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New (this year) skier looking for advice on gear and learning

skinnyfootskis

Angel Diva
Thank you all for the wonderful feedback!

I am in a 26.5 low volume Nordica pro machine 110 (men’s) and I wear a size 11 closed toe shoe. They are snug but as soon as you flex they feel better. I am now wondering about the up and down volume as I can wiggle my toes a bit. I don’t know a whole lot but the boot size is probably too big for you.

I love Okemo! It's been a great place to learn and having it only a short drive away makes it very convenient! I've been trying to get my value out of my Killington spring pass (4 visit so far) and have had a great time. The snow is turning to slush, which I really don't enjoy. A small amount of it and I seem to do okay by keeping my momentum up and trying to avoid skidding too much, but I was there yesterday and the slush piles were REALLY deep and it was a ton of work to not get tossed around or stuck.



Depends on the shoe, but I usually wear a women's 9.5 or 10.

I tried my girlfriend's 24.5 boot on the other night. I was able to get my foot into it, but it's definitely too short for me. My toes were scrunched up at the end and the width there made my toes start to have to cross over each other to fit in the pocket. I haven't had a chance to try on some 25.5's (do they make just a 26!?).



I picked up my 26.5 boot in January from BootPro in Ludlow, VT. I've used them around 30 days this season. I had a custom footbed made and recently had the place add some additional insole into the boots to reduce the extra up/down space I was feeling in there. That made a big difference and the boots feel more snug now (this might further support that a 26.5 is too big for me?). The person at the shop also showed me a way to use the strap first to snug the boot to my leg before using the buckles. That also helped me feel like the boot was more part of my foot and leg. I did a couple days with these changes and, slushy snow aside, it felt better. I expect I'll be looking for a different boot for going into next season (not much snow left for this year it seems). I wish there was a Zappos for ski boots! :smile:

I think next year I'm going to have to start out with some lessons. From everything I've read I have probably developed some bad habits to compensate for skiing some terrain I probably shouldn't be on yet. I've good control and confidence at speed on greens and blues, but it all falls apart when I have to slow down and pick my way through any tough patches.

Thanks again everyone!
 

liquidfeet

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
There are no in-between-sizes. Every boot is labelled 25.5 or 24.5 or 26.5.

Boots should fit your foot in at least three dimensions. All three are very important.
--Length (24.5 or 25.5 etc)
--Width (95-98mm/narrow, 100-103mm/medium, 104-106mm/wide)
--Volume (height over the foot) LV/low volume, MV/medium volume, HV/high volume

Rules of thumb:
--Fit the boots to your smallest foot and have the bootfitter punch or grind indentations in the other boot to make room for its extra size. Your toes should contact the front wall of the boot; the sides of your feet should contact the sides of the boot, and there should be no room above the foot.
--The fit should be uncomfortably tight all the way around your feet in the shop, but not so tight that they are painful. It takes a little while for your feet to get used to a proper boot fit, so walk around in the shop for about 15-20 minutes to let them calm down. This will help you decide if there is pain or just tightness. The liner will compress soon and you'll have a little more room in there. You don't want enough room in there after the liners compress to allow any sideways slippage, fore-aft slippage, or up-down movement inside the boot when you ski. This will result in lack of control over your skis.
--Wear one pair of very thin socks when you go to buy boots. And wear that one pair when you ski. If your feet get cold, use toe warmers stuck to the tops of your socks over your toes. They work.
 
Last edited:

MissySki

Angel Diva
There are no in-between-sizes. Every boot is labelled 25.5 or 24.5 or 26.5.

Boots should fit your foot in at least three dimensions. All three are very important.
--Length (24.5 or 25.5 etc)
--Width (95-98mm/narrow, 100-103mm/medium, 104-106mm/wide)
--Volume (height over the foot) LV/low volume, MV/medium volume, HV/high volume

Rules of thumb:
--Fit the boots to your smallest foot and have the bootfitter punch or grind indentations in the other boot to make room for its extra size. Your toes should contact the front wall of the boot; the sides of your feet should contact the sides of the boot, and there should be no room above the foot.
--The fit should be uncomfortably tight all the way around your feet in the shop, but not so tight that they are painful. It takes a little while for your feet to get used to a proper boot fit, so walk around in the shop for about 15-20 minutes to let them calm down. This will help you decide if there is pain or just tightness. The liner will compress soon and you'll have a little more room in there. You don't want enough room in there after the liners compress to allow any sideways slippage, fore-aft slippage, or up-down movement inside the boot when you ski. This will result in lack of control over your skis.
--Wear one pair of very thin socks when you go to buy boots. And wear that one pair when you ski. If your feet get cold, use toe warmers stuck to the tops of your socks over your toes. They work.

If boots fit properly, are you able to fit heating pads in there?? That has never been an option in any fitted boot I’ve had.. while my toes are not pressed down tightly by the boot, there just isn’t a lot of space at all there.
 

Jilly

Moderator
Staff member
I have heaters in mine and they are properly fitted. The fitter put the heaters in for me. The heating pad is in the custom footbed.
 

Jilly

Moderator
Staff member
Good fitting boots - hot shots are a no. I've never really had them work as I don't have enough room and air/oxygen to keep them going.
 

liquidfeet

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
If boots fit properly, are you able to fit heating pads in there?? That has never been an option in any fitted boot I’ve had.. while my toes are not pressed down tightly by the boot, there just isn’t a lot of space at all there.
Battery-driven boot heaters don't take up any room. The bootfitter routs out an indentation in the bottom of your footbed the exact size of the heater unit, which is a little disk. Then that unit fits into that indentation. A good bootfitter will also rout out a ditch along the underside of the footbed for the wire to fit into, so you don't feel it either. (Whoops, I cross-posted with Jilly.)

The little day-long heating pads, if stuck to the top of your sock as far forward as you can stick them, probably will not compress the tops of your toes. If they do, you really do have a race-fit in the toe box of your boots. The problem is getting the foot into the boot without folding up the toe warmer pad. It takes a bit of cunning to figure out how to do that.

**I have never had a problem with the stick-on toe-warmers not getting warm for me. And my boots are quite snug. However, because I've had the toe boxes punched out to make head room for my toes, as well as to widen them, there is always a little gap at the front end of the two big flaps where the come together just before the toes. That lets air in. I plug it solidly with elastic putty, but still I guess a wee bit of air must get in there. It sure can't fit in through any other space because of the very snug fit.
 

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