SCARPA Alien RS Boot

The comments thread indicates that the Alien RS will be discontinued after this season. Can you shed any light on this? I’ve been using the Maestrale RS/ Alien RS as the boot quiver and find it to be a fantastic combo. Hope that the Alien RS sticks around!

I got these boots thinking I would use them for long tours in the Cascades paired with Voile Objectives. They are certainly light and go uphill very well, but I think I had unrealistic expectations for the downhill performance. I'm sure they are good for the weight (I haven't skied other boots in this weight class), but don't expect them to be much fun in difficult snow conditions. If you ski nice light snow with a conservative style then they will do great. I usually opt for a heavier boot and bring these out for climbing focused objectives where skiing is more of an efficient way to get down than the main goal. Great boot for what it is, but don't expect a miracle. They make a lot of sacrifices to get a boot this light.

A few notes:
- Cord closure requires a stopper knot to prevent slipping which makes it difficult to dial in the tension or adjust throughout the day. The knot wears down one section and will probably break the cord eventually, but it looks easy to replace.
- Fit is much narrower than other Scarpa boots. All other Scarpa boots I have tried are way too wide for me but these fit well.
- Booster strap can be installed by drilling a hole in the back of the cuff. This helps the downhill performance a bit. I haven't broken the cuff yet, fingers crossed.

The Alien RS represents a huge step forward in the world of ski touring equipment. They are very lightweight, have excellent cuff articulation, and they ski very well. Full stop. Although they do take some getting used to, once you are familiar with the way these boots ski I do not see why you couldn't drive a fairly large ski at decent speeds. I highly recommend tuning the forward lean to suit your skiing style and going with as aggressive of a fit as is comfortable (you need a medium to narrow foot with high volume).

I will attempt to address few of the concerns many people seem to have about this boot. First, “it isn’t going to be warm enough on cold winter days”. In my experience, this boot is adequately warm for most very cold days (single digits F) especially when you are moving fast, and this boot should inspire you to do so. Second, “this boot isn’t going to be durable or reliable”. This boot is like many other ultra-light pieces of gear, I wouldn’t advise wailing on it. I did break my right cuff about an inch above the pivot while skiing one day, luckily Scarpa replaced the cuff for me in a (somewhat) timely fashion.

The Alien RS will become an absolute cult classic of a ski boot. Much like the TLT-6. Its performance greatly outweighs its mass, and I think that is the idea with most of the gear on this site. Get yourself a pair before they are gone. -Scarpa is canning the Alien RS for next season… :(

(Full disclosure: I did not but these boots from skimo.co but I really like this site and I think this is a great place to post and read reviews.)

Do you think this boot would be able to reasonably drive something like the hyper V8? That seems like a big ski, but I just realized it's a pretty similar weight to the standard v6, which does seem like something more in the wheelhouse of this boot.

Just got a pair of these in a 30. Have put 2 days in then and am very disappointed in how sloppy they fit. I probably should have sized down, but then I’d have to punch the toe to make them long enough (2 separate bootfitters agreed). I have a pretty low volume foot and these things just have tons of heel lift, side to side, and up to down play in them. I’m literally swimming even with the Boa maxes. I’m going to try high volume footbeds and foam padding but short of that I’m afraid this boot just won’t work for me.

When it's working this boot is working right, doing what it is designed to do, it does it really well. It is stiff and can ski big, heavy skis fairly well. It's light and has great articulation. The lever/tightening mechanism works well and I have not had a problem with the cord.

However, it's also not super reliable in the field. I have broken the boa system a couple times, and while this isn't a deal breaker, it can be annoying to ski and hike with a loose lower, and it is a big pain to put a new cable in. The bolt that goes through the lever is a bit too short and the nylon on the lock nut doesn't quite engage the threads. I've lost the bolt while touring and almost lost it a couple other times when I realized the nut was going. Skiing out without being able to lock the upper boot can be quite grim. Finally, I've had the gaiter start separating near the cuff after only one season. I'm not sure how I'm going to fix that.

As others have mentioned: these boots are narrow and punching them would void the warranty. They are also a bit small and I would size up.

