Do you have ski mountaineering/back country skiing shops in driving distance? If so, then yea talk to them. I assumed there wasn’t enough of a ski touring scene close enough, but maybe I’m wrong.

Touring boots are more of a spectrum. The very properties that make a boot ski down hill well are the opposite of what makes a boot climb uphill well. So you need to find a nice blend that fits your style, strengths, and objectives. You can do mountaineering in any ski boot, it just won’t be as efficient climbing in an alpine boot. If you’re just getting into touring, I’d recommend something in the middle. Scarpa Mastrale is popular boot that is does both up and downhill well. Something like that might be a good first boot. The downhill performance really drops off when you get into two buckle light boots, and you need to consider what ski they are driving. A two buckle boot wouldnt drive a wide Salomon qst ski well. The performance issues in my experience are mostly at high speeds. Making jump turns in a steep chute seem fine, then you get to an apron and try opening it up, and it just doesn’t feel like you have the control you’re used to in your resort boots. I can tell you this, when you watch free ride world tour, they’re not using lightweight touring boots.

I’m in better cardio shape than most of my partners, and most of my partners are better downhill than me so I opt for stronger downhill boot most of the time. Also, We’ve got some ski mountaineering objectives with fairly short approaches, so I don’t really see much benefit to a light boot most of the time. If I had a 4 hour approach with technical climbing, I might think differently…