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^^

^ How is the coordinated and precise transfer of power through triple extension of the hip, knee and ankle with those things? Its seems like athletic performance would be off the fuckin charts with those things, think truly progressive [snowboarding].

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Dude you just made my friday. Thanks homie!

Those can go from a sick summit line to up in da club, no problem.

The Backcountry is the only boot I've ridden since I got them. That includes fanging around inbounds, and even the odd park lap. They charge just as hard on my solid set up as they do on the splitty. This is where they come into their own:

It's nice to feel solid on airy, exposed ridge traverses like this (shot from NZ Splitfest at Temple Basin, en-route to a tasty chute adjacent to Mt Temple). To get to this ridge, we climbed a nice, reasonably steep gully. I was last up (and left my crampons behind) so had to deal with a fair bit of very hard scraped off rain crust, real foot swinging country, the backcountry excels at this sort of stuff.

Rich is running intuition liners in his, looks like a great set up, though I'm happy with the stock liners for now.

Haven't had them out for a while unfortunately, thanks to a fast slide down an icy spring chute (rag doll over three sets of rocks and shredded pants), that left me with a hematoma way too close to my nuts... followed by 3 straight weekends of shit house weather, despite a pretty decent spring snow pack in my neck of the woods.

haha, fuck, massive photo, sorry...

Who is selling Fitwell Backcountry boots in the U.S.A. ????

I contacted Fitwell last week and here's what they said.


I have not bothered to tally the shipping costs stateside (if available) from the EU (€350 ≈ $457USD if you can find it in your size) vs NZ ($750NZ ≈ $612USD). It's still too rich for my blood.

It'd be worth hitting Rich up

Definitely keen to help if anyone wants Fitwell Backcountry boots in Canada/USA/Japan please PM or email me. I will sort out a competitive price for you including courier and if a few of you banded together for 2-3 pairs sent to same address we could probably get the freight down a bit more ok. Good qty available in all sizes 265 thru to 300 ok. Thanks, Rich

It might be worth it if they didn't pack out in one-two seasons. If they lasted 4-5 years I could legitiizes it. But $675 is a hard bill to swallow...

Um, they still sell them where jimw and I bought them for much less: http://www.backcountry.it/product.php?id_product=159
Just email them. Actually looks like they're mostly out of stock. I would still email them as I would imagine they'd be getting this years models in sometime soon.

The shells on these are not gonna pack out. Just the liners (easily replaceable)

Here are a few pics of the Fitwell Backcountry on a recent New Zealand alpine climb, loose rock, snow and ice.

Good steep terrain needing crampons axes and a bit of protection.

Ruari Macfarlane is a hard nut who loves a challenge rides hard and naturally is hard on gear so a great equipment tester.



Same on Facebook if you do that.....
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.422184167836282.98414.169413809779987&type=1&l=1270333a49

And if you've not seen it already here is a good review on the boots from another NZ backcountry splitboarder. http://splitn2.com/fitwell-backcountry-snowboard-mountaineering-boot/

Enjoy!

cheers
Rich

Comparing the stock liners to 2 others I've tried side by side it's safe to say the stock liners are terrible. But the outer is still the reason to buy 'em
After hiking with these things the other day they aren't super fun on dry ground due to their weight (way better than an AT boot though). Still have yet to get to kick steps in them. Skinning wise they fit great in my karakorams and I'm sure they ride well too.