help the modern bindings to release when you want them to. The
winter of 1979-80, my first season teaching skiing, two ski-boot
manufacturers went too far (Nordica and Dolomite) building boots
all the way up to your knee, instead of just over half-way up: they
blew out a lot of knees that winter, and it only took them that one
season to quit making ski boots that high.
So ski boots that are just a bit taller than they are long . . . has
pretty much been the norm since the late '70s and early '80s. (This
is still true even now in 2010; and I noticed on TV just the other day
a World Cup racer was disqualified for having his boots just one-
millimeter too high). The no-nonsense front-entry four-buckle boot
has been my favorite ever since I can remember, and this will
probably continue to be the case---there could be an extra velcro
strap that almost serves as a simple fifth buckle around the upper
part of the inner boot. Whereas, in the old days, ski boots were just
one bulky piece each, the best ski boots of modern times have al-
ways been a two-piece set-up, a bullet-proof outer plastic shell with
the main buckles . . . and an inner-boot that can be easily worked
with or even replaced. A lot of skiers don't realize it, but, when a
boot gets too soft, just putting some new inner-boots in the same
old outer shell will stiffen them up again. About the only thing that
will wear out the outer shell is instructors standing around on con-
crete too long waiting for lessons---this puts wear-n-tear on the
bottom soles, which can raise havoc with the boot fitting properly
in the bindings,---but they even make rubber-soled devices that can
go on the bottom of the shell to give you better traction when not
skiing and to prevent the wear-n-tear.
(Oh, there have been fads like rear-entry one-piece boots with
mysterious steel-cables and turnbuckles inside of them replacing
normal exterior buckles, but no-nonsense four-buckle boots have
proven superior for a lot of years. They still try to come up with
gimmicks every year, making the previous years of boots obsolete,
but I don't fall for it. One thing I noticed: they make top-of-the-line
racing boots thinner-and-narrower on the bottom, so that the boot
won't drag in the snow during extreme high-edge-angle carving---
this may be a must for the hardest-core racers, but I don't believe in
this feature for all-around skiers and instructors who care more
about a bulkier boot keeping their feet warm. And, if I see a feature
requiring more parts or engineering than necessary, I tend to stay
Our Bottomless Topic: "How to Turn"---A Preview --- 55
away from it.)
One nice feature I can use: most ski boots have a cant adjust-
ment for the angle your leg rises up to the left or right, to compen-
sate for an initial stance that is either knock-kneed or bowlegged,
and this is a good idea, so that, when the skier is in the neutral
stance, the skis are flat on the snow. Ski shops have a gizmo you
stand on to check whether or not you need canting, or you might be
able to figure it out for yourself standing flat on the kitchen floor in
your ski boots: again, basically, you want your ski boot soles natu-
rally flat on the floor when you stand as you would on your skis
with your feet about hip's-width apart; if you take the width you
prefer and you have to force your boots to be flat, you might feel
pressure on the inside or outside of your leg at the top of each boot,
meaning they need to canted one way or the other. A pair of ski
boots usually comes with a small wrench or screw-driver for the
cant adjustment---you can tinker with it and figure it out. If any-
thing, if you have them canted wrong at all, it is probably better to
have the upper boots canted out a hair too much rather than canted
in, making your inside edges dig in more---it is scarier to have your
outside edges digging in when you don't want them to. Even after
all the measuring in the kitchen or in the shop, you might have to
do the final tinkering after some actual skiing on the mountain: if
you are a decent skier, and you keep crossing your tips, your legs
could be canted out to far; if you keep doing the splits, your legs
could be canted in too far. This cant adjustment is similar to what
they do to the front wheels of your car when you get a front-end
alignment . . . Meanwhile, some boots have adjustments for for-
ward-lean, which I don't believe in when there's a decent forward-
lean already built-in like there should be. Then, it's okay if there is
a simple adjustment for stiffness in the tongue, because there may
be times when you wish you boots were stiffer or softer---and cold
weather makes plastic ski boots stiff, while warm weather makes
them soft.
It's common knowledge that you want your ski-boots on snug
and secure, but I think a high percentage of skiers, experts in-
cluded, get them too tight---they end up experiencing "the agony of
de feet" more than having fun skiing. Just go into any ski-school
locker room (even now in 2010), and you'll see bone-spurs galore,
black-n-blue toe-nails, and you'll witness all kinds of moaning and
groaning and screaming when the instructors hold each other tight
in a full-Nelson to put their boots on in the morning . . . and down
hard on the floor biting on a twig in order to take them off at night,
56 --- Heinsian DOWNHILL SKIING
all in the name of precision boot-fitting---I think it's funny and em-
barrassing.
