Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board At Skinning/Skiing Mountaineer's Route

Agreed, boots are the hardest part to find and probably the most important to get right. Norpine in SD has a couple of Garmont and Dynafit AT boots... not much selection though. Mammoth Mountaineering is your best bet for a shop. Backcountry.com has free shipping and $6.99 returns. If you order a few boots to try out in one order, then I think (check me) that when you return all the ones you don't want the whole return shipping cost is $6.99. Of course the cost of all the boots will go on your credit card until you send them back. I wish Zappos.com sold ski boots.

Scarpa has the widest toe box but I hear a lot of wide-footed people do well with the Dynafit boots and some punching out of the toe done by a good boot fitter, like maybe Footloose in Mammoth.

I did exactly that with my Dynafit boots. I have a medium to wide forefoot. E or EE, I think? It's a little tight on one foot, but not bad enough that I can't deal. Getting it punched out helped a lot.

Garmont did not import as many boots this year as in the past. I got my Garmont Radiums, Dynafits and Seven-Summits at Norpine earlier this year. They worked for me but I have high arched narrow 13's not wides. Good luck.

Dale B. Dalrymple

Thanks everyone.

I think I will head up to Mammoth to try on some boots. At the very least, if I don't find a good deal I at least know what to look for.

Canuck,

My brother just bought a new A/T set-up at Mammoth Mountaineering yesterday. He told me everything in the store is 30% off. (He still managed to spend $1,900.)

Nice! Face it - in SoCal there are too many fun things to do and gear costs money.

I wonder how long the deal will last!

Almost Nothing in SoCal.
There is actually ski shop that specializes in backcountry skis and equipment in San Diego. The shop is called Norpine and has all of the best backcountry ski gear and is a full service shop. The guy who owns and runs the shop is very knowledgeable and all the prices are very reasonable. Right about now, you are probably thinking that it is my shop or a friends or relatives, nope! It is the only shop that I know of down here that has the gear and knows what they are talking about, so as a happy customer, I am simply passing on my recommendation.
He has a pretty good website too.. Norpine.com
Jim (at norpine) can answer any back country ski/boot questions you might have; fit, performance, etc.

Sea2Summit,

Thanks for the idea. An no, don't think you own the shop. Even if you did, I would still welcome the advice. I know that the pickin's are slim in SoCal. The fact that Norpine is open for biz is one small step for the cause.

Thanks for the tip. I will check it out.

Canuck