• Women skiers, this is the place for you -- an online community without the male-orientation you'll find in conventional ski magazines and internet ski forums. At TheSkiDiva.com, you can connect with other women to talk about skiing in a way that you can relate to, about things that you find of interest. Be sure to join our community to participate (women only, please!). Registration is fast and simple. Just be sure to add [email protected] to your address book so your registration activation emails won't be routed as spam. And please give careful consideration to your user name -- it will not be changed once your registration is confirmed.

How to put liners back into boots?

Pixie Perfect

Certified Ski Diva
I pulled my boot liners out of my ski boot the other day to make sure everything was clean and dry before popping back into storage. Unfortunately I cannot seem to figure out how to put my liners back into the boot.

Anyone have an explanation on hoe that works? All the YouTube videos show the use of a boot horn which I don’t have.

Or should I just take my boots into the bootfitter asking if they can help me get the liners back in?
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
Do you have someone who can help you? Depending on the stiffness of the plastic it can be a real pita, mine are super hard to get in.. It helps if you can have someone pull apart the plastic where it wraps and then while they have it held open you can stick the liner in with your hand inside like a foot to help guide it in and forward into the toe.
 

Abbi

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I have thrown myself on the mercy of the people at the store!! Before arthritis, or maybe it was with the Technica vs the Nordica boots, I could do it. Now? AUUUUUGH.
 

alison wong

Angel Diva
3 options I can think of:
1) Brute force to open the shell and shove the liner in
2) Plastic tends to get hardened in cold temp and softened in warmer temp. "Warm up" the shell by putting it near heater, use your boot warmer (if you have one), or hair dryer? Goal is to soften the plastic and allows you to insert the liner.
3) Bring your stuff to any ski shop / rental shop, ask them to help.
(FWIW, I don't ever take out liners because I am afraid I won't be able to put them back. I usually let the guys at ski shops do it. )
 

NewEnglandSkier

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Kneel on the ground and hold the boot between your knees. Stick the liner in as far as you can. If you can get one hand inside the liner, great--to shove it in. Sort of pinch the heel to compress it with the other hand and push hard. They "should" slide in.

My last pair of boots had a sort of ridge right above the heel pocket so it made it extremely difficult to get the liners back in. My current boots are much easier. It takes practice to put them back in but it also depends on the boot.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Have the toe of the boot facing you as you put your fist into the liner to push it down. Think about the way your elbow bends. With just the shell, experiment by putting your fist all the way into the toe.

It does take a fair amount of effort even with the correct technique for a given boot. Warming up the shell makes sense to me.

I bought both a big boot dryer for driving ski trips and travel boot dryer sticks. While I can take out my liners and get them back in, it's an effort that I'd rather avoid. I like the big 4-stick dryer for drying a pair of boots and gloves. Or two pairs of boots at the same time if I'm with family or friends, especially kids.
 

Pixie Perfect

Certified Ski Diva
3 options I can think of:
1) Brute force to open the shell and shove the liner in
2) Plastic tends to get hardened in cold temp and softened in warmer temp. "Warm up" the shell by putting it near heater, use your boot warmer (if you have one), or hair dryer? Goal is to soften the plastic and allows you to insert the liner.
3) Bring your stuff to any ski shop / rental shop, ask them to help.
(FWIW, I don't ever take out liners because I am afraid I won't be able to put them back. I usually let the guys at ski shops do it. )
Kneel on the ground and hold the boot between your knees. Stick the liner in as far as you can. If you can get one hand inside the liner, great--to shove it in. Sort of pinch the heel to compress it with the other hand and push hard. They "should" slide in.

My last pair of boots had a sort of ridge right above the heel pocket so it made it extremely difficult to get the liners back in. My current boots are much easier. It takes practice to put them back in but it also depends on the boot.
Have the toe of the boot facing you as you put your fist into the liner to push it down. Think about the way your elbow bends. With just the shell, experiment by putting your fist all the way into the toe.

It does take a fair amount of effort even with the correct technique for a given boot. Warming up the shell makes sense to me.

I bought both a big boot dryer for driving ski trips and travel boot dryer sticks. While I can take out my liners and get them back in, it's an effort that I'd rather avoid. I like the big 4-stick dryer for drying a pair of boots and gloves. Or two pairs of boots at the same time if I'm with family or friends, especially kids.
I will give these methods a try and if all else fails then I will bring to the shop to ask for their help.

I will look into a boot dryer for the future but will try setting my boots near the heat vent to see if that helps me get it back in! When I took out the liner I didn't realize how hard it would be to get back in.
 

HikenSki

Angel Diva
My previous boots were an absolute pain to get the liners back into. I dreaded taking them out at end of the season to dry or after a week on the slopes when I could tell there was moisture btwn the liner and shell. It took practice to figure them out but they still weren't easy. I could not get them in with my insoles, so had to pop them in once I got my liner in. My new boots, despite being stiffer and narrower, are actually easier to get the liner into. Have the shop show you some tricks and then invest in a nice boot dryer.
 

