contesstant
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Where do you ski? I’d love to do that. That’d be fun!
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Softening Boots?
- Thread starter MissySki
- Start date
Patronainthe801
Certified Ski Diva
Ikon locations during the week when I need a mental health day. Preferably Alta or DV. Snowbird is a little tough for me (spent last weekend there and it kicked my butt) and I haven't wanted to battle BCC to do Solitude and Brighton yet. My kids do the Devo and All Stars program at Snowbasin, so that keeps me there on Saturdays and usually on Sundays. I've been wanting to venture to Powder Mountain with my 5th grader, but have not yet had a chance this season.
contesstant
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Oh, so you're skiing Basin on weekends? I don't know about this Saturday, but I'll be up Sunday with my husband who is a Level 3, so he's super fun to ski with! I'm not super aggressive or adventurous, but Sunday sounds like it's going to be bluebird with a lot of fresh snow, so that could be a hoot. I'm happy to let you pick my brain about boots. I'll message you.
liquidfeet
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I just ran into this informative video about how any skier can adjust the flex of their boots while out on snow. The video goes through different types of snow conditions, indicates when one would need stiffer and softer flex, and shows exactly how to change the flex.
The instructor is Reilly McGlashan, a fantastic skier on the Austrailian National Team. His skiing is as highly skilled as it gets. He's in very stiff race boots labelled as having 150 flex.
He shows how he softens the flex by adjusting the power strap and the two cuff buckles for different types of snow conditions. Each adjustment is followed by a short clip of his skiing. Don't be put off by the intensity of his skiing; what he's showing applies to everyone's boots.
The upshot is that all skiers can soften the flex of their boot while out on snow, without any tools, by simply loosening the power strap and/or the cuff buckles. Specific control of that softness is possible as long as the skier buys a boot with enough stiffness to mess around with.
Note: a boot's stiffness cannot be increased, only decreased.
The instructor is Reilly McGlashan, a fantastic skier on the Austrailian National Team. His skiing is as highly skilled as it gets. He's in very stiff race boots labelled as having 150 flex.
He shows how he softens the flex by adjusting the power strap and the two cuff buckles for different types of snow conditions. Each adjustment is followed by a short clip of his skiing. Don't be put off by the intensity of his skiing; what he's showing applies to everyone's boots.
The upshot is that all skiers can soften the flex of their boot while out on snow, without any tools, by simply loosening the power strap and/or the cuff buckles. Specific control of that softness is possible as long as the skier buys a boot with enough stiffness to mess around with.
Note: a boot's stiffness cannot be increased, only decreased.
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That's really interesting. I was having boot problems a couple of years ago and felt I was never going to get an ideal fit. So I started trying to train my feet by loosening the buckles and expecting my feet to find their balance. What I settled on is tightening the lower leg buckle to hold my ankle/heel in place, but leaving the upper leg buckle kind of loose. That really helped me learn to open and close my ankles.
It is quite possible that I have always been in boots that are too stiff and I am, in effect, softening them via buckling.
It is quite possible that I have always been in boots that are too stiff and I am, in effect, softening them via buckling.
MissySki
Angel Diva
So I finally got to ski with one screw removed yesterday. It was supposed to happen last weekend, but some stuff came up at home and I didn’t get to go north as planned. I removed the lower screw which supposedly gives you a 12% reduction in flex per Lange’s website. The difference was huge!!
I’m not sure I was as balanced still as in my Atomics, but I really liked having the close fit and lateral stiffness I’m used to back.. I felt like I had to get back into the “Lange mode” after having gotten used to how to be in the Atomics the past few weeks I had skied. Things got better and better as the day went on. I could still remove the second screw to decrease flex further, and might do so to experiment more. Yesterday was glorious packed powder everywhere, pretty much no ice to be found, and 30 degrees. I’d like to ski in this orientation again in colder firmer conditions to see how it feels then and whether more will be needed.
Overall though a very solid difference, and I didn’t even add any padding or buckle my boots differently yet. I didn’t want to change multiple things at once preferring to go incrementally to track what does and doesn’t feel good and in what ways. It was wonderful to feel I had control back in these boots and to be able to flex forward instead of hitting a brick wall though. I really think the stark difference this season has to have been my weightloss, I’m not sure what else would explain it when my boots are 5 years old and I haven’t had the issue of not being able to flex them to this extent previously..
I’m not sure I was as balanced still as in my Atomics, but I really liked having the close fit and lateral stiffness I’m used to back.. I felt like I had to get back into the “Lange mode” after having gotten used to how to be in the Atomics the past few weeks I had skied. Things got better and better as the day went on. I could still remove the second screw to decrease flex further, and might do so to experiment more. Yesterday was glorious packed powder everywhere, pretty much no ice to be found, and 30 degrees. I’d like to ski in this orientation again in colder firmer conditions to see how it feels then and whether more will be needed.
Overall though a very solid difference, and I didn’t even add any padding or buckle my boots differently yet. I didn’t want to change multiple things at once preferring to go incrementally to track what does and doesn’t feel good and in what ways. It was wonderful to feel I had control back in these boots and to be able to flex forward instead of hitting a brick wall though. I really think the stark difference this season has to have been my weightloss, I’m not sure what else would explain it when my boots are 5 years old and I haven’t had the issue of not being able to flex them to this extent previously..
