Winter hiking footwear?

Be sure you wear a vapor barrier liner – VBL – with your (insulated) boots. A VBL is any kind of sox that are TOTALLY waterproof to keep your perspiration from wetting out your boots' insulation. Wet insulation means very cold feet. Wear a thin polyester or polypropelene liner sock under the VBL for max comfort and to keep blisters away. Carry an extra pair of liner sox for the next day. Bring thick wool sox for sleeping. Some VBLs are waterproof ripstop sox, I use light neoprene diver's sox that I seam sealed. Or you can duct tape plastic bags over your feet.

The best boots I can recommend for 20 F weather is a good pair of feltpacs such as Sorrel. This is not just because they are very warm but because you can remove the liners and keep them in the bottom of your sleeping bag (or on your feet) when sleeping. ***There are few things in winter camping as miserable and painful as trying to warm up frozen boots in the morning.

If you don't have at least 8" high insulated boots then wear knee-high gaiters that cover your boot. Gaiters add roughly another 15 F to your boots' warmth.

That is great info!

Thanks!

I must have hot feet because I have never felt a need for insulated boots for winter backpacking. I wear traditional leather gore-tex hiking boots with knee high gore-tex gaiters. When I'm moving, my feet do not get cold. In camp, they get very cold so I have a dry pair of socks for camp and down booties.

Goretex boots with decent lugs and some goretex gaiters are all you need. Hopefully the boots are sized up so you can wear thick socks and thin liners (for moisture). Any colder than that and I would want VBL socks and warmer insoles.

I'm heading out tomorrow morning for a quick weekend trip. Weather for the trip is: 6-10 inches of snow tonight where we'll be hiking, 10-12 inches tomorrow while we're hiking, 1-2 inches tomorrow night, tapering off. Cloudy Sunday. Temps are slated to be: highs near 27 degrees, lows near 23 degrees, with winds of about 10-15 mph day and night.

I'm going to wear a pair of Inov-8 Roclite 288 GTX boots with MLD Lightsnow gaiters, a pair of Icebreaker wool sock liners, and either a pair of Icebreaker Hikers over those, or Smartwool heavy hikers, haven't made up my mind yet. Bringing a pair of Reynolds oven bags just in case (as well as, of course, extra socks!)

I'll let you know how it turns out.

I just wear mid height waterproof trail shoes with some full cushion merino boot socks and liners and full height gaiters. My feet stay warm, maybe too warm on the move so I feel no need to wear heavy insulated boots.

At camp I wrap the damp socks around my neck to dry.

Joseph

WP boots + high gaiters + cushy socks for the win. Sam and I used this combo on our Parcour attempt. VBL socks are necessary once you get over a day or two, although neither he nor I used them in our three day trek. I used Inov8 GTX 390s. Fantastic boots.

The issue becomes the size of the boots. You need them to be large enough to fit all your socks (when I use VBLs in my mukluks I use liner + VBL + cushy wool). However, for them to be big enough, you may not be able to use them outside of winter.

I've started using gore-text sock this year with non-waterproof trail shoes. So far it's been working great. My feet have stayed warm, dry and clean after couple of days on the trail. I will continue to use this setup as long as temps are 15F to 35F during the day after that I will switch to VBL and possibly an over-boot.

"Weather for the trip is: 6-10 inches of snow tonight where we'll be hiking, 10-12 inches tomorrow while we're hiking, 1-2 inches tomorrow night, tapering off. Cloudy Sunday. Temps are slated to be: highs near 27 degrees, lows near 23 degrees, with winds of about 10-15 mph day and night."

That sounds like fun conditions! Are you going to be down in the forest, up on ridges, or both?

"That sounds like fun conditions! Are you going to be down in the forest, up on ridges, or both?"

We were down in the forest. Got to the trailhead late, so we only hiked about 3 miles, in and out. Snow was about 8 inches deep or so (lower to mid calf). Started out around 26 degrees, was 23.5 degrees by the time we hit the shelter we stayed in. Around 19 degrees this morning when we headed back to the car.

My 288GTX boots, snowlight gaiters, wool liner (smartwool instead of icebreaker) and smartwool heavy trekking socks worked perfect. My feet stayed warm, without sweating, on the hike it. In fact I slept in the socks/liners, and just left them on this morning for the hike out. Boots were left out of the bivy (didn't have room), so toes were cold when I started hiking, but were fine in about a mile and a half.

I'll definitely use this setup again for my Jan. 1-3 trip!

"I'll definitely use this setup again for my Jan. 1-3 trip!"

Sounds like you had a great "warm up" hike. Glad to hear you experience with the 288's I've had my eye on them and have been waiting for the first guinea pig to report back.

"Glad to hear you experience with the 288's I've had my eye on them and have been waiting for the first guinea pig to report back"

First time out with them, but they were very impressive. They're so light! But my feet stayed dry both days of (rather short) trekking. And warm. The snow was rather powdery, not wet and slushy, but at one point up to nearly my knee. The combination of the boot and gaiter worked great.

Also, the boot didn't seem to 'freeze' overnight (though my water did!. It wasn't as uncomfortable to put on in the morning as my trail runners are when they get wet. I attribute part of this to no leather accents or such on the boot. It just didn't seem to get all that wet. But, again, the snow was powdery, not slushy. And I didn't step in any water at all.

Whatever you decide to go with, take a few practice hikes or stand outside in the snow for a bit to make sure it's comfortable. The heavier boot, likelihood of wet feet (water or sweat), and potential for snug fit can be a recipe for blisters.
Tom

"and potential for snug fit"

I probably should have mentioned that my 288s are a size larger than I normally wear (9.5 instead of 8.5), purposely, to account for more layering/thicker socks.