Hands down the best skiing boot I have ever used in this weight category. I use them with Voile Objectives and Helio 95's and they drive both skis very well. So light! And so easy to use. I think they're total game changers. Over the past 2 seasons I have put approximately 80 days on my Alien RS's and they are holding up surprisingly well. I have yet to have anything break or really fail. I do carry replacement / backup Dyneema cord but am still going strong on the originals. I also keep an eye on the walk/ski mode bolt and put some blue loctite on it for piece of mind. I expect to get another season or two out of them for sure!

Hi, I wanted to know if this boot is compatible with Salomon/Atomic Shift bindings?

Is there a woman version of the Scarpa Alien RS Boot?

I skimmed through and saw lots of comparisons to other boots, but not to Alien 1.0. . . maybe I missed it.

So questions:

1. Does this boot ski as stiff as 1.0? If not as stiff, is that in a good way (like smoother flex closer to TLT6 vs the stiff brick wall of the 1.0?) or is it just flimsy like the original plastic alien?

2. The 1.0 has a fixed cord that you adjust by re-tying the knot and this boot looks like it has a cam to adjust more easily. When I have climbed vert ice with my 1.0, it seemed to work really well unbuckled but I wonder if the on-the-fly cuff adjustability of this boot would be a benefit climbing ice to get a little more cuff support and decrease calf fatigue?

3. Since this boot seems to have a more conventional liner, do people feel like it walks as well as the 1.0 or does the liner inhibit range of motion somewhat?

4. Lots of comments about durability. . any comment from Scarpa about changes or improvements next season?

Hi Skimo folks,

The lean lock/locking lever screw keeps falling out. I lost one touring and one simply on the approach (hiking with the boots on my pack). I know this is a well documented problem but didn't see a solution mentioned after a quick scan through all the comments. I've about had it--and Scarpa customer service hasn't helped out by sending new screws despite several emails to them. I imagine you guys have a good work-around? Do you just recommend a screw from the hardware store with a locking nut? Any better suggestions? I almost thought I'd just put a ten-penny nail through it and bend it over but there has to be a better-engineered solution. Thanks.

After a year of using these boots on a variety of trips from multi-day tours to quick uphill training skins at resorts, I have some observations. Overall, this boot is a good option for race training and lightweight shorter trips if you have a narrow-ish foot, and it skis extremely well for how light it is, but I can't recommend it as a daily driver or for longer tours in rugged terrain. It's simply not reliable enough. These are the failures I've experienced so far:

- Boa cable broke. Replaced with a free kit from Boa under warranty, but doing that job is a major PITA. Not something that could likely be done out in the field.

- Ski/Walk lever attachment screw fell out while on a tour. I cobbled together a fix with bits from my repair kit to get home, and then replaced the bolt with the closest approximation from a hardware store once home, but Scarpa used a weird diameter bolt for this, and the replacement is slightly more narrow which leaves a fair amount of slop in the lever pivot.

- Cuff cord broke clean through on a long tour yesterday, rendering the ski/walk mechanism and cuff closure useless. I made an emergency fix with a Voile strap to hold the cuff closed and permit me to ski downhill (sloppily), but now I have to figure out how to replace that darn cord. This also revealed another weakness in the ski/walk lever's design: there is nothing that actually locks the lever into ski mode; there's just a groove in the lever that a metal tab on the boot heel slots into. The two are held together solely by friction from the pivot/attachment bolt. But, if the ski/walk lever is worn around the bolt where it pivots, or that bolt had to be replaced with a slightly sloppier fitting one as in my case, the lever has little friction to hold it in place and can simply fall out of lock mode, which it did about 100 times to me yesterday.

A few notes about fit:

- It is a narrow and low-volume last, unlike other Scarpa boots such as the Maestrale, which is great for me since my feet are shaped liked toothpicks, but people who have normal feet might need some modifications to fit comfortably.

- Sizing runs small. I'm a 27.5 in alpine boots, 28.5 in all other touring boots, and a 29.5 in the Alien RS, which is borderline too small. If I keep these I will get a punch in the toe box to make more room.

- As others have noted, the toe box is oddly shaped and aggressively rounded off. This causes even narrow feet like mine to feel jammed into the sides of the toe box.

- Forward lean is minimal and forces a more upright stance.

If it was more reliable it would be a great option for me, but for now I'm shopping for something that won't break as often, even if it ends up being heavier.

