I normally practice traditional-style cross-country skiing: it's much easier on my feet than the skating style and it doesn't require as much lateral control (primer on traditional and skate skiing here).

But since last winter, I've been trying to make skating work for me. It's not easy though: controlling the skis is sketchy with shortened feet, and it really hurts when the boots put too much pressure on the side of my residual big toe bones.

For the upcoming season, I decided to make the time to go to my local XC ski specialist and try to find boots that work for me. Luckily for me, the nice store owner is very accommodating and didn't mind spending 3 hours going through his entire inventory to find something that would work for me.

And I did find a good pair: I got me very nice, stupendously expensive 2023 Madshus Race Pro Skate boots: they're wider than they look, the sides that press on my toe bones are fabric instead of hard plastic or some other inflexible material, and the boots are quite stiff - at least for someone with toes. I didn't mean to spend that much, but they really were the only pair that didn't hurt me and looked promising for better lateral control.

And then I proceeded to Dremel away and drill through my brand new, completely unused overpriced new boots ☹️ I installed stiffening bars under the soles so I can kick properly, but in this case, also control the skis adequately enough to avoid falling all the time.

Here is the result:

I used the same method to modify those shoes as the one I used on my old - much cheaper - traditional-style XC ski boots. But I didn't even have to bend the ends of the steel bars to install them on the Madshus boots, so it was quite a bit easier to do this time.

Still, it really hurts to pay that much money for a nice pair of boots and immediately take power tools to them. It sucks that I have to do this to enjoy myself on the track like everyone else.

Now that it's done, I'm happy that it went well and I can't wait for the first snow to come. But that moment when you start trashing brand new products, with no guarantee that you're not going to ruin them completely... boy that stings.

As soon as the snow comes - next Thursday according to the weather forecast - I'll know whether skating is hopeless or not for someone with no toes, and whether I spent half a biggie on something I'll never use again. Stay tuned 🙂