Garmont G-Ride Boot Problems?

Yeah, Martin's great, is he back at Sturtevants full-time? He used to only work enough to get his pro deals.<br><br>Alpine boots usually have an abundance of plastic in the heel, ankle and arch areas - you can grind away a lot and hardly affect the flex. I used to get race boots and grind tons of material away to get a reasonable flex for crud/steep skiing. The G-Ride has a pretty thin shell, and I would be wary about doing much grinding - all my pressure points were pushed out.<br><br>The G-Ride blister thing is unusual in that there is no ostensible pressure or pain while shell fitting, standing or skiing downhill, just when skinning. I can lift ski in them all day, no problem.

This has become quite the interesting thread...when I spoke to the warranty department at Garmont yesterday for suggestions, they claimed that they have heard of no such problems re: these boots. Marmot voiced the same thing.<br><br>I agree that Jim is worth a shot. One friend I tour with, Paul, has an interesting point since he has the Denali XT's with the same G-Fit liner; he indicated that since Scarpa has that 2nd buckle from the bottom situated right at the flex of the boot that this possibly eliminates the potential for any heel lift? He has had no problems with the G Fit liner in terms of hot spots, which could indicate shell issues? If you notice on Garmonts; the lowest 2 buckles are located on the lace-up portion of the foot.<br><br>Anybody tried the new Scarpa Matrix? Word is it's much stiffer than the Laser was; which I found too soft and consequently would throw me in the back seat when skiing crud, etc.

Who did you talk to, Nate Cross? When I pulled the hinge pins out of the lower shells on my GSM's, he claimed he had never heard of that happening either, which I found hard to believe, as I'm not that big. When they switched over to the G-Ride, I noticed that on average they were inserting the pins a little lower in the slot (more plastic over the pin). No problem with the G-Rides so far in that regard.

One other thing I've tried is placing a Velcro strap around the lowest vertical portion of my liners to create a "mini powerstrap" that'd hold down my heel. The results of doing this were inconclusive as I did it for a very short period and now I can't find the straps I used to try it again. It's certainly worth experimenting with more.<br><br>

I too can vouch for the credibility of Jim Mates and Martin Rand. Top notch guys and tons of experience! I've also got to mention Brent Amsbury over at World Cup Skier Service in Bellevue. He's a master of the bootfitting art as well! In my opinion, his footbeds are 2nd to none.

Not quite, Dave. I am skiing Denali XTs with Gfits, but when I tour I keep the top two buckles essentially undone, and the lower two buckles very loosly buckled. My heel moves around quite a bit, which is necessary given the stiffness of the Denali. I have never had so much as a hot spot with these boots and liners, even on really long flat approaches. I suspect that the shell of the garmonts causes the problems. <br><br>From what I've seen the new Scarpa liners are very soft and squishy...I really don't like them. Unfortunately.