The Best Boots For Winter Hiking Buying Guide

Are you looking for the warmest boots on the planet for hiking or camping in winter? I am prompted to ask; could you be going hiking or backpacking in Iceland, Siberia, or the Arctic Circle?

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But then, apart from a blizzard, tsunami or Hurricane Katrina, no other weather is going to keep an outdoor enthusiast inside. Not to worry though. Even if you live in Iceland, these boots are good enough to wear there.

What boots keep your feet warm?

The best winter boots are a marvel of engineering and construction. First, they need to come with superb insulation. That is what hiking in the cold is all about!

In that case, you may consider getting the Keen Summit County Boot with 450g Thinsulate insulation. Other brands that make best winter boots for men and women include Merrell Thermo Freeze, Columbia, Salomon and others. You can buy the best winter hiking boots for women and men on amazon.com.  You can see more winter hiking boots in the table below:

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• The best men’s snow boots also include the following:
• Hi-Tec Men’s Altitude IV Waterproof Hiking Boot
• Columbia Women’s Newton Ridge Plus Waterproof Hiking Boot
• Mishansha Mens Womens Winter Ankle Snow Hiking Boots
• Columbia Women’s Newton Ridge Plus Waterproof Hiking Boot
• Vasque Men’s Snowblime Ultradry Insulated Snow Boot

All of these warm winter boots for men and women are available on amazon.com. You will also notice that they are waterproof. Therefore, even if you camp in the rain in such boots, they will not allow water inside.

Is it Good to Hike in Cold Weather?

With the best winter boots, you can own the trails in snow time! Hiking in winter is so rewarding. Believe it or not, the white blanket of snow, the cool air and the isolated trails are worth feeling cold for. But tell you what, you do not even have to feel cold when hiking in winter. You just need the best winter hiking outfit.

Get the best extreme cold winter boots in the market. If you love solitude on your adventure, winter is the perfect time for hiking.

Consider also the fact that you will be carrying a hiking backpack. The best winter shoes on your feet and all the general conditions make your body burn more calories. You can burn up to 5000 calories everyday!

When you hike in winter, your body is tasked to the maximum. This means you can bulk up on muscle easily than when hiking in fair weather. Besides, you can always learn how to make a fire a skill that you will be very proud of, and stay warm at night.

What are the best boots for extreme cold weather?

When going backpacking in winter, you must take great care so that you do not suffer from pneumonia or hypothermia. One of the best things to do is to keep your feet warm with the best winter hiking boots.

Because your feet are in constant contact with the hard cold ground, you will have to get the best insulated hiking boots. You will also have to insulate your tent. You may bring a tent heater for camping too, and a light backpacking stove to make some hot soup.

Winter hiking has so many benefits, and would you believe this… most of them are health benefits! If you would like to shed those extra pounds of weight, hiking in winter is the real deal for you.

To produce heat, your body’s metabolic system will need to work at double effort. When it is cold, you feel hungrier because the rate of metabolism is high as your body needs a lot of heat.

What are the warmest ladies outdoor winter boots?

Just because it is winter, you do not have to look drab and all muddy when hiking. You can choose the best stylish winter boots and look good. Women love to look good all the time, even when they are on the trails. You can read my article about how to look cute when hiking.

There are womens extreme cold weather boots, made just for them. Some of these come in cute lining made of comfortable wool. A soft foot deserves a soft boot interior, no doubt about it.

Warm boots for men will make you look as if you just stepped right out of a fashion magazine. While you look good, your feet must also be as comfortable as possible, easy to walk in and most importantly, they must be waterproof.

Winter hiking boots made of a mix of leather and suede look good on women’s feet. They also retain all of the warmth that your feet generate as you walk. Consider buying a pair of the best warmest winter boots in the world such as the Cole Haan Women’s ZeroGrand Hiking Boot.

This is an incredibly good-looking pair of warm winter hiking boots for women. The Cole Haan brand name is popular with both men and women. They make all types of shoes, but their specific winter boots are designed to ensure that the biting cold of winter does not keep you indoors.

