User Review: La Sportiva K3

Reviewed April 15, 2001 by Dang Dave (again)

Rating: rated 4 of 5 stars
Materials: leather mountaineering boot.
Use: trails, off trails, snowshoe, and even with AT and Tele bindings (voile classics!!_)
Break-in Period: none as I bought these from a used consignment shop
Weight: aroung 4 and half pounds or 2000 grams about
Price Paid: got 'em cheap 65 bucks but are around 230 retail new

I already have the Makulus which I love but I was worried about wearing them out and I found these for only 65 dollars and they were hardly worn. They are a half size larger than my Makulus (La Sportiva) and with thinsalite lining they are probably a better winter boot. Except I notice a flaw in that the tongue of boot slides down into the toe area and cramps the toe.. which is probably why the previous owner unloaded them. My Makulu has a velcro connection between outer top leather and the inner tongue to prevent the tongue from being forced into the toe box.. but this boot didn't have that. What to do? I just used a glob of seamsealer to glue inner tongue at its most extended to the flap of leather in the outer beneith the laces and it dried overnight with bunched up sock to hold them in place and the boot is comfortable again.

Great boot except for the tongue issue above and maybe just a smidgen larger than needed but with two pairs of sock no issue. Has crampon grooves fore and aft which also fit an Alpine Touring binding (Silvrettas), and surprizingly even my Voile tele binding for very mild skiing. Actually was very comfortable as an adhoc ski boot but just don't do anything too steep or fast in them. Much more comfortable than a tele boot. And for snowshoeing. A good all around boot... which stays dry if submerged in roaring spring runnoff creek crossings esp. after a couple of nikwax treatments.

Looking for boots in an area where a lot of people hike and climb look for a resale shop where consignment sales are made and also returned goods from particularly La Sportive heavy boots dissatisfied customers... who just couldn't survive the longer breakin period that the La Sportive big boots usually require.

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