Punching Out Ice Climb/Mountaineering Boots for Wide Feet/Bunions.

Just wanted to make a post here to help those searching for info in the future.

I've been having recent trouble with a Tailor's Bunion starting to form on my right foot. In general I have wide feet and years of cramming them into tight rock shoes, ice boots, and ski boots have finally started to have an effect on my feet.

Short of getting surgery the recommended treatment is to wear wider shoes/boots to slow the progression of the bunion's formation. If you have wide feet you know how hard it can be to find accommodating footwear as most mountain sports brands seem to make footwear for relatively thin feet.

After trying on a bunch of different brands of mountaineering boots and not finding a solution I decided to see if my local ski-boot fitter (Stan & Dan's in North Conway, NH) would have any luck punching out my current LS G-Tech Ice Boots.

I was half expecting to get turned away or for there to be some complication with the internal boa system but they didn't even blink when I brought them in. I've had them punched twice now and it's made a world of difference for my feet. 

If you are ever in the North Conway area I can't recommend these guys enough, but if not I would recommend checking with your local bootfitter to see what they can do. You might be surprised!

I had to swap from Phantom Techs to G-Techs for basically the same reason,  the BOA offered alot more adjustability. 

my normal boot stretcher with bunion knob didn't help as much as I had hoped 

I had the same issues since last season, my sportiva's are too narrow for my R toes. I've found doing toe spreads and then pinky toe spreads with some resistance also helps a lot

Noah Robert wrote:

Just wanted to make a post here to help those searching for info in the future.

I've been having recent trouble with a Tailor's Bunion starting to form on my right foot. In general I have wide feet and years of cramming them into tight rock shoes, ice boots, and ski boots have finally started to have an effect on my feet.

Short of getting surgery the recommended treatment is to wear wider shoes/boots to slow the progression of the bunion's formation. If you have wide feet you know how hard it can be to find accommodating footwear as most mountain sports brands seem to make footwear for relatively thin feet.

After trying on a bunch of different brands of mountaineering boots and not finding a solution I decided to see if my local ski-boot fitter (Stan & Dan's in North Conway, NH) would have any luck punching out my current LS G-Tech Ice Boots.

I was half expecting to get turned away or for there to be some complication with the internal boa system but they didn't even blink when I brought them in. I've had them punched twice now and it's made a world of difference for my feet. 

If you are ever in the North Conway area I can't recommend these guys enough, but if not I would recommend checking with your local bootfitter to see what they can do. You might be surprised!

Damn Noah! That’s crazy how far they punched that out! I wanted a pair of G-Techs as an early / late season boot but they just didn’t work. Way too narrow and my foot is not that wide - just over a D which is what most medium width footwear is manufactured. I wish they’d built it on the Nepal last like all the other LaSpo BOA boots! 

Evan Gerry wrote:

I had the same issues since last season, my sportiva's are too narrow for my R toes. I've found doing toe spreads and then pinky toe spreads with some resistance also helps a lot

Just another data point-

I found my left foot growing wider and getting a taylors bunion from cramming into boots. Turns out i lacked eversion from a previous ankle injury and subsequent surgery. So when i would do my band work in that direction my foot would unconsciously spread and i would try to use the pinky toe abductor/extensor to pull more eversion. This eventually started to widen my foot a bit we think.

Bodies are weird.

I also got my sportivas punched and they feel great now. Had to repunch them the next season so bought a cheap shoe spreader on amazon.