jumperlass
Certified Ski Diva
Have you heard about Plattekill? It's only open Fri-Sun. But doesn't get lift lines like the mountains closer to NYC/NJ.
I've heard of Plattekill but haven't been there. (Sorry for the super late reply.) It's 2-3 hours away but do-able for a weekend day, yeah. It does look a little bigger than our local hill (Greek Peak). My older kiddo has the day off school tomorrow, so I'd thought about trying to take him somewhere for spring skiing....but I don't have the day off work, so even if I swing a half-day, we will probably stay super-local.
I visited a ski shop in Syracuse this week. Discovered that 23.5 is my real size--which opens up more options--and that my current boots don't fit just because they're entirely worn out. (The guy I talked to was polite, but his look of suppressed horror suggests that my boot situation is dire. Bright side: when I've replaced them, I bet I get a lot better pretty quickly!) They only had 3 pair of 23.5 boots, though, and he suggested two of them as options. The Dalbello felt good--stiff and supportive--for the first five minutes, and okay for the next ten, but were actively uncomfortable by the time I'd sat or clomped around the store for 20 minutes. The Tecnica Mach Sport HV were less stiff--flex of 75--but only marginally uncomfortable. None of the weird foot numbness that I dealt with last year when trying to cinch things tight in the wrong places, to make up for looseness elsewhere in the boot. I could buy those. I didn't, though, because I have read a million of the super helpful posts here about what bootfitting is like. My experience was basically, walk in, step stockinged feet on a measuring device, accept the two pairs John brings from the back, and wear one on each foot for twenty minutes.
So I need advice! Do I buy the new pair of boots--a drastic improvement over my ancient Tecnicas that were probably rental boots in a prior life--for ~$250? Or does someone know a bootfitter in the central NY region? I gather there are folks I could go to in the Philadelphia region, or in Vermont. But honestly, the value of being able to go back and have things adjusted repeatedly is a lot lower if I have to drive 3-4 hours each way to do it. Or do I just say, "hang it all, I'll go to the ski swap in the fall and hope someone there will let me try on their boots and hang out in them for 20 minutes before I decide if I want to buy them!"? I haven't been to a ski swap before. I don't really know the etiquette.