Any issues with Atomic Hawx Ultra?

[eltigra]

Thanks Dory, the rep said they were very aware of the problem so ill keep an eye on the new ones.

@eltigra glad that they are taking care of you

 

[eltigra]

Looks like a very well thought out boot

I tried on a Hawx 130 Ultra XTD. Wow! Wow!

I'm going to get a pair.

....Enjoy.

 

[SallyCat]

I've been in the 2017 Hawx Ultra for about 30 days of skiing and I love them. I have ZipFit liners, which make the Ultras fit my feet like no other boot I've tried on or purchased in the past two years. I did not heat mold the boots. If they fit you well, I would highly recommend them.

 

[johnnyvw]

Did a fitting today...damn, these boots are nice! And I never realized how sloppy my old boots had gotten. The 100 was a bit too soft, the 120 a bit too stiff, so I'm going for the 110 (probably) but they have to get a pair from one of their other stores. I'll be back next Saturday for final try-on and then molding. Really excited for the ski season this year!

 

[johnnyvw]

Quick question for those of you who have had some time in these boots: do you find the boots stiffen up in the cold at a different rate than other boots you have owned? I.E, stiffness in the shop compared to on the slopes.

 

[GregK]

Most boots do stiffen when colder but one of the benefits of the Ultra line is the "True Flex" feature which uses a material in the shell that doesn't change flex much with changes in temperature. I have the 130 Ultra and they seem similar regardless of temp and they aren't a nightmare to get off after skiing in cold temps. Love them!
Getting a pair of Ultra 80w for my beginner girlfriend as she HATES wearing ski boots and know she'll love the Ultra's.

 

[mike_m]

I have found no significant stiffening. I've skied them in temperatures down to 15 below zero.

 

[johnnyvw]

Thanks for the input. Well, I went to try the 110 on today, and had them heat molded. I did not like the results. Although the forefoot area was really nice, the heel hold down area got loose as heck. The end result is they will get another pair in for me, and I won't have them heat molded. I may try warming up just the forefoot area myself, after I have tried skiing in them. One thing I noticed is the plastic gets REALLY soft...the area around the buckle over the instep was actually starting to bulge a bit, and I was concerned that would cause leakage.

 

[DoryBreaux]

Favorite thing about this boot? THEY DONT GET SOFT IN THE SPRING!
Nor do they get rock hard in the cold. I notice some change but its VERY minimal.

 

[Chubb]

I got some Hawx Ultra 130's mid-season last Winter and while skiing later that Spring I was wondering why the flex was so mushy even though it wasn't a particularly warm day. When I got back to my car I saw that three out of the four cuff pivot screws and alignment discs were gone. I checked the remaining screw and there was some threadlocker residue on it. Maybe the screws that fell off had no or too little threadlocker? I looked for spare parts on the Atomic USA website last Spring and they didn't list any for the Hawx Ultra models, but now they do. I need to get a shop to order me a set of cuff hardware.

 

[johnnyvw]

I picked up my Hawk Ultra 110s over the weekend. I'll start wearing them indoors for a while to see if there are any hot spots, and hit them with a heat gun if there are.

And after all the discussions about my boots, we realized my wife was probably in more dire need of an upgrade, so she got some new Tecnicas as well. I never realized how much she has struggled with her boots the last 10 years.

 

[Tim Flanagan]

After being a Dalbello user for nearly 20 years, (I was a Dalbello retailer for 10+ of those) Atomic put me in a pair of the HAWX ULTRA 130 at the beginning of February 2017. Skied/worked in them for 5 days before getting the shells cooked. Have yet to bake the liners and probably won't be doing so anytime soon.

"Work" involves high speed side-slipping on bullet-proof man made with a bundle of gates on one shoulder and a drill in the opposite hand. In a given run, I make maybe six skidded turns, (descending about 80 vertical feet straight down the fall-line.) It ain't "skiing", it's standing in frigid conditions to the roar of snow guns blazing while yelling really important instructions like, "Get your hands up. "Stop banking. "You call that skiing? "What do you mean you lost your gloves? and so forth....

