Andrea and I came in here to rent skis a couple of weeks ago. I did a bit of whining about the rental boots, which weren't outstandingly comfortable for me (no shock--I'd never skied in a boot that didn't hurt my feet). After talking a bit with the folks in the rental area, they convinced me to go upstairs and try on some boots. I'd been wanting to get my own equipment for a while anyway, so they didn't have to do much convincing.
They said they had the best boot-fitting department in the Killington area; I was a bit skeptical, because of course they would say that. However, my personal experience with them was definitely good--if there are better ski boot fitters in the area, they're really quite good.
I talked to Rand a bit. He measured my foot in a couple of different ways, and picked out a few boots he thought would be close to my foot's shape. One set of boots really seemed to fit nicely, and after a bit of back and forth, I decided to buy them. The price was okay; I'm pretty sure I could have saved fifty bucks if I went somewhere else. But the reason I'm giving these guys the five stars is how it went after the sale.
First, they tried to talk me into getting custom inserts before I left the store, but I was skeptical that I'd need them, and wanted to try the boots without. The reason they gave was that I have high arches, which is certainly true. So Andrea and I skied a day at Killington, and had a really good time, but my feet weren't entirely happy. The boots definitely fit me better than any rentals I'd tried, but they weren't completely comfortable.
So I decided to get the custom inserts; we went back to the shop, and this time Ray did most of the work, because Rand was off for the day. Ray got out the machine, used it to measure the contour of my foot and shape a rubber insert appropriately. He also wanted to do some modifications to the boot to make more room for my ankle bone, where I had a bit of chafing from the day's skiing. He said to come back in an hour or so. He warned me that it was a busy time of day, so it might take longer than that, and that turned out to be the case--we had to wait around a bit when we got back.
This is a consequence of the amount of attention they give to people--Ray was completely focused on the person he was helping, and so were the other two people working. When he was done with the person he was helping, he came right back over to me and gave me the same focus, making sure the inserts fit and giving me advice on how to buckle the boot properly, so that it would hold my foot but not squash it. And he used a plumb line to check my stance, and did some adjustments to the boot with an allen wrench, which actually made a huge difference.
I didn't get to ski again until the next week; that day Andrea and I decided we wanted to demo some skis we were interested in, because there was a big sale going on (it's the end of the season, everything must go, etc.). Basin had both models I wanted to try, and both models Andrea wanted to try, so we went back, and I got the Fire Arrows to try out in the morning. We skied about five runs together, and my right arch was absolutely killing me, so we decided to take a break and try another set of skis (no extra charge).
I got a pair of Atomic skis, and Andrea got her skis, and we went back and skied the rest of the day. I had no further problems with my feet. I had a great time on the Atomic skis, and decided to buy them; when we were done with that transaction, I went upstairs to talk to the boot guys; Rand was there, along with another guy whose name I didn't get. They listened to my tale of woe from the morning's skiing, and decided to use a machine they have there to measure my stance. It's a big sensor that you stand on, and it measures how much pressure is coming down across a broad area.
Even though it was my right foot that was hurting, they decided that the main problem was with my left foot, and they adjusted the shim on the left a bit. Then they made a minor adjustment to the shim on the right, and adjusted the boot a bit more.
So we got to ski again the day before yesterday, and I had absolutely no foot pain at all. This is a real revolution for me--I've always enjoyed skiing, and just endured the foot pain as part of the experience. It's quite surprising and nice to be able to ski without any pain.
The reason I told this long, involved story is that I suspect a lot of people who have foot pain from skiing don't know what sort of process would be involved in doing something about it. There was a substantial time investment involved in this process. But the outcome has been really fantastic. Everybody in the boot shop at Basin took their time and made sure that I got the fit I needed. There was never any sense that they felt I was wasting their time, or being a big complainer. They just made it happen. read more