Rear heel lifting on double hard shells - yes or no?

[Patmaster]

For years I was advised to lift the rear heel (3-5mm approx.) on my double hard shells (Fogmans). I now wonder if this is good or bad for avoiding too much pressure on my back foot? Pros seem to be divided. Anyone able to elaborate why would it be good or bad?

[Horton]

3-5 mm is not a lot. I would try both ways and just ski the way that feels best. Generally I do not believe in heel lifts but what you are talking about is pretty mild.

[Wish]

I think u will find opinions based on personal preference. Ive been building my own hard shells for 10 yrs now. Always elevated the back heel of rear boot. Front boot heel is also elevated slightly but back boot more. To me the roller blade boots with the blades removed do not sit the way they are designed when placed flat on a surface like a ski. When placed back on the blades, the heels are slightly elevated above the ball of the foot. When flat on a ski the opposite is almost the case. I've gone through many design ideas over the years and elevated heels with basically roller blade type boots just works for me.

[Patmaster]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I found that most hard-core hardshell skiers have a sort of a heel lift (fixed). It is different of course with Powershells and the spring mechanism. And what about rotation? Front, rear, both? Should be pretty hard to ski with hard shells straight, but one never knows - we're here to learn. Generally I found that most people don't rotate the front boot and some rotate both. Rear is almost always rotated outwards. I rotate both. Just reduced rear boot rotation recently to try - my shin started to hurt, hitting the boot differently!

[lpskier]

Left toe (front) .25 in right of center; heel .50 in. left of center. Right toe (rear) .75 in. right of center, heel .50 in. left of center.

[Patmaster]

So you rotate both boots clockwise. Interesting. Particularly the front!