In praise of my Nordica boots

My current pair of Nordica NXTs must have been designed in 2015, if not earlier. I have used them 5 seasons, skied on them 529 days, about 1500 hours and logged 8.97 million vertical feet on them. 

Through all this, this pair of boots has been the very best I’ve ever skied on. That, to me, is quite impressive; no other ski boot has delivered so much satisfaction in my entire life! 

So a week or so ago, I thought it might be time for me to check out what was new and better at the Park City Ski Swap. Since the rest of my weekend was consumed with leaves raking and mulching, I could only getaway to see what was left of the inventory a couple of hours before the event was coming to an end. 

I didn’t see anything exciting that would warrant my considering switching ski boots, yet I just took the time to step into a pair of Lange that felt so uncomfortable on my feet that I left the place at once. 

When I got back home, I looked at my beat-up Nordicas and the only thing really close to clinical death were its sole inserts. The heels were completely chewed-up and the so important low friction pads at the toe were split and pierced in ways that looked deplorable on boots owned by a former executive at Look bindings! 

I just couldn’t skis on boots that were so wrecked, yet after I put them on, they still fit me so snugly and firmly that I couldn’t see absolutely any intelligent reason to replace them. I then checked where I could find a replacement set of inserts and after searching for a while, I got them at our local Surefoot store.

So, $50 later and after removing the worn-out inserts, I was back in business and my beloved pair of ski boots suddenly resurrected from their "near-death" status!