Hardboots to alleviate hotspots. & where in N.E.?

[kmartshopper]

Right now, I can carve OK on my softboot setup... as well as most of the decent SOFT BOOT carvers I see, and I love it. I'm using solomon (malimutes-precept167-SFXcarbon).

My observations have been that I...

...can't dig into as firm snow (chalk) as the hard booters.

...can't pull as tight a radius.

...have bone growth on the rear of my heel now from pressing into rear of boot on toesides carves (or hitting hard, rutty moguls on toeside).

My hope is that a hardboot setup would help me carve better, (of course :)), but also would minimize the hotspot on the heel. I think the overall hold and available custom moldability of a hardboot would help this situation.

Just wondering if your experiences agree with my hopes regarding the fit of the hardboots? I am not an ex-skier, and have no experience.

I'm also scared to mail order boots with my terribly narrow heel, but I can't find any gear in the area (VT, MA... maybe ME?) to try on. Should I just resign myself to mail ordering from a shop that will take returns, and just eat the shipping costs?

Thanks for any advice you could offer.

________

Big Tits live

[bobdea]

in bondville VT(I think)

its on the way to stratton they have have Head and Deeluxe boots and are great bootfitters on top of that

[bobdea]

is you have very little drag you can make those freeride decks turn really small

probably the smallest turns I have made have been on a burton canyon 173

followed by my hardboot gear, madd 170 and burton FP 167

given it is allot harder to do on freeride gear

but the deep sidecut and soft flex make for some crazy tight carves if you are up to it