I’m trying to help my girl, jesski (great skier coming off an ankle injury) find some new boots. She has 500+ days (with multiple resoles) on her current shells, and the plastic is just worn out. (The original 110 flex is now like 70.) We’ve spent much time, gas, and money trying to find something that works.
Her anatomy: True 22 length, AA heel, B forefoot, big, low calf, and short tibia (she’s 5’3”). When she shell fits a boot, her calf always hits first—sometimes her heel will touch too (if the heel pocket is deep enough), but no boot has allowed her whole lower leg (calf, Achilles, and heel) to touch the back of the shell naturally. Consequently, her calf always pitches her forward in the boot, i.e., her tibia is not at the designed fwd lean. She likes an upright boot, but that can be somewhat corrected with an external toe lift provided the back of the boot is the right shape for her leg. (She’s also slightly knock-kneed with a high Q-angle, but that can be fixed with a slight cant.) It goes without saying that she wants a true 22 (bsl under 270), not a 23 shell with a toe dam and smaller liner.
Essentially, she needs a boot with the following criteria:
- A narrow, well-defined heel pocket.
- A simple upper that can be blown out in the calf region.
- Narrow volume (97 max).
- A stiff (120+) flex.
Unfortunately, we only came up with three off-the-shelf options for her to try. Besides the following, are there any other boots that fit the above criteria? Here are some notes on each:
Dalbello Kryzma: (smallest fwd lean shim, B tongue)
- Best heel hold of the three.
- Deal breaker: Two of Seattle’s better bootfitters (Jim Mates and Kelly Timmons) were unable to make room in the upper for her huge calf. With the way the upper mates to the lower in the KR2 shell, there’s just no way to get more volume in that area.
- Would prefer lower volume in the mid- and fore-foot: can buckle lower buckle all the way down without pain in the molded stock (PW plug) liner.
- She liked the flex with the B tongue.
Lange RS 110 SC LV:
- Deal Breaker: Terrible heel hold
- Kelly Timmons said he could blow out the calf with heat and a weight.
- Deal breaker: Too much volume. Could buckle the lower two buckles all the way down without any pain with the molded PW Plug liner.
- Pretty soft for the 110, but 120 may work. Tried with a PW Plug.
Head Raptor 110 MYA:
- Not as good as the Kryzma, but would might work with a ZipFit.
- Likely able to mod the upper via Kelly’s heat+weight method
- Nice, low volume. Only buckled 2 notches on the lower buckles. Might even need some punching.
- Deal Breaker: Boot folds when she flexes it at room temp. Just not stiff at all, even with a PW plug liner.
Are there any other boots that fit the above criteria? What else can we try on? At this point, we’re considering the Raptor 110 MYA with a ZipFit and WC booster strap for additional stiffness, but I hate to buy a boot where the plastic isn't perfect. As any decent bootfitter knows, you can make a small boot bigger and a stiff boot softer, but going the opposite direction is hard. Are there ANY men's boots that come in a 130 flex and a 267ish bsl? She'd prefer a short cuff for her short tibia, but I just want to see if there's a possibility of having her try on a men's boot.
Any bootfitters out there able to fit great female skiers with a size 22/women’s 7 foot? What do you guys do? I honestly have trouble understanding how this is so difficult, given the number of women who wear a 7.5 running shoe—I guess they’re all just skiing boots that are too big…
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