Sarah Uhl
Editor’s note: Hi all, Lisa and Lou speaking, we are in Utah at the Outdoor Retailer trade show. Thought we’d get this “basics” post out while we’re traveling and picking up gear tidbits. We are of course big fans of custom ski boot fitting, and we work closely with our local backcountry ski shop, Cripple Creek Backcountry. Below, WildSnow Girl Sarah Uhl shares the basics of her “booted” experience. We purposefully did not go into much detail here, the idea is to just ramp up awareness about the near mandatory nature of having your boots heat molded (and keep upping Sarah’s involvement as a blogger). We’ve covered tons of boot fitting in the past, check the category to dig into the subject.. (This post sponsored by our publishing partner Cripple Creek Backcountry.)
At Cripple Creek, customer service and good vibes are paramount so they make sure you’ve got a cup of espresso, tea or a brew from the tap in your hands. My bootfitting elixir of choice, a cup of mango ginger Kombucha.
When it comes to ski touring retail, in my opinion nothing beats a visit to Cripple Creek Backcountry. Every time I walk into the shop I instantly feel that collective stoke is high and good things are to come. Cripple Creek has done a superb job of rallying the community in our valley around what we love most about winter: snow, uphilling, downhilling and each other.
I’m told this is a “new” form of retailing. That’s probably an exaggeration. Nonetheless, what they’re doing here is quite a bit different than just about any other outdoor store I’ve visited. They spend a lot of time on community, and customer service is huge. If you’re ever around our area, it’s worth checking these guys out just to see what I’m talking about. Not a chain store. But then, they just opened a branch in Vail. Perhaps it’ll be a chain store with a twist.
I have been testing a new pair of Scarpa F1s and I like them. The boots fit front to back, but they felt roomy inside. Time to fine-tune the fit by heat molding the Intuition liners.
Employee Matt helped me with the boot fitting and I found his good company, knowledge of foot issues and suggestions for how to customize the fitting just for me a very inviting flavor of customer service.
We began the process by heating the liners. I provided my own SuperFeet insoles that Matt cut to size while we waited for the liners.
The after-market insole added enough volume to make the boots adequately snug. Once I jumped in the cozy warm boots we caught up on local trail and backcountry conditions.
Getting my socks right has been part of making these boots work for me too. For molding the lines, I wore a thin, non-padded ski sock. Now that the liners are baked, I am experimenting with different socks to see which socks work best with the new fit. I would eventually like to get a custom orthotic but the Superfeet insole is working in the meantime.
After about 10 minutes, the liners were cool enough and the fitting was done. I was out the door skinning up our local resort of Sunlight in no time. I love my Scarpa F1s even more with the extra touch my friends at Cripple Creek could offer up during a boot fitting.
Sarah’s review of F1 in action.
(WildSnow Girl, Sarah Uhl, may not have been Rocky Mountain born but she has found her heart here. When she is not climbing mountains or foraging medicinal plants she welds words and mixes paint to tell stories of the beautywild. Examples of her fabulous artwork here.)
4 comments
I am still amazed that people ski in heat moldable liners without actually molding them!
The widespread adoption of easily personalizable liners has completely changed the equiment game for my finicky feet. Boots are the most crucial piece of ski gear to get right. A poor fitting or poor performing boot pretty much hobbles even the lowest risk of ski outings and has the potential to radically increase the risk on higher exposure affairs. I used to have to spend hours and hours, dollars and dollars spread out over repeated sessions getting my boots right. This could take the better part of a season as my conventional liners ‘packed out’ and the boot fit evolved commensurately. Heat moldable liners pretty much mean that if I can shell fit a boot to verify that I will have a few mm margin all around I can buy with confidence and sort out the details with a simple heat mold in the comfort of my own kitchen.
Warmth and quick drying are the icing on the cake.
Agree that feet are most important; however, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. In the past, I’ve had liners molded right away, only to have them feel worse. So now, I always ski in new liners a few times, and only then decide if they need molding – in my case, usually not. I think it has a lot to do with picking the right liner to begin with (in my case Palau’s), as well as having “lucky” feet.
Also they put out the best ski podcast! http://totallydeep.libsyn.com/
Got to enjoy a “real” cup of coffee while standing around getting some new liners baked. +1 Recommend!