SALOMON SHIFT PRO SKI BOOTS

Salomon’s been working on a new freeride touring boot for the everyday skier. SkiKitInfo has all you need to know about these new kicks.

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Goodbye QST Pro, Hello Shift Pro

The three buckle QST Pro boot from Salomon has now gone, although the 104mm three buckle QST Access, with the flat ISO 5355 downhill sole, remains.

In place of the QST Pro, they have a new four buckle freeride touring boot for men, women and teens, called the Shift Pro.

SALOMON SHIFT PRO SKI BOOT RANGE

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There are 8 options in the Shift Pro boot line; 4 for men, 3 for women and a teen’s option.

For men, there’s the choice of a 130, 120 and 100 flex model with pin inserts, along with a 90 flex boot that doesn’t work with pin bindings.

Women can select a 110 and 90 flex boot with pin inserts or an 80 flex without.

There is an 80 flex boot with pin inserts too, but this is aimed at the teen market, hence called the Shift Pro 80T AT.

AT = Alpine Touring

AT in any Shift Pro name is just to indicated pin inserts, a feature traditionally found on Alpine Touring boots.

Last

The Shift Pro boot is a custom shell model (apart from the teen’s version) in a 100 last; 100mm width across the forefoot in a size 26.5MP shell. As the shells easily heat mould to your feet, when fitted by a professional boot fitter, you can gain an extra 6mm of room in the forefoot. This means they accommodate feet that are much broader than the 100mm last.

Fit

The fit is very much like the S/Pro, so there’s a good amount of room in the forefoot. Heel hold is also very good, and will work well if you have a defined heel but can’t get along with the really narrow heel pockets of some boots.

Always buy from a professional

As always, you have to try the boots on and it’s always better to get them fitted by a professional. Ski boots are definitely one of those items you shouldn’t buy online.

Soles

All of the Shift Pro boots come with Grip Walk soles as standard, giving you a fantastic blend of skiing performance and ease of walking. You need to ensure your bindings are compatible.

Pin inserts

The top level boots, so anything with AT at the end of the name, also have pin inserts. You can therefore use these with pure pin bindings and beefier freeride orientated options like the Salomon Shift and Marker Duke PT.

The Shift Pro boots take a lot of the S/Pro’s design and use it to great effect, resulting on a powerful freeride touring boot.

It’s not the lightest boot on the market, but at 1,665g in the Shift Pro 130 AT, in a 26.5MP four buckle boot, with a proper liner, it’s still pretty light.

REVIEW: Salomon Shift Pro 130 AT

The Shift Pro 130 is the top of the line model, with all the bells and whistles. It’s the only Shift Pro boot that comes with a claw strap; all others have a Velcro style power strap. It retails for £540 / €600 / $799.99*.

Clog

The clog is a PA (Polyamide) Custom Shell with Salomon’s XECARB composite Coreframe. This is a 3D, shaped insert that maintains the boots stiffness, power and drive, even after the Custom Shell is heat moulded. This technology comes from their S/Race, S/Max and S/Pro boots and really works. Coreframe tech is used in all the other adult AT Shift Pro boots too, although the Coreframe in those models is made from fibre glass rather than the carbon composite of the Shift Pro 130 AT.

There’s a softer PU (Polyurethane) insert over the instep, called Sensifit, making it easier to get into and out of the boot too, as on all the Shift Pro boots.

This is a four buckle boot, so you get superb hold around the lower leg, ankle and foot. At 100mm, it’s a key width, and with the custom fitting process it accommodates a huge range of foot shapes.

Cuff

The cuff’s quoted as being made of Polyolefin, with a PA (Polyamide) spine. PA plastics are used widely in touring orientated boots; the most well known PA for skiers is Grilamid. Polyolefin is not too specific and doesn’t tell us a lot, as it covers a wide range of plastics, including polypropylene and polyethylene, both widely used in ski boots.

Tour mode

The cuff buckle ladders don’t have bail keepers, but there is a ‘touring’ hook that you can latch the bail onto when in tour mode, and allow a decent range of motion (ROM) when skinning.

Salomon don’t quote a ROM for the Shift Pro boots, but the Shift Pro 130 AT that we tried is not bad, and sits about bang-on for what you need in this style of boot. From feel, you get around 45° of cuff mobility in tour mode. This is more than enough for moderate hikes and skinning sessions.

UPDATE: Salomon have now give us the ROM of this boot. They say it’s 40°, so not far from what we thought when we tried this boot.

The ski/hike mode uses the rear mounted SureLock Skywalk lever, as used for many seasons in their S/Lab MTN touring orientated boots. This is one of our favourite touring levers as it’s so easy to use and you can unlock and lock the mode without lifting the cuff of your ski pants.

Liner

All of the adult AT variants of the Shift Pro boots come with Salomon’s My Custom Fit 3D seamless liners. The Shift Pro 130 has the stiffest liner, which is basically the same as the Race liner from the S/Pro 130 boot, but with a softer area that allows the liner to flex when in tour mode. This is a superb liner and offers a good compromise of skiing performance, fit, and ease of skinning.

The Shift Pro 120 AT and Shift Pro 110 W AT liners are not quite as stiff as the Race, using My CustomFit 3D seamless Pro liners. The Race and Pro liners have a softer area to allow the liner to flex better in tour mode. Other liners in Shift Pro boots don’t have this.

The Shift Pro 100 and Shift Pro 90 W AT have the My CustomFit 3D Seamless Perf liner, while Shift Pro 90 and Shift Pro 80 W boots come with My CustomFit 3D Sport inners. The Shift Pro 80T AT, for teens, has Salomon’s Thermic Fit Jr liner.

The liners in the women’s boots are built specifically for the female form.

Sole

As with all Shift Pro boots, the 130 AT comes with a Grip Walk sole fitted as standard. As it’s one of the AT models, it also has tech (pin) inserts in the toe and heel.

Along with the Shift Pro 120 AT (1,709g) and Shift Pro 110 W AT (1,548g), this boot has an extra section of textured rubber on the shell under the arch of the foot, called MidGrip, for improved grip when hiking and scrambling for fresh lines.

Summary

The Shift Pro line of boots is a great move from Salomon.

There are lots of narrower 98mm last boots on the market in this freeride touring space. Having a roomy 100mm last boot, which is quite light, built for skiing performance and is easy to use for moderate skinning sessions is a winner.

Salomon are not alone, as others have brought offerings into this 100mm category, but Salomon’s Shift Pro is an excellent product range that ticks all the boxes.

Pair these up with one of Salomon’s new Stance skis and you’ve got a set-up that’ll allow you to ski all the mountain can throw at you.

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Want to see more about the Shift Pro boots, or anything else from Salomon, you can visit their site at Salomon.com

Quoted Prices

*Prices quoted here can be a mixture of recommended retail price from the brand and prices that you can currently get the kit for from retailers in that territory. The prices may therefore be less or more than you can find in-store / online and are only intended to give you a guide as to what you may expect to pay.

Always ensure you do adequate research when buying ski equipment to ensure you’re getting the best service and advice from the retailer, combined with a price that works for your budget. Don’t always assume that cheaper means better value.