The Fischer RC4 Free 120 LV BOA has a ton of techie, functional features, like a lower BOA reel, a Vacuum-formable shell, Soma-Tec toed-out stance positioning, Dynafit tech inserts, a releasable kung-fu-grip-style power strap, and the list goes on…. What doesn’t the RC4 Free 120 LV BOA have? No walk mode. And yes, it’s in the freeride category.
But, wait, isn’t a walk mode a requirement for touring? Nope. Just ask some old ski bum what boot he clamped into his Securafixes, or later, his Alpine Trekkers—betcha it didn’t have a walk mode. A tour for the freeride skier is simply a means to an end—a way to get to a sick line or untracked pocket, and with any luck, with nobody else around. If the tour was to be the end in and of itself, then there are vastly different and more appropriate boots than the RC4 Free 120 LV BOA for that.
No walk mode means no fore-aft free play. No walk mode means no break in the chain of command that is the transmission of accurate messaging to the ski. It’s got tech fittings, though, and they can go snap snap into that tech toepiece of lots of bindings, and then a skier is off and running. Well, this skier will be off and schlogging up the skin track at a slightly more sluggish pace than some—but that’s to save energy for that gnar line up ahead, somewhere (somewhere close, hopefully).
Okay, so there’s a bit of mixing and matching these days with boot categories—some all-mountain boots have a walk mode, some freeride boots don’t. Does it matter? Maybe it’s important to the marketing department, or perhaps to the magazine editor trying to make sense of boot test entries. But ultimately, it’s about application, and sometimes aspiration. This boot is about charging a descent off the beaten path, maybe. Or it could just be a ski boot, at home at the resort. Don’t put it in a box. Take it out of the box, put it on your foot and go skiing, somewhere.
There’s an LV in its name for a reason, and it’s right on the money, testers said. It’s a low volume fit all day long, testers said. It’s also one of the Fischer boots that doesn’t employ a ZipFit liner, which, in this case, testers loved for its evenly snug, narrow and consistently padded fit from toebox to heel, up through the instep and into the shin. Where a ZipFit liner’s fit is very open at the front and very tight at the heel and ankle, the RC4 Free 120 LV was traditionally, straightforwardly tight throughout—and testers liked that quite a bit.
Testers said that the 120-flex wasn’t necessarily mis-labled, but they said it could be called a 120-plus. It didn’t fold or fail under firm fore-aft inputs, they said, and its range of flexion came to a firm, progressive stop. Testers thought it was a great match for most experts looking for a comfortable shin fit and well-executed flex without the added bucks that a few more flex-index points would tack onto the price tag.
The BOA was no hindrance or inconvenience but just the opposite—testers unanimously approved of how it wrapped up the foot in a smoothly closing grip and they had no gripe about entry or exit. They liked the quick-releasing power strap, standard cuff buckles and double liner pull loops. They even approved of the aqua, purple and yellow highlights that gave its stealthy black body some pop. One tester said this was a niche freeride product, and we figure that’s fancy talk for one-of-a-kind, which in fact it is for Fischer…there’s only one like it in their whole range.
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