Basement Archaeology: The Radical Rosemount Ski Boot

The Rosemount Fastback Ski Boot

I started skiing when I was about 10 years old. Throughout my youth, my unbelievably patient and supportive Dad, a committed non-skier, would take us to ski areas within easy reach of central New Jersey. I was hooked. Around eighth grade, I got my first new gear.

East Brunswick High School had a very active ski club and a racing team. We would pack 2, sometimes 3 large buses with tenth to twelfth grade teenagers each Friday night and head to Great Gorge (now Mountain Creek) in McAffee, NJ.

In tenth grade, most of my peers had newer equipment than mine, like plastic boots with metal buckles. Mine were an older pair of older leather boots, laced up inside and out. One effect of this was that everyone on the bus knew when we were about 20 minutes away from Great Gorge because that's when I started the labor intensive process of putting on my boots. This required lacing both the inner and outer boots, tightening them with the kind of lacing hook we used on our ice skates, then re-tightening them. By the time we got to the Gorge, I'd already broken a sweat.

My next pair of ski boots were something completely different. Rosemount Fastbacks. When I say completely different, I mean totally unconventional. The Rosemounts had virtually no leather in their construction. They claimed to be the first boot built without leather, and a number of patents were sought around construction details.

Rosemount Ski Boot Construction

The Rosemount shell was rock-hard fiberglass with a hinge to allow bending at the ankle, and another hinge along the back of the boot. That rear hinge supported a door on the side of the boot which would swing out so the foot could enter from the side rather than the top. The door was snapped shut with a two-buckle and steel cable system that kept the boot closed. A rubber gasket around the door, and a fabric snow cuff kept the snow out, mostly.

Forward flex was adjustable by inserting heavy duty "rubber bands" inside the rear of the boot, like its own Achilles tendon. Forward angle was limited by an external screw adjustable bumper and platform system, allowing quick and continuous adjustments.

Another unique feature was the integrated canting system. Canting inserts (cork, I think) could be put in the footbed, and the lateral angle of the shaft and ankle hinge could be varied to suit the skier's needs.

The Rosemount had no inner boot. Fit was achieved using Rosemount's "Red Stuff," a fine silicone-like powder that was literally blown into a number of bladders inside the boot. Special equipment was required for the fitting, and fit could be adjusted by adding or removing Red Stuff. There were also small packets of Red Stuff that fit into pockets in the boot for field fitting.

During this time, skiers were starting to discover the joys of high-back boots. There were strap-on high-back accessories, and Rosemount had a thick plastic accessory that would mount to the top of the boot, inside the snow collar, to provide an additional 3 or 4 inches of height, allowing us the coolness of sitting way back on the skis. Poor technique, but it really looked cool.

When my next pair of boots was purchased, I donated one of my Rosemounts to UVM's Department of Orthopedic Surgery, where the biomechanics of skiing was a hot research topic.