What to look for in the warmest boots on the planet

To go by the tag of warmest hiking boots in the world is not enough on itself. A good pair of winter hiking boots must have many features, a few of which we shall explore here.

While spring and summer hiking may be easy, winter hiking is a different story altogether. Your outdoor winter boots will determine just how far you can walk in a day when hiking in the snow.

1. Anti-slip sole

This is one of the most important consideration for the warmest winter boots in the world. The terrain may be flat, but hiking on snow is always a slippery experience. You are cold and you have the weight of your backpacking backpack on your back. Chances of slipping and hitting the ground with a thud are always too high.

Minimize the risk of falling over with a show that has a good anti-slip sole. There are many ways to make the winter boot soles anti-slip, but it is much better to buy a pair of outdoor winter boots that already have an anti-slip sole.

Whether you buy best boots for snow with a rubber sole or a synthetic sole, it is very important that it be anti-slip. With the weight of the backpack on your torso, your risk of sliding and slipping is higher, on wet trails than on dry trails.

If a pair of winter hiking boots has Vibram sole, you know it is good. OK, it maybe a little too heavy, but it will be good, and it will last a long time.

2. Winter boots insulation

Insulation is the biggest concern for men and women who like to do day and overnight hiking in extreme temperatures. That is why sleeping bag manufacturers ensure they use the best filling for their products. For the hiking boots, two materials are used to make the shoe as warm as possible.

One of them is neoprene, the same material that is used to make scuba diving boots. Neoprene is capable of creating a buffer between the cold air and warm air next to your skin. Therefore, warm air does not escape and cold air does not find its way in. That “buffer zone” is what boot insulation is all about.

Some extreme cold hiking boots also come with synthetic insulation. Some winter hiking boot reviews say that synthetic insulation is much better than neoprene insulation. The most important thing is to ensure that your best boots for snow hiking are insulated.

Winter hiking boots insulation usually starts at 200G. If you find a pair of good snow boots with 450g Thinsulate insulation, get it.

3. Hiking Boots fitting

Hiking boots fitting is a very important consideration for all types of trail footwear. Thankfully, this is not too hard to do if you have the right information.

You will be layering up on the socks, thus, you will need to leave some room for that. But there are a few cardinal rules for fitting a hiking boot.

Today, there are some the best slip on snow boots. They might fit differently from the laced ones.

Here they are some fitting considerations:

Heel should not rub

The heel should never rub against the back of the boots. If it does that, it means your shoes are too big. That can cause serious blisters and wounds, making your foot look like a grilled lobster.

The room between the toes and the front wall, toe cap should be at least an inch. This means whether you wear the thickest hiking socks or not, there should always be about an inch of room between your toes and the boots.

Enough room in metatarsal area

The big toe and the little toe should never touch the sides of the boots. This applies even when you wear thick socks. The sides of your feet should never feel pressured at all.

When you hike, your feet may expand a bit, and you want your boots to have room for that. Besides, you might also want to wear a thick pair of woolen socks for hiking.

Your foot should not slide

When you wear your hiking boots, your foot should not slide forward such that your toes hit the front of the boot. When you are on the snowy trails, there will be a lot of sliding forwards and backwards. You want to give your toes enough room.

For winter hiking boots, it would be better to buy at least one size up. It does not matter whether they say that the boot comes true to size.

Always buy a size up. Consider also the width of the boots as some can be too narrow. Even when ordering a pair online, a size chart is usually provided. Do make good use of it.

Tip: Do your hiking boot fitting at the end of the day when your feet are swollen.

4. They Should Be Waterproof

This applies even to the dry weather hiking boots. You not only need to keep your feet warm, but dry as well. Thus, your best extreme cold weather boots should be totally waterproof. The trail conditions in winter are at best wet. You must keep this wetness outside your winter hiking boots.

Thankfully, even if you have an old pair of hiking boots, there are ways to waterproof them, which we will discuss in another post.

The snow hiking boots should also keep the snow out since it would melt due to the warmth of your feet. Thus, when you are buying your hiking boot, buy them depending on the amount of snow on the trails. If it is deep, you might want to consider buying knee length winter hiking boots.

