Review: Part 2 - 2018 Dalbello Lupo AX 120 Ski Boots

Brand: Dalbello
Model: 2018 Lupo AX 120
Flex: 120
Last: 100mm

I should have written this at the end of last season, but my season kind of fizzled out with a slight knee injury.  You can read my comparison of new vs old boot in Part 1.  I put about 25 days on the boots, enough to give them a good shake down.  In summary, they ski great.  The 120 flex is perfect for me and I like the responsiveness of the new cuff design.  The shape of the spine, and the higher top buckle, really hugs the back of your leg, and there is no 'dead spot' between the shin and tongue of the boot.

As I touched on in Part 1, the stock liners are bad.  Really, terrible.  The padding is way too thin, too soft, and doesn't support the foot inside the boot.  You could feel the liner move inside the boot when you were skiing.  I've skiied in the Krypton shell for 2 seasons now and never had the ankle bone pain I experienced until this liner.  I can see why they've done it; to shave some grams on uphill travel, but you definitely loose some downhill performance.  I knew there was a reason why I put Intuition liners in all my boots!  So after 2 days, the stock liners found a new home at the bottom of my locker, and my trusty Full Tilt Intuition Power Wrap liners went back in.  Ahh, that's better!

I couldn't choose which boot I tested.  They sent me the AX 120, which has a 100mm last.  Too wide and volume-ous for my low/mid volume feet.  Skiing in the morning was fine, but by the afternoon my season-beat liners had packed out and they'd get sloppy.  As I also mentioned in Part 1, the thinner plastic shell is softer and gets chewed up easily.

So as the summer months went by I got to thinking... I could just swap the parts I liked from the new boot onto the shell of my old, more durable, 98mm lasted boot shell.  They are, after all, the same boot.  So I give you the Lupo Hybrid:

Badass looking boot if you ask me!

For this season I'll be throwing in a new set of Intuition Pro Wrap liners.  The Full Tilt Intuition liners were great, but I didn't like how the base of the liner was foam.  The Pro Wrap liners have a Strobel sole, so they're more footbed friendly and allow better transfer of power to the shell.  Now I just need Vail to activate my employee pass...