La Sportiva Vega Boot - Women

I’m writing this review for my fiancé .

Finding the right boot has been a challenge over the last 5 years. We live in central California between Yosemite and kings canyon National park. We tend to have long approaches up the south face and often miserable decent back down to the cars on the refrozen south face on tired legs and feet. It’s often not pretty .

Our first boot we bought was the scarpa gea , it was the blue version from 5 years ago or so. She wears a 26.5 . Being new to skiing and touring the buckle system scarpa offers was a little annoying and confusing . Also the middle strap buckle did almost break off , it’s position made it vulnerable to rocks. These boots started great but ended up packing out and not fitting well at all. Not exactly the boots fault , new skier and often it’s hard to get the proper fit. We tried on a lot of boots at a shop in whistler And decided the atomic ultra hawx 115 were the right choice .
The atomics provided a much more narrow fit. She skied these for 2 seasons. She enjoyed skiing these at the resort (she uses the same boot for everything) but after a number of days touring in them she would often get hot spots on her heels. Orthotics and molding didn’t help. We debated on buying new liners , the atomics liners that year I would consider to not be performance . They seemed more like a luxury fufu liner in non performance comfort ski boots . I felt they held moisture and had a more abrasive touch . So combine that with movement and you have major problems. We didn’t try new liners after one bad morning in the bc. Major winds came through and we were ran out of camp . In the rush to get ready she could not get her boots on. This also happened time to time on cold mornings but in this situation it was a big problem. Having to heat water and warm the boot in this situation just sucked . That was the final straw.
We next tried the Hoji’s because rei had some on clearance and I could return them. One trip and they were clearly the wrong fit .

Long story longer we found ourselves on this trusted site using the boot fitter tool. I will say the tool was amazing . After a few emails we settled on these Vegas , size 26. We choose these on the suggestion they should be similar for to the atomics and the shell allowed for easy entry even frozen( forgive me I’m not sure what the different shell styles are called) . We have 15 days today 5 or so in the back country in them and they are fantastic . The fit is is very similar to the atomics but the heel pocket holds the heel far better. The liner is all business and I don’t see any issues with the liners like I did with the atomics . These boots are light and the walk mode functions great allowing for a nice range of motion with Ouse having to unbuckle everything . They look amazing in person style wise. The one worry buying a 125 flex was a boot being rock solid rigid. My fiancé is 5’9” 150’s (full size human). She’s an advanced skier but not a hucking ripper . After skiing all snow conditions she has not found the flex to be any issue. She describes it as “stiff not rigid” so my take is it’s more progressive allowing the boot to be more approachable but not limited . The buckles are simple and easy to use that’s always a bonus .

To sum it up we are very happy with the boots and give a lot of credit to the boot fitter tool and the people on the back side of it who really understand the products and what the customers are needing .