When I was handed the giant pair of ugly grey boots, I immediately felt a sense of repulsion, longing for my delicately soft brown ugg boots that were waiting for me back in my hotel room. Ski boots were easily the biggest cause of my ski-related misery on my ski trip; something as simple as the boots can make or break your experience and the discomfort can be enough to ruin your day of skiing. The most annoying thing in my opinion is that the boots may feel fine in the ski school, but the minute you walk a distance them for fewer than five minutes or by the time you get to the top of the mountain, you can be crippled with pain.
So I grabbed my boots, looking at them miserably, the weight of them alone made me dread the thought of putting them on. I walked to the closest bench and set them beside me; glancing around me I could see angry skiers furiously jamming their foot into an unforgiving boot, and other people desperately trying to buckle the straps. And so I decided to try my hand at putting the boots on, and with this I immediately joined the group of people furiously jamming their foot into the boot.
Wriggling my toes around, slamming my foot on the ground, pulling the boot up with every ounce of strength in my body, but to no avail. I’d become convinced that Italian shoe sizes were different and I’d somehow rented a boot two sizes too small, but I had then been informed that I was completely wrong with this opinion. Then, I looked down to see that one of the buckles I was supposed to open, wasn’t open. I put it down to my lack of experience. My foot was then in the boot, buckling them was up next.
Slipping the buckle into the ridge and pushing it down seemed like an easy task, but as I was soon to learn, it wasn’t. The two bottom buckles were easy, I slipped the buckle into the ridge and pushed down with ease, which gave me confidence, and so I thought it couldn’t be that bad of a task. They added a little pressure to my foot, but nothing to great. So I moved onto the task of buckling the top of my boot. Managing to get the buckle to reach a ridge was a struggle itself, and so pushing it down was gruelling.
There was a very thin line between the boot being too loose, and the boot being too tight, and for me, that thin line was one the was difficult to reach. As one buckle was tightened, the other was loosened, a game of back and forth. My calves and shins were immediately put under more pressure than I would have expected. I was tempted to loosen them, but I was informed that the looser they are they more at risk I am to break and ankle, and the tighter they are, the more sharp your movements on the slopes would be.
So I made the personal decision that a little pain would be better than a lot of pain if I was to break my ankle. I moved onto the second boot, and it was then that I figured out that there was a loop on the tongue of the boot to pull it forward to aid you in putting the boot on. The second boot was on and buckled a lot easier than the first boot was. I was then due to get my skis and head off to my first day of skiing. Feeling as though all my energy had been wasted on putting the boots on already, I couldn’t see how I was going ski for 4 hours, nor could I see myself putting these boots on two times each day for 5 days.
Standing up and walking was not something I had thought about. It didn’t even cross my mind that it would be such a struggle. So as I stood up and took my first step, I nearly fell over. Feeling as though I was learning to walk again, each step I took was a careful as the next. I was most definitely sure that ski boots were made solely for skiing, and not walking, and in particular not walking down steps. The ski boots had your knee locked in a slightly bent position at all times, and so walking down the few steps I had encountered during the week were an endeavour.
Walking in ski boots was a slow process, and running was something that I most definitely would not have attempted. The boots weighed your whole body down, and suddenly being able to lift your leg above the level of your knee was a thing of the past and something that I couldn’t even make an attempt at anymore. Walking up beginner slopes with ski boots was a backbreaking process. On the first day of walking up beginner slopes, I kept convincing myself that all this hard work would be worth it as I would have toned legs at the end of the week.
Taking the boots off was much easier than putting them on, and I looked forward to the moment at the end of the day when I would be fortunate enough to take the boots off, every time I put them on. The buckles came out of the ridges with ease, and I could pull the boots easily and eagerly. Feeling in my calves and feet quickly returned after I took the boots off. I’m now home and I’m comfortably wearing the ugg boots I longed for so much and although I miss the days of skiing I had, the one thing I do not miss is the gruelling task of putting on ski boots, and manoeuvring myself around in them
