We Tested the Best New Ski Boots for 2024
If you invest in one piece of ski equipment, it should be a well-fitting pair of ski boots. You can always rent or demo skis, but your boot is not only the most important piece of precision gear you’ll purchase, it's also the most complex. A great boot can make the difference between liking skiing and loving it—between being a decent skier and a better, more sure-footed one.
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Consider your ski boots the foundation for your ski kit. It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner, intermediate, expert, or pro. Boots are your connection with your skis, and of course the slope. When you move your boots, that tells your skis what to do. If your boots are too big and sloppy, you won’t have the precision necessary for turns. If they’re painful, too small, or saddled with debilitating hotspots, your turns (and ski psyche) will suffer. Even if your skis are old, your poles bent, and your jacket patched with duct tape, boots should be your first priority.
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The following eight pairs of phenomenal ski boots confirm just how far ski boot technology has come since (we're assuming) the last pair you stepped into. Our best overall ski boot nod goes to the Fischer Sports RC4 130 MV BOA, which thrilled testers with its agility, balance, underfoot precision, and most importantly fit—hugging our feet with no hotspots, thanks to the boot's unique vacuum molding process and BOA-closure. While every foot is different, there’s a favorite pair of great ski boots in this lineup for even the toughest heels and toes to please.
Our Testing Process: Why You Should Trust Us
Our team of nine testers knows how to do our homework out in the field. Collectively, we’ll rack up more than 1,000 on-snow days in a given season just testing out ski gear to see if it lives up to its promise. Most of us have been running ski apparel through the ringer in every type of alpine terrain and weather condition imaginable for over 20 ski seasons.
We’ve run glades, bowls, couloirs, steeps, and remote backcountry in this gear—and we’ve taken copious notes. We’ve skied the slopes of New England and Eastern Canadian hardpack, Whistler powder, Pacific Northwest cement, and everything in between, including months in the French, Italian, and Swiss Alps. We offer a combined ski history of more than 100 years of high-level race and big-mountain experience racked up from Japan to North America to the Alps—and we know exactly what we want and need from the gear we’re relying upon. We also love being dazzled and inspired by the latest, greatest ski gear innovations, which never stop.
We’ve rigorously tested and compared thousands of items, harnessing not only ambition, but wisdom and experience, with testers from their early 20s to seasoned vets. We also tested a lot of this stuff with less experienced skiers to assess their own valuable takes. It's never easy putting so much great ski gear and apparel through its paces before whittling it all down to our favorite performers—but it's always a ton of fun.
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How to Test a Ski Boot for the Right Fit
When you first try on boots, pull the liners out and check the shell fit. Put your foot in the shell and slide forward until your big toe touches the front. If you can get a finger to a finger-and-a-half between your heel and shell, then you have the right size. Then put the liner back in the shell, try on the boot, and buckle it up. A well-fitting boot will feel snug when you first try it on. The liners haven’t “packed out” yet, so you need to ski a few days to help break them in.
Pay attention to width and flex. Boots generally come in a narrower last and wider last. Lasts that are in the low 90s (measured in millimeters) at the balI of your foot are generally designed for racing. Average feet are usually 98mm to 100mm, but wider fitting boots go up to about 104mm. Boots also have flex, which is the stiffness of the boot. You can have flex as low as 60 or 70 (mainly for junior skiers) and up to 130 for stronger adult skiers who have the power to drive stiffer boots. For most male intermediate skiers, 120 flex is about right.
Our best recommendation for buying boots? Start with this guide and then make an appointment with your local bootfitter. All of the ski boots reviewed here are “workable,” meaning a bootfitter can heat-mold the liners, adjust the forward lean, and most importantly, add room in the toe or forefoot, or add material to adjust for your unique stance and foot shape. A priority should be getting a custom-made footbed. You can buy one you cook yourself (Masterfit and Superfeet both have them), but we recommend consulting an expert from ABB (America’s Best Bootfitters)—check online for a shop near you. You’ll get a trained boot tech who can analyze your foot shape for the best boot choice possible.
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The Latest Ski Boot Innovations—from AT to BOA
Our team of testers have worn dozens of boots, from stiff alpine racers (plug boots) to light, super-flexible AT boots, and everything in between. As you’ll see in the reviews, the line between alpine and backcountry boots has blurred—with several boots that can now be used with “tech” bindings (AT touring) as well as with traditional alpine bindings. These styles are a great choice if you’re planning on both lift-accessed skiing and a bit of backcountry AT skinning (climbing uphill and then skiing down).
