Winter boot for 1-3 nights out

I have been using Salomon Tundra with excellent satisfaction.. in NY winters..for last 3 or 4 years now.. snow and ice.. temps down to 0° maybe a few below. Snowshoes.. micro spikes and just straight up walking in snow. Also.. standing around camp in snow and on ice… removable insole comes out every night before bed!

No issues with the boots freezing overnight so long as you remove the insoles?

Nope. When I sleep in my hammock, I keep the boots in the mesh side car. When on the ground.. in my “tent” at foot of sleeping pad area. You can also leave the foot end of boots under pad near your head… Kind of elevate your head too.. Like a pillow, lol.  Anyway, I always take the insole out and put them under me on top of pad or between closed cell and air pad.

One thing to consider: If you use a vapor barrier liner between your inner  sock and thick/insulating sock, your boot inners will not get wet/damp from perspiration. And, if you have good gaiters, your inner boots won’t get wet from snow either. So, you might not need a boot with a removable inner.

This is the method my wife and I use when we go on winter backpacking/snowshoe overnights, and we have not had the inside of our boots get damp at all. And if they aren’t damp they won’t freeze.

My wife uses Keen Revel 4 polar boots, using bread bags as vapor barrier liners. We are in WA state and most of our winter trips the temps are 20 degrees or above. I just use my regular leather backpacking boots, with bread bags of course.

This method results in damp liner socks at the end of the day. So, we take them off before going to sleep and put on a dedicated sleeping sock that is completely dry. We hang up the damp liner socks in the tent overnight, but they don’t really dry that way (they freeze a little!). So, the next morning we put them in the pockets of whatever we’re wearing and they dry in an hour or two.