These Boots Saw Me Through This Winter and Hopefully Many Others to Come

Technical winter boots are great. For technical things. When I want to snowshoe or need to strap on crampons, I have a lovely pair of technical boots with places to anchor snowshoe and crampon straps and thick rubber on the toe, heel, and midfoot for protection. They’re great. They’re expensive too. And most of the time, overkill.

Because you don’t always, or even often, need that level of technicality. For general winter wear—hiking in cold weather, building a fire, car camping when it’s cold, generally any situation in which I’m outside, it’s cold, and I need to wear boots—I’ve been lacing up the Moncton from Kodiak. Kodiak, founded in Ontario, Canada, has been around since 1910, they even occasionally provide Canada’s official Winter Olympics ceremony footwear.

They’re waterproof, insulated with Thinsulate, come with an Ortholite removable footbed, have a great, grippy sole for traction and a terrific lacing system with lace anchors to keep things super secure. If you miss real leather boots, you’ll adore these. They’re plush and comfortable, and plenty tough for most winter activities.

Best of all, they retail for $195, not at all bad for a leather boot that feels for the all the world like I could pass these to my grandson some day. They’re absolutely worth it at that price, and if they go on sale as we approach the end of winter, nab ’em.

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If you’re looking for something that’s full-grain leather, but a little bit lighter and uninsulated, we also love the Danner Logger 917s.

– Justin Housman