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I think I'm going to give the Nuptse a try. But I won't get a chance to try them on first, so I'm wondering how accurate the sizing is.
Do they run big, small, true to size?

I'll probably put a stiffer thermo liner in them at some point, if that makes a difference.

I have a climbing partner that says they run true to size, but I can't comment personally.

I would say true, but on the wide side.

I'd get them at zappos or here: http://mtntools.com/

so that if they don't fit you can easily exchange.

i've never seen them at an actual shop outside of chamonix

They seem to run true to size, though I haven't had a ton of shoes in European sizes, but the three I've owned have all been 42 including my Nuptses. I didn't find that they ran wide. What size are you? I might be willing to loan them to test out. Personally, I've given up on them for riding purposes.

Are you all talking about this as a boarding boot? I find this very interesting if that's the case.

I was almost ready to go with hard boots for a number of reasons(weight, boot pack/crampons, etc), until yesterday when I hiked for many hours in my softboots. I don't think hiking dry rocky trail would have been any less unpleasant in AT boots, in fact I'm pretty certain I'd have been in bare feet had that been the case.
So, I am very intrigued by the prospect of riding mountaineering boots with mountain plates.

Tell me more

Hard to do in anything but super powder. Carving an edge with a leather, or even a plastic, mountaineering boot is really tough. Some people have modded their mtn plates with highbacks, which I think would make it considerably easier. That said, my laces got really loose really quickly due to toe-side turns too. I have used mountaineering boots in strap bindings with great success though.

Thanks,
Shep

Thx! Good info.... My interest in order are
1-Hiking potentially long approaches
2-Step in Crampons
3-Weight savings
Sticking with strap binders is a reasonable trade off for the first two.

Curious about this...do you mean both a toe and heel bale attachment or a hybrid strap/heel bale design? I personally have never felt the need for a toe bale (though I only climb WI4). Believe Steve House hit the Rupal face in a strap/heel bale hybrid crampon in the Nuptse.

Likely just the heel. More a matter of ease of putting them on relative to the clown boots (soft boots).

Though you likely have a better deal, here's an offering for 35% off from STP...limited sizes

That's a good deal, but not in my size. I actually ordered from Gear X (399.00) last night and I'm already having buyers remorse. Searched and found some older threads and know questioning if this is a good option for anything but powder. Who knows I may have a pair of size 44 for sale very soon

That's what I've found, and they ride ok in mellow terrain, two places where you need them the least and would likely opt for soft boots anyway
I'm interested to see if bcd can make it work somehow, I know he's done some cool mods with mtn plates and high backs, so I'm guessing if anyone could figure it out, he could. So bcd, let us know if you figure out a good option for the Nuptses!
I swapped the stock liner with a snowboard boot liner that had a nice cinching system attached, but the liner itself was far from stiff. Even with this setup my calves would KILL me on anything where it was critical/challenging to hold an edge. I thought about getting some other liners but at this point I just don't want to dump any more money into trying to figure it out. Great boots otherwise though...

bcd: I would say true to size as well, I am a 28 modo in most things, and that size was right for me as a shell fit for the Nuptse. I seriously considered trying to make these work for awhile, to the point of trying them on at the shop, and strapping in to a board, and here are my thoughts:
Like most mountaineering boots they are a little low in the ankle.
The forward flex is way too soft for me with the stock liners.
The boot has a longer footprint than a similar size soft boot, or hard boot, so board width and boot overhang needs to be carefully considered.
Because the heel is raised in comparison to a snowboard boot, it is impossible to get the heel of the boot all the way back into the heel cup on a stock binding.
I planned the following mods to overcome the problems:
Use a Intuition overlap liner to raise the cuff of the boot, and perhaps add some plastic reinforcement to the front of the liner to beef up the forward flex a little. In the past I have had good results gluing pieces of plastic to the Intuition and thermoflex liners with barge cement.
Add a beefy powerstrap to the top of the Intuition liner.
Modify the heel cup of a binding to allow the heel of the boot to go all the back into the heel cup. On aluminum heel loops this could be accomplished by cutting away material from the lower edge of the heel loop.
Instead of going the mountaineering boot route I decided to experiment with hard boots, and I ended up finding success with a highly modified Dynafit Zzero 3. Now I have a hard boot set up with as much flex as my Driver Xs, that also weighs less than any soft boot set up.
bcd-if you get them I look forward to hearing how they are working for you.