Your boots are the key to skiing well. And not what boots you have, but how well your boots fit! Many problems with skiing originate with balance, and most balance problems start in your boots.
Green Mountain Orthotics Lab (GMOL) was founded in 1993 for the purpose of providing the best conservative foot care available in alpine skiing. Specially trained staff focus on alpine skiing bio mechanics, proper boot fitting and custom orthotic adjustments. Green Mountain Orthotic Lab goal is to provide you with the most comfortable, properly aligned, and balanced boot possible.
Every boot sale, footbed sale, or boot fitting begins with a bio-mechanical evaluation. The ankle joint is the most vital joint to understand when doing this. What we examine is ankle joint dorsiflexion. Too much dorsiflexion and you will be over flexed, which means you do not have room to flex forward while you are skiing. Too little and you are skiing in the back seat. With proper heel or toe lifts and forward lean angles set, then your stance will be balanced. A minority of skiers have perfectly aligned legs, the rest of us are bowlegged or knock-kneed. On many boots the adjustment for this is inappropriately labeled as a cant adjustment, but the goal is to align the boot cuff to the shaft of the leg and we use special tools and techniques to determine just how much cuff alignment you need. Once the boot cuffs are properly adjusted, we perform a cant evaluation.
For the most efficient alignment for skiing, the knees should be slightly in (never bowed). To achieve this, the boot soles can be ground to the correct angle or cant shims can be installed under the binding on the ski. However, we have found that certain models of boots work better for certain body types, and if you are willing to go the distance and get the correct boot/ski setup, then a cant adjustment is often not necessary. But if it is, we are experts.
In fact, GMOL builds and sells equipment for sole planning and grinding to other ski shops. We are also experts in molding and fabricating custom insoles. A custom insole will align your feet so the bones of your feet and legs are aligned properly and the tendons are relaxed and not straining to support the body. This means more time riding or skiing with less fatigue and sore spots.
GMOL boot techs are among the most accomplished in the industry. They live and breathe snowsports—and ski and snowboard boots. In addition to bootfitting at GMOL, they are immersed in the snowsports scene, testing boots for Ski and Skiing Magazines and teaching boot fitting techniques to other shops at Masterfit University, serving as PSIA examiners and teaching skiing. At GMOL all our bootfitters are current or former ski instruction professionals. We don’t just talk the talk, we actually walk the walk. So come visit us today!
