Backcountry Touring Boot Fit Comparison to Atomic Hawx Prime

Hey all,

Figure I will ask this question as these are a fairly popular resort boot and apparently the atomic back country boot the Hawx Ultra is 2mm narrower than the Hawx Prime.

I am interested in the input of people how ride the Hawx Prime for their resort boot, what backcountry boot fits you best? I was excited at the opportunity of buying the Hawx Ultra until I realized they are a slightly different fit.. Does anyone have experience with both?

I definitely can't answer your question but if you wanted a pretty informed answer that will cost the price of a membership, you can ask the boys of Blister gear reviews (they do actually provide this type of consulting service).

Less useful but interesting (to this gear nerd at least), Blister just did a really deep dive with the Atomic boot guy who does discuss the difference in the fit of the Ultra and Prime towards the end of this podcast (the less narrow boot sells 3x more than the narrow, hurray for my wider feet!):

https://blisterreview.com/podcasts/a-very-deep-dive-on-ski-boots-part-4-liners-ramp-angle-forward-lean-ep-88

The "I have no idea what I am talking about answer" would be Atomic Backland - you can theorically mold the shell to any size you want.

oh wow they are coming out with a prime for backountry! Thats awesome

Not sure I want to wait until the fall for a new boot though :( If anyone else has any suggestions I am open!

talk to skimo.co, they have lots of experience in this department and are very helpful. 

mpech wrote: talk to skimo.co, they have lots of experience in this department and are very helpful. 

Thanks! I will reach out

I have difficult feet to fit, they are a medium width across the balls of my feet but my arches are dead flat and my navicular bone is very wide.  I have put on a few different ski boots where my foot wouldn't even sit on the footbed because my midfoot was too wide to fit all the way down in the boot.  That said, I splitboard in Atomic Backlands (I have 3 pairs currently!) and I ski in Atomic Hawx Ultra XTDs.  Any basic shop employee should be able to oven mold the shells to get a good fit but a good boot fitter can work magic, the shell molding tech is the reason that I'm in Atomic boots.  The difference in width won't be a problem for you if they will mold the shell.  I've actually been sizing down for my splitboard boots by a full size and then molding the shell to get the length and volume back up to fit my feet.  

Did you have to modify your Primes at all? If not, you can easily make the Ultra fit with the heat-moldable shell.

Also as an FYI, the current Backland no longer has a heat-moldable shell.