TL;DR: GOT ZIPFITS, FEELING A BIT HAPPIER
It's been a week or so - I've skied 5 days since I last updated and the ski season here at Mt Hutt has come to an end as of today. :'( I finished my ski season with 33 days skied. I thought I might get about 15 - I'm very impressed and sort of astounded at myself!
In that time I've visited my bootfitting shop 4 times. They are always happy to see me (somehow!!) and never get frustrated at my ongoing foot problems, which is just lovely. We've had a real variety of snow and weather conditions, from 4 inches of fresh powder (which removes the problem temporarily - not as much heel/ankle flexing! however a weird amount of arch pain haha) to a bluebird tshirt day to two days of skiing through sleet. Spring weather eh
I also managed to get a handle on the boot pain enough to have a final two hour lesson which was fantastic; my skiing is really coming along and although overall it still looks pretty clunky a lot of the time, it's getting there! I'm slowly getting more rhythm and control. However in order to control the heel pain, I had to crank my boot buckles pretty damn tightly. I was having to unbuckle my boots every time we stopped mid-run to discuss anything.
I went to my boot fitter the next day and told him skiing was brilliant aside from the unending foot pain and associated frustration, and he worked with me for nearly three hours (!!!) well past the shop's closing time. I apologised and he said it's not the latest they've stayed for customers! We ended up discussing aftermarket liners, which he'd actually told me about the first day I got fitted back in May - due to the difficult shape of my feet and narrow heel, he predicted months ago that I'd end up in aftermarket liners eventually.
The shop sells both Intuition and Zipfit. We looked at both and he commented that Intuition might be more of an instant fix to cushion the area and tighten everything up a bit, given the factory liner has certainly packed out a bit in 30 days - however his recommendation was for Zipfits for a more long term solution. He thinks the heel lump may subside a bit after a couple of months not skiing, but if so both he and I are anxious to see it NOT return, and wants to cut down on as much movement in my ski boot as possible. (looking at past photos of my feet, it looks like I previously had a small bony protrusion there, but not the size it is now!)
I've just finished skiing my third day in new Zipfit liners and there's some definite improvement. My heel hold is much better, I still have a little pressure on the back of my heel occasionally but the general consensus is that the area is now inflamed and needs time to settle down. However the pressure that I now have is tolerable. Day 1 with the zipfits was a little hellish because I had too much pressure over my instep (the only "average" part of my foot :P) and one of my feet kept going completely numb. I must have taken my boots entirely off at least ten times! I went back to the shop and was told that breaking in Zipfits can take a while (despite being moulded in the shop), but they also relaced them so the laces weren't over the instep. Days 2 and 3 were actually much better so I guess they were right
I'm still tweaking the buckles but I'm feeling a lot more confident in my boots now. I feel like I will actually be able to ski during my mid-summer Canadian ski trip instead of just hanging out at the skifield bar mourning my feet
Boot carnage - foam everywhere:
Old boots, new liners:
As a side note, when I popped back to the shop and saw one of the other fitters (there's three, two of whom co-own the shop, and they all know me now) as soon as they saw the zipfits they commented something like "oh I knew you'd end up in those eventually" :P
And because I like to chat about skiing in general too much: this was the weather today, the last day of the season! It was wild, it went from this:
to this:
and then we had a little sun but mostly very thick clouds/fog the rest of the day. If you waited long enough the vis would clear for a run but then it would cloud over again At one point I estimate I had about 3 metres of visibility! Really nice snow conditions though surprisingly
and I was able to focus a bit more on my skiing and a bit less on my boots, which is definitely a step in the right direction.