The Atomic HAWX ULTRA 130 is warm, amazingly warm. I don't use boot heaters, I can't. Every set I've ever had were ripped-off my boots and ended up at the bottom of some race course after hitting some poor kid in the head.

Oh wait, what about actually skiing in them? Well..... the Atomic HAWX ULTRA 130 had a consistent flex throughout a vast temperature range, which is typical these dayz in Jackson's Hole. Brutal cold followed by dry powder, rain, snow, a rain snow mix, slush, extreme cold and then sun on a average day. The light weight is pure joy. They were fantastic in deep powder on FAT skis and killed it on a 67mm under foot Slalom ski making a hundred turns per run on the firm. I love this Skischuhe. Can't wait to get in a pair of the Atomic XTD 130's now. Having a touring sole will be great for walking up the hill, yelling at my skiers whilst replacing gates and explaining to parents that paying all that money isn't necessarily gonna win them a Gold Medal for their mantle place.

This "video review" was shot on the last week of the season at Snow King in Jackson, Wyoming. It was wicked warm and raining. Under that GoreTex,I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. (True story.) CHECK IT >

 

[Ptrqc]

Have about 4 days on my new Ultra 110s. Coming from M-Tech's.
Overall impressions
the good: snug fit in heel and lower leg area, bot too narrow in the forefoot (comparing to M-Tech, feel about the same)
the "wait and see": had a hot spot on the underside of my ankle (playing around with different soles), and bit more worrying: shell overlap at forefoot seems not to completely seal, so expecting some leaking (which would be my first boots ever to leak...)

Hanging on to my M-Techs, in case....

 

[GregK]

The 2018 models have a new weather seal strip to cut down on possible leaking as I have a pair of 2018 Ultra 80w for my GF that have this better sealing strip that my 2017 Ultra 130 boots don’t have. My boots have a good seal with the buckles done up and haven’t had issues with leaking although others have.
If they leak even with the buckles done up tightly, maybe talk with your dealer to fix it.

 

[Ptrqc]

Have about 4 days on my new Ultra 110s. Coming from M-Tech's.
Overall impressions
the good: snug fit in heel and lower leg area, bot too narrow in the forefoot (comparing to M-Tech, feel about the same)
the "wait and see": had a hot spot on the underside of my ankle (playing around with different soles), and bit more worrying: shell overlap at forefoot seems not to completely seal, so expecting some leaking (which would be my first boots ever to leak...)

Hanging on to my M-Techs, in case....

Hijacking this thread....
Have a few more days on the Hawx Ultra 110's: leaking seems to be a real issue, sent an email to Atomic to see if they can propose a solution.

Otherwise, re-compared fit to my 2007 M-Techs (remeasured my feet on Brannock. R: 28.5cm both length and ball, 27.5cm instep, 102mm wide; L: 27.5 cm both length and ball, 27.5cm instep, 102mm wide as well).

Comparing both M-Techs and Ultras both in 28.0/285 size, noticed following
- Ultra's shell fit is quite a lot longer than M-techs
- with same Sole insoles (to support my high arches), and 2mm feel lift, I seem to have more room overall in the Ultra's (except width) than the higher volume M-Techs
- even adding the volume reducer to the Ultras, still feel I have too much room over my forefoot.
- at the same time (combination of shell + liner?) the larger last (101mm) M-Techs with older liner seem to hold my feet better, find the Ultras somewhat "vague"
- liner seems to play a big role : Ultra lined seems much flimsier than T2 liners in the M-techs
- Ultra's are also colder, and plastic seems more brittle
- one thing I liked about the Ultras is the heel and calve are: holdsreally well

At this point, thinking of looking for other boots than the Ultra's to replace the M-Techs.
Realizing I have low volume narrow feet, somewhat low , would start by looking into:
- Nordica GPX
- Full Tilts in 99mm last
- Dalbello Kryptons

Any thoughts? Mainly suprised that my older M-Techs, that are in theory roomier for my feet seem to fit better. Is it worth looking into the Hawx Primes ?

I know, I know: we can't do virtual bootfitting, any comments are welcome.

Happy holidays !

