contesstant
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Welcome to the club LOL. That's awesome that he was upfront and it sounds like he's confident in his decision.Well, I'm back from Alpina. Let me just say first and foremost that Dieter was a really down to earth guy. None of the arrogant doucheyness I've come to expect from boot fitters. But he also didn't BS me either, which I appreciated.
So first he looked at the shell fit on my x max boots - too much space in there behind my heel, especially for having downsized. He had me try on a Dalbello Chakra 95 in a 22.5....toes scrunched. So to do an "experiment" he heated up the intuitions and stuck me in them with toe caps. Ow. But then afterward he had me try them again to see if my toes were flat, and they were. Couldn't get my heel all the way seated into the heel pocket though. He said that the Chakra isn't the boot for me (bc my heel to instep ratio measures at about 21), but that he thinks he can get me into a 22 boot.
Next up, technica mach 1 LV 95 in a 22. Shell fit left me with about 4mm of space behind my heel. He had me try them with the liners. Again, just like last time I tried this boot, the top of the liner bit into my shin while flexing. Also my toes were squished, but less so than in the Chakra.
Ultimately he concluded that a boot doc liner is going to be the only way to fix the instep problem, and that putting me in the smallest possible shell (with potential shell work to accommodate my toes) is the best fix for my last and LV-ness. His wife and one of the other fitters were pretty surprised at the level of LV of my feet lol.
The problem: He wants to put me in a model of boot docs that have a foamable tongue, which he does not stock. He also is not sure if they make a liner in a 22.5. He called one of the boot doc guys in Vermont while I was there to ask him to look into it. If they do carry it, he is going to order it and put me in the Mach 1 LV 22. If not, the plan is to put me in a 23 shell and foam the boot doc liners extra. He is going to give me a call on Monday or Tuesday to let me know once he gets an answer about the liner sizing. I may be looking at having to get another custom insole made (argh) if the instaprints are too high volume or big for the downsizing. I showed him the old superfeet custom insoles and he threw them straight into the garbage "where they belong" lol. (They were torn up from having the hotronics removed and worthless, just had them still in my boot bag and showed him what I had before the instaprints.)
I'm a little nervous about downsizing this much, I don't want to lose toenails again. But Dieter seems to know what he is doing and he teaches workshops for boot doc, so I'm going to go with his judgment.
He also said that my x max 110s were too stiff for my height and weight, even if I had been a true expert (I'm not). He said that he wouldn't put me in anything over 95, and that the boot doc liners will stiffen the boots a bit, so I may even need the 95 softened.
So no new boots today, but we have a game plan that does NOT involve shims and tongue padding. Or a race plug.
I believe he is correct that only 2 of the BD liners come in a 22. You can buy the foamable tongues separately, but of course that would add even more to your cost.
When will you be able to get all of this taken care of? I think you'll LOVE the liners, and the Mach 1s are about the only shell that works for me, too.