The Dynafit Ridge landed with a splash in 2024–being Hoji’s new masterpiece likely contributed, in addition to falling into the appealing ~1350g, 2+ buckle boot category that we have been singing the praises of for a few years. It wasn’t too light to scare off the heavier weight crowd, while lightweight enthusiasts such as myself appreciated the good range of motion and weren’t too put off by the 1350g weight. The Ridge was also my first experience with Hoji-Lock, which is a brilliant system that both simplifies transitions and more importantly practically eliminates play in ski mode, a major issue with many if not most lightweight touring boots. Long story short, the Ridge checks a lot of boxes for a lot of ski tourists and does an awesome job striking the balance between low friction walking, decent weight, and excellent downhill skiing performance.
The Ridge comes with some downsides, though. First and foremost, a ton of folks struggled with the very low instep height of the Ridge–I had never had this issue previously, but I had to be choosy on which liners I could use in them to avoid crippling pressure over my instep. Jake Skeen solved this with his mods he wrote about here, but lost some of the functionality/walkability of the sliding tongue. Meanwhile, some folks on TGR reported issues and breakages with the Twistfit (Boa adjacent) system. I’m generally not opposed to boa but I did find myself annoyed with the lack of micro-loosening capability–once you pop the twistfit open, it rapidly unspools. Despite these downsides, if the Ridge fit, it got tons of praise. They replaced my Atomic Backland XTD’s as a daily driver for the majority of last ski season.
Since last March, the new Blacklight has been on our radar as a Ridge-esque model put on a diet. Information was scarce until recently, and we weren’t quite sure if we were getting a svelte 1kg model, or something with a little more beef. A 1kg, Hoji lock equipped boot seemed a little too good to be true, to be honest, and my intuition was right–the Blacklight comes in at ~1225g for a 27.5. At only 125g lighter than the Ridge, the Blacklight feels a bit like an iteration on the Ridge, rather than a whole new thing. The most notable difference here, for a few reasons, is the lack of a tongue on the Blacklight. First, this saves weight and reduces resistance while walking. Second, and more importantly for many, the tongueless design is much more forgiving in the instep fit. Aside from the tongue, the only other significant change from the Ridge is the buckle setup; we swap twistfit and velcro strap for ratchet buckle and camming power strap. Yes please. Lets just say, I am patiently awaiting the Blacklight power straps to come in stock on Skimo.co’s boot parts selection so I can snag a set to retrofit onto my Ridges.
Aside from the obvious comparisons to be made with the Ridge, the Blacklight seems like an excellent lightweight boot. It falls into a bit of an in-between category–it certainly doesn’t weigh or feel like a 1kg boot, but it’s lighter and more minimal than boots in our 2+ buckle category (though I suspect it won’t lag much in ski performance relative to these). It’s probably best compared to the likes of the Salomon MTN Summit, Scarpa F1 XT, or Sportiva Kilo XTR. Notably, many of these comparable models take a 1kg platform and add some beef, where the Blacklight does the opposite by slimming down a 2+ buckle boot. Given this, both the cuff and lower shell feel more robust than others in the same ballpark. Combined with the Hoji lock, I suspect that the Blacklight will be a step up in ski performance.
Needless to say, I’m psyched to get the Blacklight on snow. Despite the relative lack of fanfare compared to the Ridge, I reckon the Blacklight could be an even more exciting development on what was already an excellent platform.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.