Boots on Heels

[Tin_Fish]

(Before anyone says to go to a boot footer I should say that I have already been to multiple and asked them many questions and tried on my boots). Been skiing Fischer rc4 the curves for a bit now. My ankles don't lock great and they are too soft so im getting something new.

One thing has been called to my attention as I've been trying stuff on is that all the boots feel sooooo tall. I feel like i'm wearing heels! I wanna feel super close to the skis. Thats how my my Fischers felt. What are some closer boots? do true race boots get you closer to the ski? For example, here's the atomic hawk ultra vs the redster. obviously the rester looks like it sits lower. Obviously grip walk makes a boot seem taller on normal ground but as you can see, there is obviously more than that.

 

[onenerdykid]

What you are referring to is called "stand height" and it's not something you can judge from simply looking at a boot. Where the boot board actually sits inside the shell (and therefore how high or low it puts your foot) will vary from brand to brand, model to model. Generally speaking, boots that have screwed-on grip pads have slightly higher stand heights than boots that don't (you need the space for the screw to go into the boot) but we're often only talking about a few millimeters. But if you go the race boot route, you normally add lifters/grip pads which increases your stand height. GripWalk adds further confusion here because how the boot stands on a flat surface is not how the boot sits in the binding. A GripWalk boot will feel higher off the ground than the same exact boot with alpine norm soles, but once in the binding they will behave the same way.

 

[Tin_Fish]

ahhh ok stand height. And yeah that makes sense. I knew the the thing about the grip walk so im not too worried there. Even accounting for that though, these boots are sooo tall (Nordica pro machine and and hawk ultra are some that I am referring to.) I have a low volume foot, any ideas of boots that would have lower stand height??? From what you're saying Nerdykid, boots without a screw in grip sole will will lower overall because the boot won't need to make room for the screws. Every boot but race boot these days seems to have this though so I guess race boots are gonna be a little lower on average??

 

[onenerdykid]

From what you're saying Nerdykid, boots without a screw in grip sole will will lower overall because the boot won't need to make room for the screws. Every boot but race boot these days seems to have this though so I guess race boots are gonna be a little lower on average??

Sort of, maybe. A pure race boot without any lifter attached to the bottom will usually offer the lowest stand height (outside of touring boots that use glued-on soles without real boot boards). However, if you walk a lot with these boots you will wear out the sole and therefore need to buy a new boot, rather than replacing the worn out lifter. Once you add a 5mm lifter to the boot, your stand height will be within a few millimeters of a regular, "all-mountain" boot that uses replaceable grip pads.

 

[Turnfarmer]

If you are referring to having a lot of ankle flexibility, a small shim under the ball of your foot(3mm max) inside the boot, will make a big difference. However if you don’t have excessive ankle dorsiflexion, this can stress your Achilles. Do you get this feel when in bindings, or just on the floor.

If in bindings, try to find a lower delta(heel height vs toe height binding) or shim the toes of your existing bindings. You can test this by standing on a level floor . Add shims under your heel to match your binding, then start adding thin shims under your toes until you feel balanced. Measure difference and get your bindings to match.

Grip walk soles on a flat floor will feel more like a zero or positive delta(toe high) binding.

Inside the boot address the foot/ankle, outside the boot addresses more proximal things like body proportions.