Let's talk about ski-boot fitting. I am in the minority the way I
feel about ski boots, but I'll let you decide for yourself after you
hear me out. Most ski-shop boot-fitters and pro ski instructors sub-
scribe to this hard-core approach: with a lab-coat and a clip-board,
they take the customer in the back room, they recommend the thin-
nest sock possible, rant-n-rave about custom-fitted orthotic foot-
beds for the bottoms of each foot, then they get the boot on you real
tight, claiming it will "pack-out" and become loose and sloppy after
only thirty-five days skiing. All this can cost you several hundred
dollars, and then they try to convince you the boot will only be
good for a measly thirty-five days, when you would do well to
come back in for a new pair (---old ski boots can be used for lots of
things, like vases for your house-plants). That's the approach an
Olympic racer may need to take for win-or-lose precision; but it's
not necessary for an all-around expert who wants to be comfortable
. . . and not have to take out a mortgage on the house or sell illegal
drugs in order stay in ski boots.
So I don't pretend to be an Olympic racer, and here's how I
approach my own personal ski-boot fitting: I like one pair of thick
wool socks, and I like my boots to be easy to get on and off without
a crowbar; when they are on and buckled, I like my heel to be
down and back real snug in the cockpit, which is important not
only for skiing well but also so that you don't break your ankle, . . .
but I've got to be able to wiggle my toes. A full-time ski instructor
is out in the elements all day long trying to stay warm and com-
fortable---we don't need the rocket-science precision of an Olympic
racer. If I'm skiing with intermediates or beginners, I have my
boots barely buckled; then, when I get an advanced or expert les-
son, I cinch them up tight. Taking the ski-bindings for granted
here, your boot buckles are what I consider to be your cinches---too
lose can be dangerous, but too tight can be miserable.
A lot of you pros out there are going to be flabbergasted, but:
I've gotten to the point where I don't mind shopping for ski boots
in pawn shops and thrift stores. I don't kiss ass or schmooze very
well, so I have never been a ski-boot rep. I have a certain make I
am partial to in a couple of high-end models, even ten years old,
and I can often find them used for ninety-five-or-more-percent off
the normal price, with hardly any miles or wear-n-tear. I get crea-
tive too: you can trade inner-boots, also called bladders or liners,
from one ski-boot shell to another till you get the right feel or stiff-
Our Bottomless Topic: "How to Turn"---A Preview --- 57
ness; you can try a variety of insoles in the shell under the inner
boot or inside the inner-boot or both, which can help the fit and
add warmth. You can experiment any way you want at home by
the fireplace, until you get your ski-boots the way you want them.
I prefer the simple tried-n-true front-entry buckle system that
doesn't require an instruction manual, and I like my inner-boots to
be easily removable for overnight drying---this is a big reason I
wouldn't have a one-piece rear-entry boot. You can get broken
buckles fixed at a ski shop if you aren't handy enough with a rivot-
tool or whatever to do it yourself. Ski boots have become a very
personal thing for me, and I care about mine being right for me,
and I've never had anybody criticize my skiing because my boots
were "too big" or "too old"---they only criticize me in the locker
room when they see that my socks are "too thick." ---I sometimes
use my ski boots for a pillow like a cowboy out on the range sleep-
ing with his saddle.
I used to subscribe to too-tight boot fit when I was younger
and dumber, about my first three years teaching; but, one day
when my left foot started hurting me so bad out on the mountain, I
stopped and pried my boot off to relieve the pain. Now, most ski-
ers notice that ski-boot plastic becomes softer and more pliable in
warm weather, and stiffer in cold weather. Well, after a few min-
utes outdoors there up on the mountain relieving the pain, I almost
couldn't get my boot back on to ski down. In fact, I hurt my foot
even more cramming it back in there; but I wasn't about to call for a
ski-patrol toboggan, me being an expert skier and instructor and
all. Some guys go through that much pain and more every morn-
ing and afternoon in the locker room. I've seen a percentage of in-
structors, and students, lose their big toenail due to lack of blood
circulation. Some the guys who put up with that excruciating pain
day-in-n-day out, year-after-year, have their brain in their big toe, I
swear; and their brain spends most of its time in a coma. . . . (I
wouldn't doubt it if Al Queda and the Taliban are behind all of this
ski-boot torture, and snow-boarding, and laughing their heads off.
Or it could be one the organized religions closer to home, or maybe
our own government, I don't know. Chinese Philospher Sun Tzu's
Art of War has been carefully studied and applied for thousands of
years by more people with power around the globe than most of us
will ever know; these evil-but-powerful people have some of the
most friendly smiles on their face as they stab you in the back, or
talk you into too-tight of ski boots . . . or the shackled mode of
snow-boarding---and I believe they, whoever they are, are respon-
58 --- Heinsian DOWNHILL SKIING
sible for getting snow-boarding to reach The Tipping Point.)
