The scant reference to Val D’Or boots in the advert opposite is just about all we know about them, though coming from the 1962 Scottish Ski Club journal we do get a timeline. Meaning Golden valley in French, we assume Val D’Or were/are a French company and note there are a few of their vintage ski and mountaineering boots for sale on the internet. We do know this pair once belonged to Archie MacFarlane of Spean Bridge, Scotland, who was an avid skier. They are what is sometimes called a crossover boot, catering for a time when ski boots and poles were still used for uphill, downhill, along the bottom and over the top but also for the increasingly popular sport of downhill only skiing which came about in Scotland with the arrival of ski tows in Glencoe, Aviemore and Glenshee in the 1960’s. The boots came with a pair of Pedol boot straighteners designed to stop the boot soles from curling in storage. They also made a carrying handle.