Help! Skinny ankles, narrow feet and can't ski a race boot

[Skiiergrl13]

Hey I'm hoping you guys have some suggestions of where to start my search. I am an intermediate/advanced skier. I ski about 25 days a year and am pretty athletic but have only been skiing for 4 years. I live out in CO and can ski most of the resort terrian, including all but a few runs in the back bowls at vail. I have narrow feet but can still wear regular shoes in some brands so they're not exceptionally narrow in the front but a low volume boot is comfortable, I have a narrow heel, very small ankles and narrow leg/not much calf muscle. 5'4, 110lbs. If I were to take ski lessons at the resorts out here my friend who's a ski instructor at Vail said that I'm a level 8 skiier (recreational ski lessons go 1-10, where 10 is basically just being a tour guide).

I currently have the Lange RX 80 LVs 2014/2015 and have spent tons of time with boot fitters trying to get them to fit. There is a ton of space around the ankle. To get rid of some of it they put in like a half inch heel lift and tons of padding. The dramatic heel lift kinda of throws of my balance in choppy snow and made it so the boots cutoff my circulation over my instep. Also I've been told I'm flexing through the front of the boot. After seeing a number of bootfitters this season they said it's the wrong boot so I started over. I tried the head Raptor RS 90 junior race boot and they fit like a glove and I absolutely love them, the problem is I can't ski a boot with that much forward lean.

So now I'm searching again. I'm looking for recommendations of non-race ski boots that will be narrow through the ankle. If there was something that fit like the head raptor RS 90 junior race boots that had a less aggressive stance I would love them.

Here are the boots I've already tried:

Atomic Hawk Ultra 110 - too big in the ankle and a little too stiff (figured the 90 would fit the same though)

Head Raptor RS 90W - some room around the ankle and behind the calf

Salomon x-max 90 and 110 - both have space around the ankle and when I flex forward in the boots I can fit my whole fist between the back of the boot and my calf

Lange XT 110 LV - feels like it actually holds my ankle in most places without having to put in a heel lift with every buckle on the highest setting, there's tiny bits of places over my foot and still a few on my ankle that feel like they're not making contact with the boot though and I'm wondering if I could take this up with an intuition liner? Still not close to perfect, but the best non-race boot I've tried on. Also a 110 might be a little stiff, but they don't make the 100 or the 90 in an LV and I'm worried 80 might be too soft. I thought these were supposed to be made from the same mold as the RX LV line so I'm surprised they hold my ankle better...

Lange RX 80 LV 2014/1015 - Too much ankle space, can fit more than my whole fist between the back of the boot and my calf muscle when I flex forward, and too soft

Technica Chochise 95 - too stiff and after skiing once packed out so much there was a ton of room everywhere in the boot (luckily I got these at REI so they were returnable)

Anyways any suggestions of other boots I should track down and try on would be really appreciated! And again no race boots please, I can't handle the aggressive stance on them.

 

[Philpug]

We can supply options to you but without working with and seeing your feet, we are very limited in this virtual environment. Don't pigeon hole a race boot based upon the color of the shell. You need a low volume shell and that might mean a blue, red, white, black or orange boot. The stance can be adjusted with a bit of gas peddling or working on the delta of the binding. The Lange 80 and 110 LV are the same mold of a shell, the liner is the difference. A boot that is too stiff, can be softened and a better (stiffer) boot tend to have a better liner, so that is why you might be feeling the 110 Lange fits better than the 80. The Tecnica Mach1 LV might also be an option because of the CAS liner, the new cuff for next years womans boot is bit more upright and can be heat molded IN to take up volume.

 

[Mike Thomas]

Check out the Dalbello Krypton KR2 boots, excellent heel hold with an upright stance. Go with an iD liner. Karyzma or Chakra, the Karyzma is a bit stiff but has a much firmer liner.

 

[Chris Geib]

Hi Skiiergrl13,

As Phil indicated don’t rule out the race boots …they are not all the same, they can be softened, aligned and balanced.

It may be too early to rule out the great fitting RS90 Junior race boot. You have them so likely worth a bit of time working with them!
What are the symptoms you have that indicate too much forward lean?
What has been done to address the forward lean?
What bindings?

 

[Skiiergrl13]

Hi Skiiergrl13,

As Phil indicated don’t rule out the race boots …they are not all the same, they can be softened, aligned and balanced.

It may be too early to rule out the great fitting RS90 Junior race boot. You have them so likely worth a bit of time working with them!
What are the symptoms you have that indicate too much forward lean?
What has been done to address the forward lean?
What bindings?

