fit feel too tight, I shortly after purchased a pair of Intuition Pro Tour Low Volume liners in size 28 and had that heat molded by a boot fitter with toe caps and pads. Today the fit with these liners and insoles is about as perfect as I could ask for, plenty roomy especially in ski mode, only a little toe bumping on my right foot while touring.

Touring: Initially I found the walk mode to be pretty comparable to other beefy boots I've toured in, despite the fancy cuff design. Once I put the intuition liner in the articulation got much better, an improvement on any other beef boot I've skied. On the original model the buckles were a soft cable loop, which I broke. The new ones I got warrantied have a solid, rigid wire loop. This wire loop, especially on the ankle buckle sticks out further from the plastic and has improved articulation even further for me. Walking around in my house in them today I would say they walk darn near as well as my Dynafit TLT's. Which is pretty huge for a boot in this class.

Downhill: The boots ski great, they have a nice progressive flex for me and feel quite responsive. I only wish they had the option of a slightly steep forward lean, but as it is, they ski quite well for me at the steepest lean setting. The buckles are little finnicky at transitions for me, which is a downside, but it's not so bad, the only other beef boot with a better, faster buckle system is probably the Dynafit Hoji line. The new wire buckles on the warranty pair seem to help with the finnicky-ness.

Durability: On my original pair I broke a buckle just last week, ankle of the left foot. The power strap on the right foot had stitching failing. The liners on my right foot blew the fabric and exposed the foam at the heel just before I bought new liners, and the footbed thats glued to the shell of the boot cracked and came out on my right foot. I also had one of the bolts on the cuff come out in the TH right before a long tour.

Conclusion:

I think for the weight (1508g for one foot on my scale at home) these boots ski excellent and they walk about as good as any beef boot I've ever skied, that being with the asterisk that I changed the liner on them. I think the updated version with wire buckles is a huge improvement and I'm excited to put another season on the boot. The only cons to me are the durability issues I had, but given the great warranty at sportiva it's hard to knock it too bad. They fit in the same weight class as many other beef boots with really only the Zero G Pro Tours being lighter for the most part. If this boot fits your foot and is available in your budget I wouldn't hesitate to ski it. If you're willing to spend a little more, I think the liner upgrade is huge for this boot.
Sportiva easily and painlessly warrantied these boots for me.

I'm debating about this boot compared to the Tecnica Zero G Tour Pro. I had a chance to try on the Technica in size 27.5 which is consistently my size. My only real concern with that boot is that the liner feels thin. How would you compare the warmth of this boot to that one? I really like the heel and toe box of the Technica, but I have some room in the instep. Out of the box, I was on the second to last notch on all 4 buckles with a thin sock. Would you say this has a lower instep than the Technica?

I’ve had two pairs of the Vanguards since they were released. Between the two pairs I’ve put over 90k’ of vertical gain in this winter. I purchased them because I’m a big fan of La Sportiva in general and they have a fairly wide last off the shelf in my size (102.5mm). Despite the wide last, I still had them blown out to 110mm.

Pros: they ski great, the stiffness is exactly what I needed/wanted. The liner is beefy and responds incredibly well to breaking in/heat molding. The ski/walk lever is super solid and locks in with authority, I feel really confident on the down. Range of motion for a 130ish flex boot is the best I’ve tried compared to the other options in this category, it exceeds my ankle mobility on the up.

Cons: Initial durability, on my fist pair the glue for the footbed failed in both boots after less than 3 days on them. Sportiva immediately warrantied them and I have not had any issues with the second pair the remainder of this season with >80k’ of vert and a lot of days on them. The ankle cable buckle broke on my first pair as well. Sportiva is now sending out a hard buckle replacement for the cable buckle. I have not weighed them side by side to compare the weight change, but recommend that SkimoCo stocks/includes these if they haven’t received them from Sportiva. Weight, Sportiva states 1370g for a 27 on their site. SkimoCo’s weight of 1511g for a 27.5 is accurate and 27/27.5 is the same BSL for these boots so that delta should not be as large.

Overall, the durability issues are the same as other new boots I’ve tried in the past and the warranty/replacement process with Sportiva was quick/easy. I highly recommend the boots if you’re looking for an alternative to the ZERO G pros everyone else is wearing that charges hard.

can you comment on the fit regarding medial malleolus. It almost lloks like there is extra room molded in but hard to tell from the pictures.

Any chance you can get a weight for the 26? Also, any ideas on why measured weight is so much higher than advertised for these?

Are these boots compatible with GripWalk bindings ( Marker Lowride XL 13 GripWalk)?

So, how is this boot for...truly...skinning up and then often coming down in a resort. With some basic off-piste bits thrown in?

Just making sure these boots are still made in Italy I'm fairly they are thanks

General: This review is based on fit and flex testing at home. I have not skied it. But I did try it on beside several other boots. It is somewhere between the Lange and Radical as far as flex goes. A little more progressive than the radical, but overall stiffness is the same. The Lange is more boot than either. The radical is more responsive. The fit on la spo is all over the place IMO, this boot fits huge. Compared to my Scorpius I can easily go down a size. It is very wide and pretty high volume. The in-step can be cranked down pretty low like the Scorpius, but when totally backed off I would say it's still medium volume and not nearly as bad as the skorp. The liner quality looks better than both the radical and the Lange.

Walk: I would say it is again middle ground amongst beef boots. Walks better than the Lange, but not as good as the radical. The build quality on the vertical throw latch is quite high and confidence inspiring. Regardless of fit and funky tensioning systems, it is a highly engineered and well-built boot. The sole indoors feels very grippy and based off my experience with other la spo Boots, I suspect it's great.

Cons: It uses the effective but finicky forefoot tensioning system that the Scorpius uses for better or worse. You can be the judge on if you like that or not, but regardless of what you think, the ultra-thin cables and having to place them into the tiny holes to dial a fit is just not as simple and confidence inspiring as the Burly buckles on other beef boots, regardless of if you only have to set them once or twice. I also found placing the upper buckles into the walk slot which is the end of the buckle and then getting them to appropriate tension for downhill skiing is a process, a far cry from the single throw effectiveness of the radical. It was moderately challenging just with my fat fingers and I really would not want to do it when it's puking snow and things have potentially gotten iced. They also got rid of the trab quick step which is unfortunate because that was also an appeal for the boot at least to me personally. Also placing three boots side by side. The actual cuff height is the same. The vanguard is perhaps very subtly higher on my shin, but it's definitely within a centimeter or two of the radical and I did not feel it provided in advantage even though I have a pretty long tibia.

Overall, as I've said in other reviews, between these three boots I say get what fits. Lange is most high volume and most powerful, and walks the worst but still pretty good for a four buckle. The vanguard is kind of an in-between all three, but in my opinion is inferior to the other two if you can fit one of the others better mainly due to the overly complex tensioning system. The radical fits the smallest of the three but is still traditionally pretty wide and it has a fairly low instep in my opinion. However, I have found that putting in a different liner makes it way more comfortable around the ankle joint because most of my pressure there was related to the fact that the liner simply doesn't exist in that particular area. It walks the best of the three, but is the least progressive offering a very quick 0 to concrete wall type of stiffness. It's a pretty good time to be alive as far as the different types of fits and quality that are available in modern boots with way less compromise than in years past as far as ski ability to walkability.

Now that these are in, is the instep still as low as the Skorpius? The Skorpius has a very low instep for my foot and was hoping the Vanguard has a little more room.

Super curious to find out how this boot fits and skis compared to Sportiva Skorpius!