Tingling Toes

[Randi M.]

My husband, an advanced beginner, was renting boots for the season. The boot was too loose so we went back to the ski shop and the salesperson - a veteran - recommended he buy a pair of boots because he has low volume and it would be hard to find a suitable pair of rentals. So we shelled out $500 for a pair of Salomon’s (I think 100 flex), which my husband found infinitely more comfortable in the store.

However, on the second day wearing them to ski, his toes started to feel numb and tingly. He went back to the shop and they stretched the liner. It helped marginally but not enough and next time we were back at the mountain his feet got tingly again, and one foot is still mildly tingly several days later.

So a few questions.

He’s going back to the shop tomorrow. I’ve suggested he ask about a lower profile insole, which helped me in a similar situation. Any other suggestions?

Any chance the boots are too rigid, and that the rigidity is causing a problem? He’s a pretty cautious, stiff skier, though he’s not in a wedge anymore.

Any suggestions for getting rid of the existing tingles?

 

[Jilly]

Is he wearing the stock insole? Even a Superfeet insole will make life more bearable. Somewhere something is impinging on a nerve. If it's a Salomon with the 3D buckle on the second buckle it may need to be moved to change the angle of that buckle.

 

[Randi M.]

Yes, it’s the stock insole. Buckle doesn’t seem to be angle-able. I wish I could help him figure this out!

 

[2ski2moro]

Many times, tingling in the toes is caused by buckling the boot too tightly across the top of the foot. I agree with Jilly, something is impinging on a nerve.

This is what happened to me. My boots felt loose, so I buckled tighter. Tightening the buckle cannot "bring in the sides", it only compresses the top of the foot. In my case, I was compressing the foot flatter and stretching the plantar tendon at the bottom of the foot. Getting a custom footbed solved the problem of stretching the plantar tendon for me.

However, it didn't solve the problem of the boots being too wide/feeling loose and buckling tighter/compressing the nerve that caused tingling toes. I had to exchange the boot for a narrower boot in order to get the proper fit.

Unfortunately, he may still be in the wrong boot. If your DH is compressing the nerves in the top of his foot, stretching the liner probably won't help. True, a lower volume insole will give him more room in the boot. I suspect that he will continue to feel the need to buckle tighter. My hunch is that these boots are too wide, based on what you said about a low volume foot.

Did he have a boot fitting by an expert? See the topic about boot fitting in the Gearipedia section. (Why You, Yes You, Need a Boot Fitting.) It will help you understand what is the difference between a 'veteran' and a real boot fitter.

 

[SallyCat]

I don't buckle the buckle that's over the arch of my foot. I can't get it loose enough not to constrict, so I just leave it unbuckled.

If the boots are heat-moldable, you can have a fitter heat them and put some foam on the top of your husband's foot. That will stretch the boot just where he needs it stretched.

EDIT: My bootfitter had me come right into the shop after skiing for a couple of hours and he simply looked at which parts of my feet were red from compression. Easy peasy.

Also if you have a dremel tool or sander you can file down an insole to make it lower-volume.

There's lots of fiddling and shimming that can be done to get the fit dialed if he essentially in a well-sized boot, and top-of-foot compression should be very easy to remedy. Good luck!

 

[CrystalRose]

This exact thing happened to me this season! Also an advanced beginner who bought my first boot. I have a low volume foot and my first fitter put me in a boot that had too much volume (Head Vector 100 which has 100mm last/width). I was trying the boot on at home to break them in and my feet would be numb days afterward. I was really concerned so I returned them and went with a different fitter (not necessarily suggesting that, your fitter may be on the right track).

The new fitter put me in a low volume boot (Atomic Hawx Ultra which has 98mm last) and the numbness went away. I was using a Superfeet footbed in both boots. All that to say, this may not be the right low volume boot for your husband, but the low volume worked to stop the numbness for me. He may need a different shape of low volume boot.

 

[2ski2moro]

We don't know if he has a high instep that results in compression. If he does, the solution is to expand the liner and maybe the shell, or to lower the insole height.

Randi M only mentioned a low volume foot. If it a matter that he has to tighten down on the buckles to try to tighten the boot to his low volume foot, giving him more space is not going to help.

Don't grind anything until you see a boot fitter. A good boot fitter can make a small boot larger, but it is almost impossible to make a big boot smaller.

 

[LKillick]

Hah! I saw the title and was coming in to suggest some labs to run. You can tell what field I work in. Glad its "just" the boots. Echoing the boot fitter! I was amazed at what a difference that made for me, though I do have high arches.