Thoughts?

Reading some nice things about the Vasque Radiator, and I certainly like the price vs. the Spantiks.

Just $291 on Zappos...will let you buy some nice overboots...

bird wrote:Just $291 on Zappos

exactly. if the Vasque is comparable to the Spantik and will deliver the same summits then it seems like a great choice. has anyone out there used/compared the two?

Never used Spantiks, but I did spend some time using Radiators this year in the Andes.
I wanted Spantiks but bought Radiators instead - because of the price of course.
I can confirm that they walk very well, but are not suitable for steep technical climbing. You need to ask yourself what your real needs are. I don't think that these are extremely warm boots. I mean, I imagine that Spantiks are much warmer - people climb 8000m in them and I don't think Radiators would perform well that high.
You need to try if the fit is right for you. They're quite wide, which is fine for me, but what bothers me is that they're pretty tight in the vertical dimension - I feel that with two socks on there's no place left over my toes and that my feet is squeezed in the boot - not something you want to feel when the temperature is well below the freezing point.
I like them overall, I love that they're so light and not plastic, but in my opinion you shouldn't expect them to be as good as Spantiks. It's a nice boot for the price, probably fits your needs but it's just not a piece of gear you would take to Everest.

Ditto the above post on fit with Radiators and the comment about their softness. They're one of the only boots I've ever used that fit my wide but low-volume feet perfectly. Another benefit to their soft shells is that they're very easy to put on in sub zero conditions as opposed to my Koflachs which would become very rigid and or frozen (assuming liners in your sleeping bag in both cases). I know that several folks on Denali summited with these boots and no overboots without problem, but it may have been on warmer days. A team of three of us wore the Radiators for over 3 weeks on the mountain without vapor barrier socks and our feet were always toasty or, more often than not, hot.

JD