So, again, you can go the normal peer-pressure status-quo
route if you want to; or you can take my approach---I just hope
you're not the same size and make-n-model that I am. Whichever
route you take, find a brand that is congenial to your foot type, as
no ski-boot brand can claim to fit every type of foot. Get yourself
checked for the possibility of needing cant adjustments: severe cant
adjustments may need to be done at the mounting of the bindings,
but most minor cant adjustments can be done nice-n-easy with the
boot. Again, most ski-boots have the right amount of forward-lean
already built-in; but it can be nice to have a simple stiffness adjust-
ment in the tongue of the inner-boot. (I used to get sick of other
more-aggressive ski instructors always trying to convert me to a
new pair of the boots they were repping---they wanted my money
and the clout they would get with the ski-boot manufacturer.) Go
ahead and get the expensive precision-fit orthotic foot-beds formed
by a famous skiing podiatrist with an Austrian accent if you think
you must, but don't be fooled: whereas most will tell you that what
happens at the bottom of the foot is the most important thing, I say
what happens at the top of the boot may be the most important
ingredient, because, again, the ski boot is a lever, and the top of the
boot is the end of that lever, and that lever directly affects what
happens at the bottom of the boot where the ski is.
It's ironic, but one of the biggest hazards of downhill skiing . . .
is walking around the base-lodge in your ski boots: even the best
expert skiers have been known to have their feet fly out from under
them on a wet concrete floor, sometimes even starting an all-out
food-fight if it happens to be in the lodge cafeteria. To prevent that
from happening, and also to prevent wear-n-tear on your boot-
soles, when you don't have time to switch to your snow-boots, get
yourself an accessory pair of rubber soles you can clip to the bot-
tom of your ski-boots. Back about the '80s, I remember an all-rub-
ber pair called CatTracks that stretched on, but a better design
might be the ones that clip-on like a cheap binding.
In my book The Greatest Ski Instructor, the peculiar nuance of
having marble steps leading up to the Roamin' Ski School was done
to show how dangerous and unreasonable they are, The Powers-
That-Ski. Back at college in Bozeman in the late '70s, we used to
have ski-boot races in the dorms wearing nothing but our ski-boots
and underwear---it was a November phenomenon and our ritual-
istic way of getting ready for ski season. The Hedges South and
North dormitories were especially fun because they had a figure-
Our Bottomless Topic: "How to Turn"---A Preview --- 59
eight floor pattern with square corners and the elevator doors in
the middle---you never knew when those elevator doors would fly
open during a race, and half the floors were girls riding those ele-
vators up-n-down. Besides the girl factor, it was dangerous with-
out any pads or helmets---we felt like we were modern-day
gladiators in our ski-boot races, or chariot racers like Charlton
Hesston in Ben-Hur. I wouldn't recommend it now, that silliness,
but it is good idea to put your ski boots on a time or two before ski
season, as kind of a dress rehearsal and to make it so that your feet
aren't in for such a shock the first day skiing---instead of using
them for a pillow, I actually wear them to bed "as a novel night-
cap" a night or two before the first day of skiing, to get my feet bro-
ken in.
The other tricky thing about ski-boots is transporting them, if
you don't have the simplest right tool for the job: a pair of ski boots
can be carried easily with a handle on a piece of cord buckled into
the top flaps (shown in the main equipment photo)---the ski shops
should be known to hand these out like candy. Don't fall for any
other expensive or complicated gimmicks for carrying ski-boots;
this simple fifty-cent handle, carried with one hand, will never let
you down---and, without it, you'll have both arms full.
Never forget: one big reason the shackled mode of snow-
boarding took off like wild-fire in the 1990s (and continues) is that
a high percentage of skiers were sick of having hurt feet from ski-
boots turned into "Medieval torture devices," as one of my col-
leagues at Park City used to say. And, too, the treacherous walking
around the base-lodge has been a factor in people switching to
snow-boarding. When I know I'm not going to be skiing for an
hour or so during lunch, it's easy, with my system, to take the ski
boots off and switch to some soft winter snow-boots for a break: the
old trusty Sorel Caribous and similar snow-mobile boots, with re-
moveable felt liners for drying, are great boots for gadding around
in the winter environment---the lift operators know, and sometimes
they buy an oversized boot . . . that they can get double liners into
for extreme warmth.
