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I've used last year model the whole season. I'm usually on Salomon malamutes.

Don't forget that the sole is pretty thick for snowboard boots, it can become problematic with your bindings/straps...

While it was a real pain to break them, those are the best snowboard boots I've ever had for walking - they feel like (real) mountain shoes with vibram sole

They're also great for splitboarding (stiff laterally but not really stiff on flex).

I've used crampons (Petzl Vasak) a few times and while it was ok for what I was doing (no ice climbing here), I felt the Salomon malamutes (that are much stiffer!) were better at this, especially going straight up in an icy couloir.

Overall, I love them for the backcountry but I still use my malamutes at the resort.

A good point is that after a huge season, they seem to properly handle the abuse and look barely used - that was not the case with the malamutes or driver x that were to be replaced nearly each season if I used them in the backcountry...

This year I got a new pair of the XV model - the real improvement is the crampons Heel Welt - beside that the boot is pretty similar - if you don't need the Heel Welt and can still get last year model for 1/2 price, go for it... This year model price went up and is nearly 400 EUR in Europe - it starts to be really expensive for a pair of snowboard boots...