Goddamn I fucking hate buying ski boots. I bought Alpine boots and custom footbeds from a bootfitter like 6 years ago in Denver, took a couple months of appointments fit in between working and school. Then I cracked them and warrantied them a year later, drove ten hours to Denver to find out that my bootfitter died and their shop hours were cut in half with the new guy. They fit amazing but I feel like I'm going to break my ankles trying to get into them some days, have had to drive home with them on because it was too cold to get them off some days.
Then I bought used telemark boots a couple of seasons ago, fumbled around trying to heat mold them myself, failed but dealt with it for the rest of a season, then the next year wasted $300 on new liners and footbeds for them from a shop that didn't know what the fuck they were doing, by the end of the season decided I wanted to get an NTN setup and impulse bought boots after trying on a few pairs in shop and carefully measuring my feet because no one fucking carries Scarpa other than REI in Bozeman. Got them online and realized I should have sized down, and also because I got the stiffer model, I cant actually swap skis with my friend who also has an NTN setup but the softer boots without a few runs of binding tension adjustment, not to mention they don't have tech toes for some reason but the other model does. On top of that the footbeds I got last year are fucking useless so I'm swapping my nice ones between boots all the time.
And now I gotta get new alpine liners soon because they are nearing the end of their life.
.rant over.