Foot pain - is this a daft idea?

A snowHead

My boots are Salomon XMax120, bought them a couple of years ago and I've done about a dozen weeks in them. They were heat molded when I bought them and I got the shells punched around my big toe joint after the first two weeks as the felt a bit tight across my foot. Since then they've mostly been pretty comfy, sometimes a bit painful across the wide part of my foot at the end of the day. I've got wide feet, high insteps, high archers, skinny ankles and calves.

I don't know what's changed but the pain across my feet has been much worse this trip, even having to take my boots off at lunch time, which I've never done before. I went into a ski shop in Kaltenbach on Christmas Eve and the fitter there re-did the heat moulding on the shells only, with thick felt pads stuck on the outside of my feet to force the shell wider. He also sold me some outrageously expensive socks and I left feeling sure that the problem would be solved. It isn't. Even with the thin compression socks I'm still feeling a lot of pain across the front of my foot by lunchtime.

Now I'm thinking that although I've got the bottom two clips as loose as can be, having the top two clips tight actually tightens the clog around my foot too. So my plan is to cut up a thick pair of socks to add an extra layer around my legs. Anyone think this'll work? Or should I bite the bullet and start looking for new boots?

A snowHead

I think you already know the likely answer to this....maybe Santa does late deliveries.

snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

You don't mention whether you have custom footbeds (or which ones if you do have them).

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I have custom foot beds, although this week I'm using off the shelf Superfeet. I use Superfeet in all my other footwear and as they're a bit thinner than my custom insoles I thought they'd give me a bit more room in the toe box.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I have rubbish feet (seriously!) and spent years playing trial and error with shoes trying to find something which worked. Swapping shoes, insoles etc etc until I found something which seemed OK. And then I did the sensible thing and went to see a podiatrist. They sorted me out with custom orthotics, helped me choose shoes to suit my foot etc.

I would say before you blow any money on new insoles, new boots or anything else, go see a podiatrist and see what they think.

@CEM on the forum specialises in ski boots, he's a long way from Scotland but in my now enlightened experience, you can't put a price on doing it right. The longer you go in discomfort, the more damage you're doing and the harder it'll be to get back on the right track. It'll be better in the long run to get the right guidance as soon as possible and do it right from now on.

You'll need to Register first of course.

Is that whats changed this trip, or something you've done since it started hurting more this trip?

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

I must go and see @CEM myself, I have rubbish feet too,
+ rubbish knees
and my hips aint that good either.

I've suffered real pain from really bad boots ... and you can never know till you've skied in them for days.
Still I hope you get sorted.

I did a week in Val D'Isere at the end of November and that's when I first tried the Superfeet. Kept them in for this trip as they seemed an improvement on the custom insoles rolling eyes

. Wish I'd brought the, on this trip, if only to rule them out as a contributing factor.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Did you put in the Superfeet because of the problem and has it got worse with them in?

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

That would seem to be the smoking gun then. And if a less supportive footbed is making the problem worse it might well be that a more supportive one will make it better (and perhaps better fitted boots) But you need the services of a good bootfitter....

snow reports

There is an enormous difference between a 'custom' footbed and an 'orthotic' ie corrective footbed... One is merely shaped to fit your feet, the other is meant to actually help correct a problem.

I mention this as I've had pain in one foot before - across the wide part of the forefoot - which FELT like a problem with not enough room.

Boot adjustment, and different boots and different 'custom' footbeds ALL failed to truly fix the issue.

(I also felt this pain when on the golf course sometimes, some shoes worse than others - a pair of Asics has cured the issue when golfing... but of course there's less pressure on the feet golfing than skiing...)

Finally found the issue from a test on pressure plates - looked like I naturally put excessive pressure on the outside edge of that foot. Not enough to be an issue day to day - but under stress like skiing etc it would cause pain as the foot would pressure on that side and the foot 'crunch up' (?) and/or maybe try slide to the outside of the shoe/boot.... CORRECTIVE footbeds completely cured the problem.

And I've taken those footbeds to my new Atomic Hawx boots and the issue is still NO MORE.

A properly skilled bootfitter with Podiatry knowledge and qualifications sounds like what you need...

It could be an issue with your footbed. I know some people find when they get a footbed put in it some times aggravates the issue and makes foot pain worse. You could switch out your stock liners for a better quality liner like Intuition as they are heat moldable and really help with the comfort of your boot. Either way it might be a good time to head back to the bootfitter as it really could be caused from a number of fit issues.

You know it makes sense.

Thanks for all the comments folks. Been an odd day - my wife had a fall a couple of days ago and wasn't feeling any better so today was mostly spent in hospital waiting rooms. Turns out she's damaged her neck and has been told not to ski for a week. Went to get a refund on her ski pass and while I was there had a wee look into the shop. Came out an hour or so later with new custom foot beds and a pair of Tecnica Mach 1 130 boots. Same fitter as before. He's super confident that these will work for me, but wants me to ski tomorrow for a few hours before he blows the shells. I think tomorrow is going to hurt.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

That ski shop must have massive windows wink

Hope the new boots will fix the problem - and I hope your wife is OK.

A snowHead

An update - the Tecnica boots have eliminated the fore foot pain! Initially I also thought they'd trashed my skiing, as my left ski seemed to develop a life of its own, twisting in constantly on hard pack. Because I had new boots on I was fixated on what the boot problem could be. Eventually it dawned on me that the skis might be the problem. Sure enough, swapping over the left and right skis and problem disappeared. Must have had a bad rag on the right edge of one ski. Got them serviced last night (same shop yet again) and skied much better today.

One difference is that I've found myself in the back seat a lot, takes conscious effort to get my weight forward. Guess I just need to get used to the new boots.

A snowHead

That all sounds good.

If they are stiffer, or slightly more upright, you will just have to allow for this.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I'm currently getting used to a more upright and softer boot as a dedicated off piste boot. It's taking me several days to adjust my balance but yesterday was better.

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Foot pain - is this a daft idea?

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