SallyCat

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
There is some sort of silicone-ish spray you can apply to the inside of the shell if you're going to be removing the liners a lot (which you maybe should if you don't have some sort of dryer).

My boots are "junior racing" hothouse flowers with an annoying lace-up liner that you have to put on first and then put liner and leg into the shell; so I put liners back in my boots every frickin' time I ski. I just put the shell flat on the ground, stick the toe of the liner in as far as I can, and push straight down on the heel, hard. It's a pain at first, but eventually, the liner reaches some sort of critical point past which it just slips right in. I find it's easier with my hands outside of the liner fwiw.

I think what's being omitted here is the level of cursing necessary to the task; I find that one or two f-words uttered under my breath provide that last bit of momentum needed to get the heel all the way down.
 

Christy

Angel Diva
This explains a lot! People are impressed when they see how easily I take my liners in and out. Mine are easy (4 buckle style boot). I didn't realize they could be this hard!
 

Pixie Perfect

Certified Ski Diva
I’ve seen folks use trash bags to help the liner slide down the back of the boot. Then just pull the trash bag out once the liner is on.
So this is the method that ended up working for me!

At first I made the mistake of putting the trash bag along the bottom too. The boot slid in, but then when I went to pull it out then it took the liner out too. Whoops!

Gave it a second try, this time I kept the trash bag along the back of the shell and did not let it touch the bottom. This allowed me to slide in my boot liners and pull out the trash bag!

This explains a lot! People are impressed when they see how easily I take my liners in and out. Mine are easy (4 buckle style boot). I didn't realize they could be this hard!
I have 4 buckles too but mine are still tricky to get back in! Totally going to be more mindful about whether I really need to pull the liners out next time. A boot dryer seems like the better way to go!
 

newboots

Angel Diva
I’ve seen folks use trash bags to help the liner slide down the back of the boot. Then just pull the trash bag out once the liner is on.

I used to do that when I had 24 kindergarteners to put snow boots on for recess and again for the bus! But I left the plastic bags in. Collected bread bags. Worked like a charm, and there were actually a few minutes left for recess!
 

Bluestsky

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Before I got the boot horn I used a big seltzer water bottle split in half with top and bottom cut off. Btw the boot horn also eliminates under the breath expletives when putting the boots on.
 
Last edited:

ddskis

Certified Ski Diva
I’ve always taken my liners out every time I ski to air out; they always seem damp. I’ve just muscled them in and never thought it was too hard but honestly haven’t done it at all lately as I keep my boots on the mtn in hub’s office and he does it for me. Now I’m wondering if I still can do it!
 

CarverJill

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I take my liners out almost every evening after I ski because they are often soaking wet. I have been doing it for years. Boot triers help but I find that they dry SO much better separated. I always have the boot toes pointed towards me and slip one hand all the way in with my fingers pressed against the toe portion. With the other hand I push the heel down and like Sally cat said you just need to get past the critical point and the whole things slides in. Make sure all your buckles are open too!
 

liquidfeet

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I point a hair dryer down onto the two flaps of the first shell, right at the bend at the front top of the ankle, to warm them up. The stiffness of those two flaps causes the problem. When they are warmed, they soften up.

Then I put the red boot horn into the boot and force the liner in with my fist placed down into the liner. This works very nicely. Those two flaps don't grab my hand and pinch it to death once they are warm and soft.

When I do this, I place the boots on a rug on the floor so they won't move around, and I'm kneeling in front of them.

I try not to take the liners out unless I have to. It's such an ordeal to get them back in. Without the hairdryer and the boot horn I don't think I could do it at all. An overnight with a fan blowing into the boots from the top drys them totally, without any heat. I would nver take them out to make sure they are dry. Sometimes I leave the fan on more than overnight because I get lazy, but back when I had transparent boots I could see the droplets of water after skiing and see that they were gone after a night of fan blowing. Back when I first started using a fan without heat I can remember taking the liners out to check in the morning a couple of times to see if indeed they were dry. But I trust the system now and don't do that any more.

This boot horn doesn't weigh anything so I keep it in my bootbag. There are heavier boot horns out there, but since I carry mine every ski day I don't want their extra weight.

Screen Shot 2020-01-17 at 5.11.34 PM.png
 
Last edited:

KayA

Diva in Training
I have had success by putting the liner into the boot as far as I could by hand and then pushing on the outside of the heel of the liner with a broom handle, or with the blunt end of a ski pole.
The liner will go in all scrunched up but then you can straighten it out by putting your foot in it.
 

badger

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
All great suggestions here. I find the best method is to warm the boot first if you can. Use a hair dryer to get the plastic more flexible. Then do as mentioned above in the posts.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
26,235
Messages
497,576
Members
8,503
Latest member
MermaidKelly
Top