. . . Obviously we need ski bindings to hold the ski to the boot-
--or maybe I should say the other way around, depending on who's
taking who for a ride. This won't take much time. You can leave
most of this to the certified binding technicians in the shops, espe-
cially with brand-new bindings; but you could be a do-it-yourselfer
who goes through binding training yourself and not mind tinkering
with old bindings. Besides the proper binding adjustment, or DIN
60 --- Heinsian DOWNHILL SKIING
Setting for your weight and ability level, first you need to have a
binding for your ability level: the smaller and less-skilled the skier,
the less of a binding you need; the bigger and stronger the skier, the
more you need the best binding, but bindings do have a pretty
good range of adjustments. You can look at a Binding Chart in a
ski shop to see what your setting is---it's sort of like knowing your
blood type, only it can change as you change,---but the binding
technicians are like the doctors who turn the screw-driver. . . .
During the off-season, along with the protective wax-job, I always
close my bindings and unscrew them to their lowest setting so that
the springs inside can relax---kind of like unloading the tubular
magazine on your ,30-30 lever-action rifle or 12-gauge pump shot-
gun when you're not going to be using them for a while.
Beginners are more likely to want their bindings to let-go when
there's trouble like a fall; but experts tend to have their bindings
cranked pretty darn tight, as they have more of a priority of staying
in. The last thing an expert wants is a dangerous fall caused by a
ski coming off when it shouldn't, especially when skiing fast or not
wanting to be separated from your skis in dangerously steep ter-
rain. Some beginner bindings come off almost by telekinesis; but it
usually takes a pretty substantial jolt for an expert's binding to
come off. If your binding does not come off when it should, it's
kind of like getting hung-up in a stirrup---you could get drug to
death.
My classic poem "The Craven" is about a fall I took because of
my pre-released binding: I was test riding an expert pair of skis that
happened to have intermediate bindings on them---the shop was
trying to save a few dollars. I knew it was a mismatch, but I skied
on them anyway. The oversight bit me in the butt, as I suffered a
broken humerus that healed back crooked and ruined my golf
game---but I got a great poem out of the deal early in my ski-
teaching career.
I am not in love with a lot of the overkill legislation surround-
ing ski-bindings. Rental-shop employees can theoretically be sued
if they send rental or demo skis out with the bindings too tight and
a customer breaks their leg. Many ski shops won't work on bind-
ings more than five-years-old, because of liability, even though the
bindings may be in perfect condition from sitting in storage with
the springs relaxed---and their own rental-ski bindings may be
more than five-years-old. (That reminds me: not having to be re-
sponsible for proper DIN-setting adjustments on snow-board
bindings is another factor that's made shop workers favor snow-
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boarding over skiing---even though snow-board injuries outnum-
ber ski injuries by a fair margin.) And some ski schools make their
instructors get the bindings on their skis get officially set by the
shop---these instructors have been known to lie about their weight,
saying they are heavier than they really are, in order to get an extra
number or two of tightness on their DIN Setting. Just between you
and me, a lot of expert skiers do a fair amount of their own binding
work, certified to do it or not; and a lot of us go by feel when it
comes to the DIN Setting: if I can't click out of my heel or toe under
my own power standing still, the bindings are probably too tight;
on the other hand, if I keep clicking out of my bindings for no good
reason while free-skiing, they are probably too loose. I just don't
think we always need a whole bunch of new laws to help us figure
things out---studying things, and taking responsibility for them,
goes along way for me. I've noticed over the years, I ski with more
finesse as I get older, and that usually means I don't need my
bindings as tight as when I was younger---but I may be heavier
now, so my DIN setting may still be the same. (That reminds me:
not having to be responsible for proper DIN-setting adjustments on
snow-board bindings is another factor that's made shop workers
favor snow-boarding over skiing.)
All ski bindings since the early 1980s have had ski brakes
incorporated with them, to prevent runaway skis that could kill
somebody. Almost all bindings in the '70s and before, without the
technology of ski brakes, required a leather or nylon retention strap
attached to your ankle. (Instead of relying on ski brakes only, some
extremes skiers are still known to add on old-fashioned retentions
straps on occasion so that they always have their skis with them no
matter what, unless there is over-riding avalanche danger.) The
trouble with the strap method was that your skis stayed with you
during an eggbeater fall, and they could do some serous damage,
like cutting your face---I got in on that for my first few years skiing,
and I was happy when the ski brakes became available. When ski
brakes were new, a few skiers moaned and groaned about having
to hike back up the mountain a few yards to retrieve their skis, but
they soon got over it. If you lose a ski in powder, use your other
ski to probe around for it. (Snowboards have been difficult to de-
sign brakes for, and even though they don't have the luxury of be-
ing able to release like ski bindings, they still require a leash of
some kind. Beware of the snow-boarders who take their board off