The Gist
Ok, we'll be honest about it, our boot test is prioritized around a boot's anatomical fit and how it skis. Sure, we generally care about ease of entry and warmth, and in the Backcountry category we care about weight, touring features and range-of-motion, certainly. But a boot's gotta be a boot first and foremost—it's gotta fit and it's gotta ski. The 2019 S/LAB MTN does both of these two things better every other true Backcountry boot we tested--so our testers gave it the nod for the silver medal spot on the podium.
The Fit
This is a 98 mm boot and testers say it fits as one should—tight. Fit Impressions scores were dominated by 2's (1 is race boot tight, 5 is bucket boot loose) with a few 3's thrown in for the toebox and forefoot and a few 1's targeting the navicular and ankles. Most testers loved this fit and the ones who didn't loved what this fit did for their skiing, though they were begging for a Custom Shell HD molding session to ease peak pressures. The new HD molding protocol cuts the old time in half and our tests showed that it's now more effective in terms of shape change without "blowing out" the fit and without degrading stiffness--bravo.
Performance
Perfect scores for Dynamic Balance and also for Quickness, Steering & Feel—that's saying something. If you've ever watched skiers on BC gear ski and thought: man, they really suck, you're not alone. But c'mon, cut them some slack, because it could be the boots. The S/LAB MTN, on the other hand, is not one of those boots. Testers say it responds to real skiing movements with real performance guts—it's quick, it's powerful, it's responsive. It's a real ski boot no ifs ands or buts. True, it doesn't tour quite as well as many of those BC boots, testers admit, but believe them, you won't suck going down.
Cool Features
Kaprolene is the additive to polyurethane that allows for Custom Shell molding. New this year in certain models within the MTN and S/Max lines the Kaprolene used is pre-mixed in precise amounts into the polyurethane itself rather than as a somewhat random additive at the time of plastic injection. This creates a more predictable and defined molding response which, when used in the thin shelled MTN and S/Max boots, drastically reduced cook times from ten minutes to only two, molding from five minutes to only three and cool-down to five minutes. Our tests showed legit results without a degradation of performance, post-molding.
Kudos
Caveats