When we say waterproof hiking boots for winter hiking, we mean every word of it. This is not just a light duty boot that will withstand the subzero temperatures, but one that you can wear in feet-deep snow, mud and water and it comes out without letting any dampness in.

5. Hiking boot lacing

The lacing design of the winter hiking boots is very important. Remember where we said that your toes should never slide to hit the front wall of the shoes?

The lacing will determine how snug and fitting the boot is. That way, even when there is room between the toes and the front of the boot, when you are going downhill, the shoe is secured right in place without moving. Because of the extreme temperatures, you also want to get high quality boot laces that will withstand that moisture and the snow.

There are different recommended ways for how far you can walk in a day. One of the most popular of them is the surgeons knot which prevents the heel from slipping.

The second one is window lacing which relieves the pressure off the top of the foot. This is a technique where you tie the laces in cross style for the first eyelets, then make a box style and so on, ending in the regular cross lacing.

The third technique is off-toe pressure lacing where you skip the first eyelet to leave more room in the toe box.

6. Hiking Boot Ankle Support

Mid cut and high cut winter boots for men and women are very common. However, what you buy will depend on the trails where you are going hiking. A high cut boot, one that reaches the mid ankle or just under knees is bound to offer more  ankle support. However, depending on the trails that you will be traipsing, this may not always be the best choice.

While the jury is still out there on the importance of ankle support, with many swearing by it and others against it, well, it is recommended for hilly terrain. Thus, by logic, it should even be more recommended for hiking in extreme conditions, such as in the cold winters.

Many people say that ankle support or lack of it thereof is a personal choice. But the question here would be: does a high cut boot really protect you from breaking or twisting your ankle?

Well, when it is about personal safety matters that you are not too sure about, I guess it would be much better to err on the side of caution than otherwise. So get a pair of winter hiking boots that offers good ankle support. After all, it is only for winter hiking and come spring and summer, you can ditch the best extreme cold weather boots and go back to your regular hiking boots.

7. Best winter boots brand name

Sometimes, when you really do not have the time to read reviews and stuff about the best women’s or men’s warmest winter boots, you can just buy by the brand name. The only challenge is that there are so many brand names in the market. It can be quite daunting for a first timer to decide what to buy.

Luckily, if you are looking for men’s warmest winter boots, a simple search on Google for that will show you a wide array of them. The same applies for the best women’s warmest winter boots. Otherwise, you may consider the most renowned brand names in trail wear such as Keen, Merrell, L.L Bean, Blundstone, Columbia and others.

Why You Need To Get Best Winter Hiking Boots

For many people, winter means hanging up the boots, literary, and postponing all of your outdoor activities until spring. However, if you have ever hiked or backpacked in winter when you have almost all the trails to yourself, you know nothing will keep you from the outdoors.

Not even the most serious biting cold. Winter hiking enthusiasts prepare well for all seasons. Besides, there are many ways to keep warm in cold weather.

Therefore, when fall sets in, many outdoor enthusiasts start looking for the warmest outfits for camping, hiking, sailing. When the outdoor bug gets into your system, nothing will ever keep you indoors. But to do this without the right gear, especially winter hiking boots is detrimental to your health. Thankfully, you can buy extreme cold winter boots on amazon.com.

You need winter hiking and backpacking gear to keep you as warm as possible. You must be extra careful about the feet though as they suffer most. Remember, you will have to carry your fully equipped winter hiking backpack. The weight of the backpack and your body weight will be carried by the feet. Thus, you must wear the most comfortable hiking boots.

Here is a table of the warm boots for cold weather hiking:

Conclusion

Keeping warm when hiking in winter require much more than drinking piping hot coffee. You should get a good pair of the best, warmest boots on the planet. Yes, you can find such!

With the outdoor recreation industry growing by leaps and bounds, there is a boot for all types of extreme hiking conditions. Even if you want to hike the Sahara Desert, there are shoes for that. Just do not leave that house without the best pair of extreme cold winter boots protecting your feet.