Tag: skiing

By Phul Lindeman from Summitdaily.com

Scott Cosmos II

MSRP: $749.99

Sizes: Men’s U.S. 4-14

Weight: 3.15 pounds in size 8.5

Shell material: Powerlite shell made with Grilamid thermoplastic outer and four aluminum buckles

Liner material: Italian-made Powerlite ski mountaineering liner, with ventilated mesh through the ankle and memory foam padding on the footbed

Other features: Vibrman high-density rubber outsole for grip when hiking; shock-dampening footbed inserts; adjustable spoiler for forward lean; lock catches on buckles for touring mode.

 

 

 

 

 

High Gear: Scott Cosmos II men’s AT boot (review)

Now I know how ski patrollers can spend 10-plus hours in ski boots and still love what they do, season after season after season.

For years and years — since the first time I went skiing at 4 or 5 years old — I’ve only set foot to snow in a pair of alpine ski boots. Come to think of it, those dastardly death traps are one of the major reasons I switched over to snowboarding as a teenager. I figured: Why deal with buckle-up Plastic Maidens when the other, cooler sport comes with boots as comfortable as skate shoes?

Then I met the Scott Cosmos II ($599). It was love at first fit — that’s saying a lot for a snowboarder — and I suddenly understood why the majority of patrollers wear AT boots instead of alpine models. The updated Cosmos is a men’s AT boot made for the everyman of the mountains: the sort of guy who goes for a lunchtime skin one day, an eight-hour trek the next and then spends the next four days working in the snow. It was my introduction to the wonderful world of ski boots made for, well, human feet, not nerveless masses of bruised meat. (So I’m late to the party, whatever.)

This combination of comfort, style and affordability is no mistake. The Cosmos II is basically a new-and-improved version of the men’s AT boot from Garmont, a boutique footwear manufacturer based in Italy. Scott bought the company’s ski division about four or five years ago, right when the AT scene started to explode and has been making small improvements on the sleek and sexy design ever since. I never wore the original model, but, from what I’ve heard, the merger was for the best: Garmont brought the know-how and Scott brought the price point.

“This really upped Scott’s game in the backcountry,” said Clay Schwarck, buyer and manager at Wilderness Sports in Dillon. “Now they’re making skis, backpacks, all the gear you need, and they made the move at the right time when AT was exploding. I think they’ve done it right.”

But, like any tale of love at first sight, I had to spend at least a week or two with the boots before I knew if it was true love or just lust. The boots are comfortable out of the box, but are they still comfortable after a full day of skinning? Even my Thirty-Two JP Walker’s have nasty hot spots after long enough. And, when it’s time to rip powder on the descent, is the Cosmos II powerful and responsive or cheap and floppy?

First date: a day on Mount Baldy.

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