please recommend a good XCD boot that comes in low volume women's last

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teleclub
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please recommend a good XCD boot that comes in low volume women's last

Post by teleclub » Wed Dec 27, 2017 3:16 pm

please recommend a good stiff XCD boot that comes in low volume women's' last

Tall order maybe.
My ski partner has a new size 38 pair of Rossi BCX12 she loves. But the toe box crams her right lateral toes after the first 100 yards of skiing. She spends some time getting the heel back too.

She says the toe box is long enough and it's only the outside toes getting smashed so I'm thinking 1) it's not that she's in too small a BCX12 size but that the BCX12 has too narrow a toe box. Meantime the instep strap is snugged ALL the way down to prevent heel lift, so 2) it's too high a volume boot and she needs a low volume boot.

That surprises me since I have a small volume foot and my size 43 BCX12 instep doesn't need to snug all the way down and the boot doesn't feel high volume to me at all.

So maybe it's a last problem: she tells me a women's last has a wider toe box and narrower heel, usually low volume, and accounts for ankle bones (medial and lateral malleolus) that are lower in women than men. This final part means that BCX12 padding meant to hold down the ankle bones and prevent heel lift, is probably too high and her heel lifts a distance before her ankle bones reach the padding.

Help out a guy who's usually been fine with what ever size they have at the ski swap, but who now needs to find a very specific fit.

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connyro
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Re: please recommend a good XCD boot that comes in low volume women's last

Post by connyro » Wed Dec 27, 2017 6:13 pm

My female ski partner had some trouble getting XCD boots to fit her wide/low volume feet as well. She ended up going with the female version Excursion (called 'Femme' I believe with a lower cuff) She first tried a size too big thinking they would better fit her for width but ended up going with her normal size and added footbeds to take up extra volume. The Excursions generally seem to accommodate wide feet. They might be a little overkill for some people's definition of XCD however.



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teleclub
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Re: please recommend a good XCD boot that comes in low volume women's last

Post by teleclub » Wed Dec 27, 2017 7:52 pm

connyro wrote:My female ski partner had some trouble getting XCD boots to fit her wide/low volume feet as well. She ended up going with the female version Excursion (called 'Femme' I believe with a lower cuff) She first tried a size too big thinking they would better fit her for width but ended up going with her normal size and added footbeds to take up extra volume. The Excursions generally seem to accommodate wide feet. They might be a little overkill for some people's definition of XCD however.
thanks Connyro, she has a pair of Garmont Priestess NTN wms boots she chose for fit--do you think the Garmont last is similar enough that the same mondo point would fit?



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connyro
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Re: please recommend a good XCD boot that comes in low volume women's last

Post by connyro » Thu Dec 28, 2017 6:13 pm

teleclub wrote:
connyro wrote:My female ski partner had some trouble getting XCD boots to fit her wide/low volume feet as well. She ended up going with the female version Excursion (called 'Femme' I believe with a lower cuff) She first tried a size too big thinking they would better fit her for width but ended up going with her normal size and added footbeds to take up extra volume. The Excursions generally seem to accommodate wide feet. They might be a little overkill for some people's definition of XCD however.
thanks Connyro, she has a pair of Garmont Priestess NTN wms boots she chose for fit--do you think the Garmont last is similar enough that the same mondo point would fit?
I don't really know but I don't think they are very similar. I can't back that up currently, but I'm pretty sure the Garmont NTN line was entirely new molds and don't necessarily fit like the older 3-pin boots.



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teleclub
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Re: please recommend a good XCD boot that comes in low volume women's last

Post by teleclub » Wed Jan 10, 2018 3:00 pm

Just a followup to let you know Rossi BC-X12 boots (and probably similar Fischers or Alpinas) can get stretched at the bootfitter.

I wouldn't have thought a non-shell boot like this could benefit from stretching/punching. The toe box is just layers of vinyl and rubber glued together. I called Skimo company in SLC/Cottonwood hts to see if they had any ideas and they said sure they'd be willing to try their boot stretching methods on them. She reported a significant difference in lateral width at the toe and no longer needs to find another boot. Thanks Skimo Co. This is good because there is not a lot of choice in 75mm boots in this class.

Probably good I chose a BC/touring oriented bootfitter because I'm not sure an alpine bootfitter would have been interested.

I'm still on the lookout for an Excursion in her size (probably 25, that's her Priestess NTN boot size). She has a T4 but you all have said the Excursion is enough softer than the T4 that maybe she'd like it. She's not crazy about the T4 but that has to do with her shins' sensitivity to cuff edges and boot-tongue edges.



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Re: please recommend a good XCD boot that comes in low volume women's last

Post by lilcliffy » Thu Jan 11, 2018 8:44 am

Alpina's 1575 is made in a women's last- though perhaps not as supportive a boot as the BCX12...

If the 1575 fit her better- it will likely still be more comfortable, supportive and responsive than the BCX12. I would think the primary difference in the boots is the instep strap on the BCX12.
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teleclub
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Re: please recommend a good XCD boot that comes in low volume women's last

Post by teleclub » Thu Jan 11, 2018 11:21 am

Good to know. I'll look for the Alpina BC 1575 in a woman's model.

We have new snow and will be doing some BC touring using her newly stretched boots to see if it solves the problem.

She's using these mainly on two skis where she may need the BCX12's stiff sole and good support. One is the Hok 125 which is pretty wide and she needs some boot support for turns in deep soft snow (she also had T4s but doesn't like 'em). The other is her 160cm 85-65-75 fairly stiff single camber ski with steel edges she uses with skins for climbing trails or snow-closed canyon roads, either in soft snow or varied refrozen icy conditions. At best it can be like Low-Angle Al's logging road descents with nice turning opportunities so she needs a supportive boot with stiff sole. At worst, which is more usual, she mainly needs to be able to do strong snow plows to cope with steeper parts. That requires the support and stiff sole too, for her.

This is why I've thought the BCX12 is the minimum boot she can get away with. The BCX12 is an upgrade from her first generation Snowfields, so she's not tried many different boots.



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