 

[johnnyvw]

Finally got some slope time on my new Ultra 110s. I didn't use my normal orthotics as the length on them were shorter than the stock footbed. This is probably a good part of why these boots seemed to loosen up quickly. Also, I found the tongue has a stitched edge that can easily be "rolled up" when putting the boots on if you're not aware of it. I ended up rubbing my ankle bone to the point of discomfort and when I was done for the day (4 hours minus break time) my shin/ankle/foot had a huge line depression from the edge that rolled. I'll fix my orthotics and be careful about the edge stitching, but I may either have to go to another boot or get the same wrap style intuition liners I had in my old boots (going back to them isnt a very good option since the boots are 16 years old and the liners are probably 9 or 10).
On the plus side, I started skiing with the temp at 6 degrees. No issues with my feet getting cold.

 

[DoryBreaux]

On the plus side, I started skiing with the temp at 6 degrees. No issues with my feet getting cold.

Glad to hear that!

 

[GregK]

I always assumed my 2016/2017 Hawx Ultra 130 didn't leak at all as my socks were never wet and thought they were just not as warm as my previous boots The first time i took out the liners after skiing this year I noticed the liners were slightly wet on the sides above the toe area. As I had seen how much better the weather strip on the 2017/2018 Ultra boots were on my GF's pair, I asked my dealer to get me in a new weather strip from Atomic service/Amer Sports. They instead were sent 4 buckle clips which you put on the existing front 2 buckles and they put more pressure down on the overlap flap. I had to cut down the width of the 2nd buckle clip so that it didn't interfere with the "teeth" but they seem to better close the seal even at the same buckle settings. I will be skiing on sunday and will see if this solves my small leak and if not, I will try to get the current, much larger weather seal put on my boots.

 

[johnnyvw]

SO I'm still working on these boots to get them to my liking. After skiing a half day with the stock liner in one boot and my old intuition lined in the other (remolded) I like the feel of the intuition better. Mostly because the stock liner loosened up quite a bit over the 4 hours I was skiing, whereas the intuition stayed nice and snug. My toes in the intuitions felt warmer as well.
One other issue is that I feel like I'm a bit in the "back seat" more than with my old boots. So this weekend I plan to play with forward lean, if anyone has an opinion on which to try first (more or less) it would be great, although I will probably try both just to get a feel for what they feel like. Also, is the flex of the boot changable? i know on some boots you can add or subtract screws in the back spine, but unfortunately I found I did not get an owners manual with the boots (or a tool to adjust the cuff angle/canting...I'll make something for that. I wish they just used a hex key like most other manufacturers)
Thanks everyone

 

[GregK]

The flex can be decreased by about 10 points(to 120) by removing the top 4mm allen screw on the back of the boot. You always have to keep the bottom one in. You can increase the Hawk Ultra 120 to 130 flex by ADDING that top bolt in(shop has to drill hole and add screw but an easy job if you go to original retailer). I routinely tighten these two back spine bolts on mine as they loosen over time and also check the side 2 torx screws in the ankle area as well for tightness. Sometimes people who want to increase boot flex just have loose screws on the back or on the sides. Boot companies don't usually provide the Allen wrenches but they are standard metric ones as are the side 2 Torx ones.

If you have a "backseat" feeling, it is usually because you are too far forward in lean but I would wait until you let the liner break in a bit before changing forward lean as the liner might be causing an increase in flex/less forgiving flex. You need to use the plastic spacer you got with the boots on inside your boot to make the change to 13 degrees rather than the factory default of 15. I hear that it's sometimes not super easy to line up things for changes in forward lean and it's easier with 2 people/bootfitter used to doing it. Check all the bolts for tightness and maybe later take one top screw out to soften boot to see what it's like as that may cure your issue. If it's still feels backseat after liner break in and stiffness reduction, check with a boot fitter to properly change it.

BTW-You didn't change bindings at all when you changed from your last boots did you? When you mentioned not having the "Back seat" issues with your old boots, I wondered if you were using the same bindings with the old boots as different bindings with higher ramp deltas will also cause that backseat feeling. I had that issue with my old boots as they were fine on some pairs of skis and "back seat" on others and it turned out to be the bindings causing the issue on those skis. Switch to more level heel to toe bindings on all skis and no longer have that issue.