Choose your ski touring shoes

Choose your ski touring shoes

Finding shoe to his foot is not easy, so here are some tips to guide you.
We will address here only the problem of the shoe and not the technical characteristics of all models.

Preamble:

- We choose his shoes in store, at a temperature close to 20 degrees celsius ... away from mountain conditions. Your foot is more dilated (takes up more space) and the shoe is softer (more comfortable) than in the cold.
- You are the one who has the foot in the shoe so do not bother the seller to tell you if it is the right size ... or the right shoe...
- Buying shoes takes time... a lot of time...!! and a lot of energy...!!

- What usage profile

Forget the model of your dreams for now... it may not be the right one for your feet.
Define the type of shoe desired: shoe especially for the climb, especially for the descent, low-tech insert ... from there, each shoe brand (Scarpa, Garmont, Nordica, Dynafit...) offers you a corresponding model. Those ones you're going to try, all of them, without exception.

2- Size choice

By size, there are two criteria: length and volume.

a- Choice of length (complement in 4)

Standing, shoes in the downhill position, hooks closed: knees bent and shin resting on the tongue (downhill position...), the toes do not touch the end of the boot. On the other hand, straightened (knees in extensions) the toes scratch the tip of the alpine touring boot.
If you feel this, you have found the length.

b- Volume choice

This is the most important and the hardest to define.
Shoe in up or down position.
Get your foot in.
The feeling must be that of a foot well covered by the boot, heel already well wedged. You don't have to feel the need to tighten the hooks to feel held. doesn't mean ...
Don't hesitate to try several different models to understand the shades of shoes.

3- Testing

Find a pattern that combines these factors, close the hooks on the first notch and keep the shoes on for at least half an hour. Don't hesitate to travel. Tighten the hooks if necessary without going further than the second notch. If you are beyond, it is because the volume is not close enough to the foot ... Start again on another model...
Indeed, your foot in store is more dilated than in the cold and therefore takes up more space in the shoe than it will take by -5degrees.
If compression points appear, without necessarily being painful, start again on another model...
Indeed, as said in the preamble, the shoe is softer in store and therefore more comfortable. A simple embarrassment here can become a torment after three hours of climb... and a thermo slipper is not the solution to much.

4- Walk

We have defined a shoe length on unique downhill criteria... Under these conditions, walking with open hooks may be painful by rubbing too large the toes against the tip of the boot.
It seemed useful to me to take half more size ... you will lose in uniform for the descent but will gain comfort in the spring during the approach steps. Try again in the new size.

5- Thermoformed soles

In my opinion, they are indispensable. That is the last touch to the building.
First, go skiing like this. 5 or 6 outings to see how it goes. The AT boot will settle down a bit and finish adjusting to your foot.
So, a pair of custom-made thermoformed soles made by a podiatrist will finalize the adaptation of the shoe to your foot by compensating for a slightly too large shoe cup, by changing painful supports appeared to use ...

In addition, they will:
- give stiffness to the inner edge of the foot (astragale-scaphoide-1st cuneiform-1st metatarsal-GO) to help you be more accurate on descent.
- to solve crampproblem problems in the majority of cases
- Harmonize plantar pressures

6- Conclusion

Meeting all these criteria may be impossible... then change shoe range sets or make concessions. Hopefully these tips will help you. Good luck and good skiing.

You know everything. You can now take a quick tour through the news boots at shop Telemark Pyrenees