This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (July 1)
Amazing Andes Skiing, Boot Fitting, Sniagrab Gone Forever?
Four pro skiers at the tippy top of somewhere in the Andes.
Credit: GoPro
This week we continue our summer theme of “remembering snow” with a truly incredible video clip from GoPro. Featuring four pro skiers, GoPro takes them into the high Chilean Andes and drops them via helo and off they go. Worth a watch if you are trying to beat the heat.
Also, we are lucky to have boot fitting expert Steve Hines give us some clear and useful tips on getting the right size hiking boots. Some of his tips are pretty nuanced, but if you miss them when you buy boots, you can be in for some uncomfortable steps. Incidentally, this post was shared quite extensively already on Facebook.
Our ace correspondent Harriet Wallis marks the passing of Sniagrab, a Salt Lake City Labor Day tradition that is or rather was a pivot point in a skier’s year. What’s Sniagrab? Read on.
Finally the results of our latest survey on how you read SeniorsSkiing.com. These results surprised us. We didn’t think so many people read our online magazine on a Smartphone! Useful to know.
- Laptop 18.5%
- Smartphone 33.3%
- Desktop 33.3%
- Tablet 14.8%
Check our new poll in the right column which asks if you’ve taken advantage of your SeniorsSkiing.com Promotive discount yet. Our Spring Subscriber Survey 2016 confirmed—once again—that our readers want discounts. Promotive is one source for you; the other is Liftopia. And check out the 20 percent discount offered to our readers by Vail Realty. Hey, we listen.
Thanks for reading SeniorsSkiing.com. Remember, there are more of us every day, and we aren’t going away.
GoPro: Let Me Take You To The Mountain
Heli-Skiing In Chilean Andes With Breathtaking Lines.
Lynsey Dyer high fives the helo on an awesome run in the Andes.
Yes, it’s summer and the snow is gone. Not in Chile. As you may be aware, the resort at Portillo received nine feet of snow earlier in June. Nine feet!
So, we decided to follow up with an awesome video from GoPro, the versatile mini video camera company that shot this production at 13,000 in the Andes back in 2013. We follow four pro skiers on a number of exhilarating runs through snow fields in the high country. Lynsey Dunn, Chris Davenport, John Johnson, and Travis Rice really haul down some truly challenging and dangerous territory. Scary to us, but obviously, cup of tea to them.
Why/h0w do they do it? As Lynsey says in the 10-minute video, “You put your time in enough, and these places that a lot of people think are so dangerous become comfortable.”
Indeed. Fun to watch, though. Click on any of the pics or here to watch.
Have you heli-skiied? Tell us.
Four pro skiers at the tippy top of somewhere in the Andes.
Credit: GoPro
Woweee. Lynsey Dyer having a blast in a Chilean snowfield.
Credit: GoPro
Boot Fitting Tips As Hiking Season Heats Up
An Expert Provides Advice On Right Fit for Hiking Boots.
As hiking season gets in full swing you may be considering new boots for your upcoming adventures. In the thirteen years I’ve been helping people choose hiking footwear, I’ve gathered four critical tips to share:
- Length
- Width
- Volume
- Shape
Length – Two lengths are important. A) the heel to toe measurement that we think of as our “size”. Manufacturers size their products according to that length. And B) the heel to ball length also referred to as the arch length.
Consider the size of the foot in Figure 1. This illustration shows two feet which are the same length, but each require different size boots. There are different fittings for short-arched and long-arched feet. Proper boot fitting incorporates not only overall length (heel-to-toe measurement) but also arch length (heel-to-ball measurement). Boots are designed to flex at the ball of the foot. Correct fitting properly positions the ball joint in the boot and provides room for the toes so they are not confined.
Once you’ve chosen a boot, check the length by untying the boot, shove or kick your toe into the toe of the boot and slide your finger down behind your heel as shown in Fig.2. You need a finger’s width between the heel of the boot and the heel of your foot for the boot to be long enough.
Width – The measure of the boot across the forefoot is indicated by letters A through E. Very wide widths are indicated by multiple “E’s”, as in double E or triple E. Fig 3 shows where width is measured. Medium width for a man is a “D” and for a woman it’s a “B”.
Volume – The measure of the boot around the forefoot has no alpha-numeric indicator (and neither does your foot). Fig. 4 shows the location of the volume and it is important because too much volume could cause your heel to be continually lifting up causing a heel blister. Too little volume and you’d have problems with your toes.
Shape – Some boots have a slight curve inward from the heel to the toe and some are very straight. Like volume, there is no alpha-numeric indicator of shape. Shape is important to prevent pinching or sliding. If the boot pinches in any area as shown in Fig. 5, then the boot may be the wrong shape for you.
Some Additional Tips
- Terms such as narrow, wide, regular, extra wide (and others) may be used by manufacturers to indicate a width size. These terms are not standardized. Ask the footwear retailer or manufacturer to get a specific recommendation on their width sizing.
- Shop at stores that provide service to their customers and have knowledgeable sales people.
- Be sure to have both feet measured. Many people have feet of different sizes. Fit to the larger of the two. Your foot size changes with age, weight changes, and other factors.
- Have boots fitted in the evening if possible, when your feet have expanded.
- If your boots don’t feel right at the time of purchase, they probably will never feel right.
- Take time to fully lace and tie the boot properly and walk around in the boot at the time of try on.
[authors_page role=contributor]