Dalbello Krypton Il Moro Ski Boot in Review

It’s been a while. Marko has taken much of the job here while I was having too much work in the actual dayjob. And we’re having a very bad winter here in Southern Finland again (climate change?). I’ve only got to ski my home “glacier” five times.

Still, I’ve got some interesting gear to review. First one is a ski boot - namely Dalbello Krypton Il Moro, model 08/09 (yes, you read it right). Second one is my new park ski but more on that later, stay tuned. You rarely find any good ski boot reviews. And in general the rule still is: find something that fits you, and buy it. And if nothing fits go to a bootfitter…that’s pretty simple.

Krypton is a different animal though. If this fits you, it is also something totally different. In this review I will tell you why. But first something about the reviewer for reference:

Height/weight: 184cm (~6?) 83kg (~160lbs)

Ability: very experienced, not the best/most modern carve/on-piste technique though. Can do basic moves in the park (180’s, 360’s, 540’s, switch take offs on smaller hits, several grabs, easy rails / pressure boxes etc.)

Age: 34

Days/year: currently ~30/year (but skied several years over 50 days a year)

Conditions: Moderately soft park hits (from 15 feet to around 35 feet), few runs on a very short and low angle groomed slope

Resort: Talma, Finland

I did buy this boot pretty much out of an impulse. I’ve heard much about the legendary Raichle Flexon boots and been tempted over the years to try one - these are the current reincarnation of the Flexon design. Dalbello is also said to make some refinements to the boot, without loosing the original idea. There is also a small company/label called Fulltilt who still makes (almost) the exact original Flexon boot.

Anyway, I believed that my feet were made for Langes, after several years of being quite happy with them. Then I tried the Il Moro, and they felt pretty good from the start. I decided to give it a try - after all could Seth Morrison, Glen Plake, Janne Lahtela, etc. be wrong? It seemed that there was some kind of cult believing in this design (see e.g. TGR forums, search for “Flexon” or “Krypton”…)

Is the race boot originated design the best for freeskiing? That’s maybe something the original designers of the Flexons thought. I was also coming into this question as I’ve spent quite alot of time in the last years hitting the kickers in our tiny little area. My Lange FR 120’s were doing the job but something felt missing. Especially the stiff and very forward leaning flex started to bother me slightly.

Enter Il Moro. First impression: damn these boot are light. They shouldn’t feel THIS comfortable. Toe area is maybe just a tad tight for my “duck feet” (very thin ankle/heel area, but somehow wider toe area). Start skiing: hmmmmm, seems like I can’t pressure the front of the boot AT ALL. Very weird sensation…Ok, this is the very soft flex option, I can always change the “tongue” to stiffer “race” version (availabe with every pair). Still, I remember some review saying that you should change the technique from “ankle skier” to “knee/hip skier” with these. Let’s try that: forget pressuring the front, concentrate on getting angles from the hip and/or knees. Well, this works pretty fine, still feels odd though.

Conclusion from the few groomed runs: I’d still try the stiffer “tongues” for “real” skiing. The soft progressive flex is still something you must get used to. I’ve read many review where this is said to hold even for the stiffer “tongues”, meaning that skiing with these you should modify your technique a bit. At least it occured to me that I like to drive the ski from pressuring the boot, maybe even too much for modern skis and technique? This is yet to be seen.

Ok, I thought maybe the park/jump performance is something that really makes difference with these. Into the jumps we get…OH BOY. What can I say? I’d almost say it felt like doing a different sport, a step towards to snowboard like comfort and hit absorbing I’ve never experinced before. I also had new, “poppier”, stiffer and slightly longer skis. The combination of these boots and better skis just made me feel like flying. I don’t know if it is the slighly more upright stance, the progressive flex of the Flexon/Krypton system, shock absorbing inner sole, snowboard like buckles, intuition liners, the unique heel fit or the combination of all these but I just have to say jumping with these things just felt so much more natural, it made me smile and almost laugh the whole two hour session. The kids at the park must have wondered that weird old dude pulling simple moves but having stupid perma-grin on his face…

Also, one super cool feature of the Flexon/Krypton design is that it lets you to adjust the ankle buckle so loose that it is very comfortable in the lift/liftline. Yet, you don’t have to tighten it on the top of the hill - add some pressure and get into the skiing position and the system/buckle kind of tightens automatically, especially really locking the heel into it’s preferred posiotion. The heel just doesn’t lift, even with the quite loose buckles. This is something very funcional in the small hill and/or park environment, forget the hassle with the buckles, just adjust them on the comfy position and keep shredding.

So I was getting maybe even too comfortable with these: on the so called “last hit of the day” I was trying to do 360 mute when something went wrong on the take-off… I started to rotate too early and too strongly, edge catched slightly, causing me to case a little and overrotate a bit. On a short but overrotated landing I managed to slighly tweak a knee (nothing serious luckily). Once at home I also noticed that the piece controlling forward lean on the back of the boot was broken. No big deal but this leads to my few only complaint of the boot.

Every single piece made to modify the ride is an additional attachment/single piece to add to the shell. Canting, forward lean, forward flex. Allright, they’re pretty simple but I’m a firm believer that every additional movin part is a breakable part (and I proved that again here!). This means I have to buy spare parts, lots of them actually. And I don’t like the idea of that at all.

I might try the most upight position and loose the forward lean piece completely - seems like I liked the quite upright stance for park skiing (the middle position gave approximately 13 degree forward lean, while the most upright is around 11 degrees). Also, I felt like I don’t need the forward flex piece at all. That piece is made for restricting the “travel” in forward flex. Without the piece you get most forward flex (in travel), and then you can reduce this with additional pieces of plastic. But I probably won’t need these either, I felt like the strengt of this boot is the unique “progressive” forward flex that gives you more “travel” into the flex. The only way I can describe this is to compare with the bottomless squish of the big travel full-suspension DH/FR mountain bikes. No wonder Seth likes Flexons…if you think his habit to fly “just a bit” off different obstacles…and land those airs too!

Al in all the overlook of the boot is a bit “plastic” and I think I will buy some spare buckles too. Other than that the snowboard like upper buckle and the original Flexon type ankle buckle are just superior to any traditional buckle. Did I already said that - superior.

To summarize: one day at the local park made me a believer. I’ve yet to try these in any bigger environment, and I think I take my trusty old Langes to the upcoming Austria trip (4 days still!). But even with that little experince I can say that at least in park/freestyle these just work and are the comfiest ski boots I’ve ever worn (and trust me I’ve worn quite alot of different shells and designs!)

Stay tuned: the review of my new park skis, Salomon Teneighty C.R Labs is coming tomorrow (yes, the ski is a couple of years old but still very NICE). Also, I will post from Flachau, Austria, next week. Hopefully I’ll get the first real powder of the season there…