The finest lightweight touring boot of all time. I have probably 200 days and 700,000+ vert on mine and they're still holding strong! I've skied tlt5s, 6s, backlands, f1s and several others, and really nothing comes close to the worry-free efficiency of the RS. The one caveat is that you really have to know how to ski for them to work. With a solid technical foundation and an understanding of the limitations of 1 kilo boots, they will take you anywhere. I ski them on 80mm mountaineering skis, all the way up to 110mm powder skis, and they've never complained once. They're the warmest, most comfortable boot i've ever had and when they die (they're close), i'll get another pair.

BROKE ALMOST IMMEDIATELY,
NO WARRANTY!

I had the pleasure of using this boot for three days before the cuff broke right above the ankle pivot on the outside of the left boot. The boots were amazing, but broke just from flexing forward skiing normal conditions. I attempted to warranty them and Scarpa denied the claim saying I “Overflexed” the boot. Total BS. I continued to baby them in SkiMo races and just found out the other boot broke in the same place. Such BS.

I don’t understand how people can ride these things and not break them. I’m only 150lbs and I broke both boots just by skiing groomers. (Probably because I’m so freakin fast!). Super pissed at Scarpa for not warrantying them. Can’t say I would recommend them to people.

Hey my Boa cable just broke as I was on the uphill. I’ve had maybe 10-12 outings on them. I’ve loved them till now. Aargh. Has this been an issue? Fixable, I am hoping? (Alien RS)

My favorite touring boot to date! My boot journey has been a bit like Goldilocks...but I'm so glad I found these. I started skiing the Dynafit Px One which is a pretty heavy touring boot. From there, I swung back to the Salomon Slab boots which I found overly complicated and frustrating to use. Finally, I landed on these and I LOVE them.

Awesome points:

Fastest transitions ever. While I'm still not racing material by any means, these boots are so quick and easy to transition. All you have is the single ski/walk throw on the back of the boot. If you needed, you can quickly tweak your forefoot pressure using the boa but generally you can set it and forget it.

Excellent booting tread + expansive walk mode. These are so comfortable to hike/walk/scramble in! I think this is mostly due to the wide walk mode. I almost feel like I can walk normally and this has come in handy when doing multi-mile dirt approaches with skis. The boot part fits snugly, more shoe like, and this means fewer blisters as well. The foot fit is also amazing enough that I have ice climbed in this boot with fantastic results. I felt super confident and didn't have any toe or shin bang. Plus they are basically as light as a beefy mountaineering boot!

Awesome gaiter - the gaiter on this boot is so much better than the Salomon gaiter. It fits super snugly around the liner and doesn't move unless you really want it to. Seals out snow, I've never had damp feet.

Love it and hoping to ski it for many seasons to come!

I just purchased this boot after skiing the original LS Spitfire for sixish seasons. I have skied the boot twice and like it so far. I do think it is a little on the chilly side (at least for Rocky Mountain National Park), but the skinning/climbing performance is great. It is also quite stiff and almost skis as well as my Spitfires.

The question I have concerns the forward lean. I know others have asked similar questions, and I actually just emailed Skimo.co directly, but I thought I would post here as well. I am very used to the 16 degree lean that the Spitfires have, and has very surprised that Scarpa decided to only go to 13 degrees (especially when the LS Sytron goes to 22 degrees!!). I put a shim in the back but am still feeling a bit off-balance when I try to drive turns or do techy jump-turns.

I am thinking that the answer might lie in the walk/ski mode heel lever. Looking at photos, it appears that the Alien 1.0 has a slightly different lever, and I am wondering if anyone knows if it happens to be longer than the Alien RS one--I think a few millimeters would make all the difference regarding lean. Any other ideas regarding ways to increase lean are welcome. I am otherwise pretty smitten with the boot.

Hi SkimoCo,

I measure a 26 in length and was fit into a 27 boot. After about 6 days the boots have become quite sloppy in fit. What liner would you reccomend to take up more space than the stock?

Thanks!

fit relative to the older all yellow Alien? I was sort of between a 26 and 27 in those boots. big foot measures 272mm. low volume and a true D width.

Hi!
I've been using TLT6 first edition in size 27.0. My big toes gets pretty damn hurted on long days because of the boot lenght which is too small so i would fit better with 27.5 tlt6. They still works great while strictly ascending.
Which size do you think would fit best for me? 27.0 or 28.0? I ski a lot of long days on flat mark before reaching the mountains, so i hate when my toes hit the front wall of boots.

Eric