OK up at the top of the resort (Kagura), get off the lift and ski down about 100 meters and there is this big cracking like noise and I lose control. It turns out that my boots had basically decided to disintegrate - there was a huge crack down the side of the left hand boot, must have been 20cm to start off with. It's a good job that I wasn't going that fast when it happened. No sign that this was on the cards beforehand.

It was a big journey back down to the bottom of Mitsumata as well. Bound to happen right at the top at a resort where the top is a long way from the bottom.



Anyone else had any gear give up on you?

rental boots?

ive read somewhere that the average "lifespan" of ski boots are at about 5 years...

No, my own boots. 3rd season.

Sorry to hear that it happened to you cal. Mind telling us what kind of boots those were?

Wow! Shredding so hard, you're boots A'splode!

I had almost new binding totally self destruct before. Just cracks appeared and fell apart, in several places. Left the board on the roof of the car during the freezing night before, don't know if that had anything to do with it.

Went skiing with a bloke from Sydney last week at Happo and at about 11:00 one boot developed a huge crack along the outside edge of the sole. This was after the moguls mind.
By the time we got to the bottom it was in 3 bits only held together by the bindings and the clips.
An hour later and with hire boots we were away again but it is the first time Ive seen boots fall apart.

By the time we got to the bottom it was in 3 bits only held together by the bindings and the clips.

Sounds a bit like mine (which were orange Tecnica by the way). They are a complete mess, as if they disintegrated once cracked.

Can we get some pics of this self-destructing boot?

Pictures yes. Well, no actually. They are gone already to my ski shop friend who was getting rid of for me (and giving me a verdict which I'm still waiting for). I wasn't in a picture taking mood. Will try and get them back for the photo call.

Don't weant to spread any anti-Tecnica sounding rumors, but I have a friend who had a problem with theirs, sounds pretty similar (and he said he would never get Tecnica after hearing of other incidents). Huge crack down the side all of a sudden. Is it a Tecnica thing or just boots in general - some explode?

Its probably just a plastics thing. Plastics become brittle over time. Sometimes not over time but directly out of the shop.

How many years guarantee do things like boots have? I had never really thought about it.