One innovation we saw a lot of this season is the addition of a BOA lacing system for the forefoot. The BOA system replaces the two front buckles, so with the quick twirl of a dial, you can cinch the shell down for a uniform fit. So far, testers are impressed with BOA's convenience and performance, but we’ll be testing the new system all season long for comfort and durability.
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Best Overall Ski Boot for 2024: Fischer Sports RC4 130 MV BOA
Expert and intermediate skiers should gravitate toward the new Fischer Sports RC4 130 MV BOA—specially designed to allow skiers to push their limits and up their technical game. The shell is highly moldable via a vacuum process; it's heat-softened and then compressed against the foot. We noticed that the plastic used in the shell seems more resilient to temperature than most, providing a more stable flex that doesn’t stiffen up in sub-zero temps or soften up on warm spring days. We tried our review sample on multiple testers with feet from narrow to wide. They were all impressed with the adjustability of the BOA closure system. In terms of skiability, this boot has serious chops and will help expert skiers shred with the precision they’ve always dreamed about. The RCA 130 MV BOA was a tester favorite for its great fit, all-temperature performance (we could get it on, even on the coldest days), and all-around performance.
Best Boot for All-Mountain Touring: Nordica Unlimited 130 DYN
Nordica makes a great-fitting boot with powerful energy transfer to the ski. Both the shell and liner are customizable for a bespoke fit. Nordica’s Unlimited 130 DYN is set up for all-mountain touring, as well as downhill charging. In lieu of classical bales, it showcases a streamlined wire closure system that cradles your foot to offer a precise fit that maximizes comfort and control. When it’s time to hike, skin, or just loosen up your boots, you can simply undo the quick-release power strap and flip the toe buckle to release the closure system for greater comfort and mobility. “I like the softer plastic cuff that provides a bit more comfort and smooth flex,” says a tester. The ski-walk mechanism provides 65 degrees of motion, which is not bad for a boot this powerful, and you can easily adjust the forward lean—something testers really appreciated when carving SL and GS turns on hardpack groomers.
Best Boot for All-Day Comfort: La Sportiva Vanguard
Testers were impressed with La Sportiva’s Vanguard for its fit, range of motion (for both walking and ski flex), and lightness. The foam liner is thermomoldable, and testers felt that it moved better with their foot/ankle flex than many others—most likely due to the mapped thickness and dual flex zones. The shell is slightly difficult to get into, but once your foot’s safely inside, the ski boot has more of a hiking boot fit. “It was the highest performing boot I tried, as it allowed for the most forward pressure," says one tester. This is the type of boot you can wear all day, and then dance the night away at a Euro-style après get-together, before getting up in the morning and doing it all over again. The forward-thinking design includes a combo top buckle/power strap, so you can easily lock down the fit with a single glove-friendly tug, rather than the finger-freezing fumbling required to shore up other styles. In contrast to the many BOA forefoot closures in this review, the Vanguard has a unique double-release buckle that activates an adjustable cable evenly across the instep.
Best Boot for Backcountry Versatility: Atomic Hawx Ultra XTD 130 BOA GW
Atomic added a BOA closure to the forefoot of their immensely popular boot, replacing the standard double buckles. “I finally have a boot with no hotspots,” says one tester. The Ultra XTD 130’s flex seems slightly stiffer than similar boots of its class, probably due to the free/lock system, but aggressive skiers still noted that they could really get forward to lay down turns. You can get the model in eight flexes (down to 70), so skiers of all abilities and weights are covered. This boot is for skiers who want uphill, Alpine Touring options without sacrificing downhill carving power. They’re a single-boot quiver whether you’re riding the lift or skinning in the backcountry. Testers love them for ski trips when they only want to pack one pair of boots. The liner and entire boot is customizable—meaning you can have your boot fitter dial everything for a bespoke fit.
Best Lightweight Boot for Power Skiers: Dynafit Tigard 130
Dynafit has led the AT/backcountry ski boot category for years. Here’s their first entry into downhill, on-piste skiing. The Dynafit Tigard 130 is an aggressive, high-end Alpine Tech boot designed to crush both inbound slopes and sidecountry. With a weight of 1,590 grams (Mondo, 26.5), the Tigard is the lightest model in its class. It’s available in two flexes (130 and 110) and integrates the patented Dynafit Hoji Lock System, which unifies the cuff and shell on the boot’s interior to an inseparable, interlocking unit without any play. Applauding the heel fit that’s sufficiently snug, testers noted the boot’s power transfer and agility on steep, hardpack terrain. Plus the cuff has an impressive 70-degree rotation which testers loved for big climbs.
More Ski Boots That We Love
