Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

Hey All,

I'm wondering if anyone has thoughts about what might be causing the frankly severe ankle pain in one of my very un-broken-in Alico Ski March boots. The other boot is completely perfect. Perhaps you've experienced something similar before.

The pain is on the anterior aspect of my left medial malleolus (front part of the bump on the inside of my ankle). I have some ideas about what could be causing it:

1. The tongue on my left boot always migrates laterally and ends up on the outside of my ankle. This is different from the right boot, where the tongue stays centered. This could either make the leather bend in a weird way or cause pain because the back side of the metal rivets that hold the lace hooks in place contacts my ankle.

2. My binding mount was slightly off center on the left ski. This leaves my left heel little bit more over my outside edge, compared to my right foot. The difference is less than a cm and I don't really notice it when I'm kicking & gliding.

What else could it be? I've tried softening up the part of my boot that contacts my medial malleolus but it doesn't seem to offer much respite (although I am still really sore, so it's hard to tell). Is it possible I just need to give it time/grit my teeth through the early days?

If you have an opinions on how to break these, I'd love to hear it; nothing jumped out to me as great strategy for this on the old lilcliffy tread about these boots.

p4l

I spent a month on 2 mile dog walks, just walking. You should not hurt like that. I think you should heal first, then start walking in those boots, trying to find a problem.
You cowboy thru getting winded, and climbs and such.stick a twig thru your hand, spit on and keep going. However boots hurting your feet will only cause damage that will take time to heal. Hopefully heal.

between trail running races, skinning up on skis, and skiing down, for me its not a matter of IF something hurts, its a matter of how many things hurt and what kind of pain it is. pain that is acute that is causing more damage needs to be corrected, eg. running on a badly sprained ankle. pain that somewhat acute but fits the "annoying" category, like an irritated SI joint, is something you deal with. blisters and a strained rib muscle are my current pain points, but are annoying and at least blisters can be taped. you need to decide what kind of pain you feel in your ankle. is it stiff boots that need to be broken in..and requires some tolerance for awhile? or are the boots impacting the mechanics of bones/muscles that will lead to nagging injuries. btw, if the tongue is not staying put, would some strategic velcro help?

thanks y'all i might give the the walking a try. it's weird how perfectly the other boot fits. like a dream

The tongue shift on the left boot could be the culprit. I'd try to find a way to at prevent it, either by lacing the boot differently or even using some double-faced tape to hold the tongue against the boot in a better position.
After a time, the tongue should continue to hold that position without the tape.
Secondly, are you using any kind of footbed? You might have more pronation on that foot than the other that is aggravated by the boot. A good arch-supporting footbed or even a pronation wedge under your heel might help.
Finally, try cutting a piece of molefoam and sticking it over the lace rivets and see if that also helps.

@colonel_sandbag Well I would like to blame the Colonel, but it was all my fault. I said,”I wish I knew why he had a problem with one boot”?
So I had a lean snow year last year, however the trail skiing was fun, so I trail skied. I don’t know if I put on my Ski March at all last year. If I did, it was once early. Fast forward to Fat Tuesday and it was Phat! A good 12” of blower pow, finally taking a ski out that has been sitting for a ridiculously long period of time. I pull into a civilized park that I ordinarily avoid, however it has the biggest, steepest, downhill that I know in easily more than 100 miles. To make it better, they put closed to skiing sawhorses in front of the trail. I recently skied it a week after a snow, and it was untracked. Which is as it should be, as the hoards ski on junk recreational equipment which is all that is available in brick and mortar stores. Sorry as I “drifted”, pun intended.
So I’m pretty excited to get rolling. I never had problems with the Ski March, but I did notice it was a bit difficult to tighten. I started ski and noticed what I would describe as a bit of a pinch, just forward of my inner ankle bone. I ignored it. I skied about three miles, breaking trail, and decided to tighten the boots and check out the pinch in the right boot. I also noticed the tongue had slid toward the outside on my left foot. Since the left foot wasn’t broke, I didn’t fix it. My right foot seemed to have an issue with how the thin leather fold and the tongue interfaced. On my second attempt I pulled the fold outside the tongue and shoved the tongue a bit to the outside and that took care of the problem. Although I am pretty diligent about leather treatment on my boots I did notice the inside of the tongue was dry and stiff. I will see if the Zamberlan will condition and soften it. If not I will find something that will.
Going forward I will not “wish I knew” why someone else is having a problem. However I guess I’m lucky, for a bit of discomfort I have learned two valuable lessons!

Yeah, the tongue could be the culprit, I just had the same problem with one foot with T4s and it was a seam on the tongue that fell right on my ankle bone. After extended use it did become very sensitive but after trimming the seam that was contacting the ankle bone pain went away immediately.

From my perspective, this is because one foot has a slight malformation. I know many people who are struggling with this problem, so you are not the only one. Trust me. This problem is solvable. There are a lot of companies on the market that offer orthopedic shoes or devices. For example, I worked for quite a while with the guys from https://dunbarmedical.com/product-categ ... king-boot/ ,and I know that every problem is solvable. I hope that my message will cheer you up a bit.

Volumetric issue? Possibly worth investigating if left foot has lower volume, or left boot has higher volume. Super thick socks on the left foot, or doubling up on socks, may help troubleshoot; and if so, can play with boot boards for a more permanent solution.

Probably I am wrong, but it's worth ruling out the possibility.

The pain is probably caused by purely mechanical action on the joint and muscle.This happened to me when I took my workout a bit too far. Probably put my foot in the wrong position when I did my exercises, or maybe I had the wrong kind of shoes… I ended up having these pains for a month and I couldn't resume my training! Then my doctor advised me some medicinal cannabis-based products. Very good for pain relief, he said. I usually try to get them at www.healthcanal.com/coupon/cbdfx since they often provide discount coupons. Gradually, the pain went away, so I guess that helped. But apart from that, you should look into changing your shoes, as they obviously aren’t doing you any favors.