"Baka Dasai" wrote

The compromise you make in hard boots is the inability to tweak your
airs in freestyle manoeuvres, and a somewhat excessive precision in the
pipe, in landing jumps, and in powder.

Can you elaborate a bit on why soft boots are prefered for powder?

For icy conditions, hard boots will be vastly superior. For everything
else you do they'll be different, perhaps better and perhaps worse. My
limited experience with riding non-groomers in hard boots tells me that
jumping, moguls, and open powder fields should be just as good (maybe
better) as in soft boots, while chutes and trees may be a bit harder
than in soft boots.

Sounds good. Are you presuming here that a hardboot setup also
entails a narrow BX/GS board? I have yet to see somebody riding
down some seriously steep stuff (e.g. The Cirque on Whistler) in
hardboots (well, actually in four days there I haven't seen a
single snowboarder there other than the ones who came, looked and
turned back).

As for there being no space to progress into, that sounds a little
presumptuous. I can carve my setup pretty well, but there are a hell of
a lot of slopes/snow conditions that give me trouble.

In my mind the "progress" here would be actually getting into some
form of racing, which is a whole 'nother level of commitment compared
to just fooling around on the hill.

BTW, if somebody can share what it takes to participate in the
boardercross (where/entry fees/schedule/skills), I'd be quite grateful.

Alpine boards are a serious rush though.

Are they a serious disadvantage in moguls/steeps?