The bindings are salomon bindings not sure what kind, I'm skiing K2 remedy 102's and the bindings came with them, they were previously demo skis. I just can't control the skiis with these boots. Had a great powder day a few weeks ago ago and just felt like I couldn't balance at all in them, it was kind of a bumpy ride and I was bouncing all over the place so I had to ski super slow. I've also taken a few bad falls on groomed runs on the front side. I ski with a friend who's a ski instructor a lot and I've been told my technique is pretty good, but I've only been skiing for 4 years so I think it might have been too soon for an aggressive ski boot. Depending on what I can get for them on craigslist/ebay I may hold on to them hoping that I can ski them in a year or two!

 

[Skiiergrl13]

Check out the Dalbello Krypton KR2 boots, excellent heel hold with an upright stance. Go with an iD liner. Karyzma or Chakra, the Karyzma is a bit stiff but has a much firmer liner.

Thank you! I will definitely check them out!

 

[Skiiergrl13]

We can supply options to you but without working with and seeing your feet, we are very limited in this virtual environment. Don't pigeon hole a race boot based upon the color of the shell. You need a low volume shell and that might mean a blue, red, white, black or orange boot. The stance can be adjusted with a bit of gas peddling or working on the delta of the binding. The Lange 80 and 110 LV are the same mold of a shell, the liner is the difference. A boot that is too stiff, can be softened and a better (stiffer) boot tend to have a better liner, so that is why you might be feeling the 110 Lange fits better than the 80. The Tecnica Mach1 LV might also be an option because of the CAS liner, the new cuff for next years womans boot is bit more upright and can be heat molded IN to take up volume.

We can supply options to you but without working with and seeing your feet, we are very limited in this virtual environment. Don't pigeon hole a race boot based upon the color of the shell. You need a low volume shell and that might mean a blue, red, white, black or orange boot. The stance can be adjusted with a bit of gas peddling or working on the delta of the binding. The Lange 80 and 110 LV are the same mold of a shell, the liner is the difference. A boot that is too stiff, can be softened and a better (stiffer) boot tend to have a better liner, so that is why you might be feeling the 110 Lange fits better than the 80. The Tecnica Mach1 LV might also be an option because of the CAS liner, the new cuff for next years womans boot is bit more upright and can be heat molded IN to take up volume.

Thank you I will definitely check them out! So do you think the Lange XT 110's will fit similiarly to the Lange 80 RX LV's after skiing them a few times? Do you think intuition liners typically do a good job of taking up extra space? And I totally get without seeing my feet, it's hard to make a recommendation. I am just looking for suggestions that differ from what the typical bootfitter carries. In Colorado the lower end stores near all the resorts seems to carry the same boots and the higher end stores seems to only carry boots aimed at racers. So I'm trying to find a narrow boot that works well for a non-racer - which has been surprisingly harder than I thought. I would say the tiny ankles are a much bigger problem than the narrow feet. All the low volume boots still seem to have substantial space around the ankles.

 

[Skiiergrl13]

J

Thank you! I will definitely check them out!

Just looked those up and they look like a 98mm last which feels a bit big once I ski them. Looking for more of a 94-97mm last. My forefoot fits good in the 97mm last but it gets narrower as I go towards the heel, so the narrower the better! Also not opposed to suggestions like taking up room with intuition liners if they actually work and don't pack out quickly!

 

[Pat AKA mustski]

I have owned both the Chakras and the Kryzmas and I also have skinny ankles and heels. I am currently skiing the Kryzmas with much added padding. I also hate heel lifts and shims. So far I haven't liked anything underfoot. I do really like the heel cup in the Dalbellos. It is snugger than other 98 last boots I have tried. I find the 3 buckle boot hard to adjust snugly without losing circulation and I feel a bit OCD playing with my buckles all day. The intuition liners don't take up enough space to make a too big boot fit better. I Have heard zip fit liners work better in that regard.

 

[Philpug]

@Skiiergrl13 here are a couple of threads to read....Boots By the Numbers Pt. 1, Pt. 2 and Pt. 3. The reason you should read thse is to see that you shouldn't get hung up by the numbers be it flex or width, because there is no standard in either oghetm, one brands 90 flex is anothers 110 and one model 97mm width is anothers 100mm, what I am saying is there is a lot of marketing that goes into the numbers. Aslo as I wrote in those articles, the width of the boot is referenced with a 25.5 or 26.5 mondo shell size, as you get into smaller shells, the width also decreases, a 23.5 might be 95mm in the forefoot.

The K2 Remedy with the Salomon demo is probably as much of a culprit in the stance is the boot. Chances are the binding is a Z12 Demo which has a high delta (the toe is much lower than the heel) and assuming that you have a smaller foot beign a woman, it can be pronounced even more and the toe and heel move closer together. A flatter binding with less delta could help a tremendous amount, a binding like a Salomon Warden 11 or Tyrolia Attack 12 or 13 (not the 11).