Jay,

I see from your sig that you are in Wellesley. I have a simple
recommendation. Call Bob Smith's Wilderness House in Brookline and ask
for an appointment with Gordon Hay. He is their bootfitter, and he is
excellent. He does bootfitting for local college ski teams (Harvard
and MIT, I believe). His knowledge of anatomy and foot mechanics is
unsurpassed. He also works with a local sports podiatrist, Rick
Cullen, who does podiatry for the Boston Celtics.

Gordon can make you a real custom footbed, for starters. You
shouldn't pay attention to people who tell you not to get a custom
footbed - they're probably telling you that because they can't make
them! A custom footbed will run you $100 or so, but it's worth it. You
also shouldn't pay ANY attention to "best X" awards given out by Ski
Magazine. Ski Magazine can kiss your ass. They are liars whose real
constituency are ski resorts and ski companies, not skiiers.

I have had EXACTLY the same problems you mention - agonizing toe and
arch pain. This was even after Gordon had made me the foot bed. He
told me that the reason was my Morton's toe - the longer middle toe than
big toe. That's why I asked you about it. That not only causes
pronation, but can also cause a neuroma and swelling. That's where the
pain comes in - big time. I bet it's also worse when the weather's
warm, right?

Gordon told me that the underlying condition needed to be resolved by
a podiatrist in my regular shoes, and there were limits to what boot
adjustments alone could do. But he added extra bumps on the footbeds
and blew out a bulge on the sides of my boots, to give the foot more
room. He charged me nothing for this. I've felt better since.
Better balance inside my boots (not weighting the front part of the foot
so much) seems to have helped as well.

Dave