Mar 26 2013

1st Look: K2’s Pinnacle 130 for AT

 

K2’s Pinnacle 130. Powerful, comfortable, tech ready.

For their first foray into the world of ski boots K2 is making a big splash in a pond teaming with established competitors. What’s more, they’re making a big deal of the freeride, go-anywhere-you-want aspect of their line. Which means they deserve a closer look.

At the WWSRA demo day in February I stuck a foot into a Pinnacle 130, and one that fit relatively well out of the box. No tight spots, and my flat foot was held in place well, with a comfortable, pre-lasted LUX-Fit Intution® liner.

The liner is tongued, with optional lacing and a grippy rubber sole on the bottom for hanging around camp or a stroll to the sauna. It has a nice finish on the inside, and is prelasted to conform to the shell, and an “average” foot.

The buckles did a good job of holding my foot tight in turn mode. Technically you might think of the Pinnacle 130 as a 3-buckle boot, but it really has four. Admittedly the fourth buckle is on the velcro’d power strap, but since it is a buckle, that power strap is super secure, thus powerful.

What I like even better is how easy it is to loosen the upper strap, without it flopping around, when you want to switch to tour mode. Resetting velcro power straps is annoyingly time consuming. Flipping open a buckle is easy and fast. When you need to get out of your boots, you don’t need to unzip the velcro, just unhook the buckle and the top of the cuff is wide open.

 

Walk mode delivers a respectable 10° range of rear cuff motion.

Walk mode is your standard flip up lever with a mechanism K2 calls Synchro Interlock. It locks the cuff to the lower shell without rivets by inserting or retracting a wedge (reminiscent of the XT’s V-lock only more solid looking). The result is a smooth flex that also delivers a rock solid grip. When freed, the cuff moves with most of the resistance coming from the liner, or limits imposed by buckles not being fully loosed, not resistance in the movement of the cuff. With a foot in the boot rearward movement of the cuff is around 10°. It doesn’t break any records, but it has plenty of freedom for flat skin tracks. You’ll notice the rear flex limit a bit when walking a long dry trail. It is far better than a boot that skis this well has a right to do.

In ski mode it was indistinguishable from a Lange XT, which was on my other foot. It had a smooth, progressive forward flex and held my foot snug through any speed or shaped turn, transferring leg commands with precision.

Two things stand out with the Pinnacle that the XT lacks: Dynafit inserts for saving serious weight with an AT binding, and more range of motion in the cuff. The Dynafit compatible toe is also DIN compatible, so it can be used in any alpine binding.

What gets sacrificed are the lug soles at the toe, making this a great boot on snow, especially when attached to skis, but not so good if the approach is long and dry, or you need to scramble over rocks.

Do they fit? My guess is high volume (high instep and wide) feet will not like ’em, but you’ll just have to try ’em on to know for sure. Also available in a softer 110 flex model.

K2
Pinnacle 130
MSRP: $850
Weight/pr (sz 27): TK
Sizes available: 23.5 – 30.5 (mondo)

Related Posts
5 Qs with K2’s Boot Developer, Skiing Business

© 2013
 

4 comments

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    • Philip Miller on 26Mar2013 at 4:44 pm
    • #

    “For their first foray into the world of ski boots K2 is….”

    First foray in 35 years… Last time, they were promoters of rear-entry boots. White ones.

    • Dostie on 26Mar2013 at 6:02 pm
    • #

    Hmmm, then maybe it should be revised to 3rd time’s the charm? I was completely unaware of the rear-entry years, and since writing this up also realized they are behind the Full Tilt line of boots. Thanks for the correction.

    • vildeke on 7Jan2014 at 3:38 am
    • #

    did anyone have the opportunity to skin in them using Tech bindings?

    • Dostie on 7Jan2014 at 3:57 am
    • #

    Not yet. What is your concern? If it concerns a good fit, for example, to prevent blisters, then you want a good boot fitter to make sure this is the right boot for your foot, or to make adjustments to it until it is. Otherwise, not sure what you’re hinting at.

  1. […] of ski boots only adds depth to their lineup. New for next year are two freeride boots, the Pinnacle 110 and 130. Their claim is a better balance of downhill performance and backcountry mobility with […]

  2. […] Certainly not as flexible as Dynafit’s TLT5, but better than a Cochise or K2′s Pinnacle. In skinning mode there is more than enough range of motion to travel relatively […]

  3. […] The Spyne is a new take on the integration between the upper and lower shells that eliminates the unnatural rigidity that can be caused by the common practice of using rivets to join the upper and lower boot components. This generates a smooth and consistent flex pattern regardless of the boots flex rating. This feature also allows K2 to design a very efficient hike mode version called “Synchro Interlock” for the K2 Pinnacle Backcountry Ski Boot. The Synchro version allows a walk mode boot to still have powerful downhill performance as well. See what our backcountry guru, Craig Dostie, has to say about the Pinnacle on his blog here: Earnyourturns.com […]

  4. […] Pinnacle is much closer in ski-feel to their alpine boots than with other company’s releasable cuff […]

  5. […] best incarnation of this is the power strap on K2′s Pinnacle 130. If you’re going to get picky about convenience, this power strap allows you to set the […]

  6. […] ladders Garmont abandoned (probably due to cost) and a buckled power strap, ala the Cochise or Pinnacle? That would add some pizzazz to this functionally versatile […]

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