Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Most of the time, reviews for winter/cold weather gear is written by people in the lower 48. "I wore these expedition weight wool socks around downtown Asheville when it was 30F and my feet stayed warm!" That's great, lady, but that's not a good review of an item like that. Anyway, all that to say: this is a REAL WINTER REVIEW for these boots. As I'm writing this, it's -50F here in the middle of Alaska and these boots are still performing. I've taken these things snowmachining and caribou hunting at -20 and I wore a thin liner sock and a thick wool blend on top of that, and my feet were pretty near perfect all day. I just wore them out for 4 hours at -50 to do a site inspection with just thick wool socks (no liner) and my feet are the only part of me that I can still feel. Let's be real, any longer exposure than that to those temps and the durability of these boots will be the least of your worries. Another thing that strikes me about these is how comfortable they are. They don't force you to walk with an awkward gait like a lot of stiff boots do. They're just structured enough through the foot/ankle and just flexible enough through the shaft to make it easy to schlep through knee deep snow while you're looking for caribou tracks (or the mailbox, whatever.) Sizing is pretty consistent for a boot, especially one of this caliber. Of course if you're not wearing these with a thick sock you shouldn't really be wearing them at all, so if you try them on barefoot or with a thin crew sock they will probably feel a little roomy. I wear mine with the thickest Carhartt wool blend socks you can find and my feet are perfectly comfortable. There's plenty of room to allow blood and air flow but they're definitely not coming off unless I want them to. I wear a women's 11 in sneakers and 10-10.5 in heels. I got these in an 11 and they're a perfect fit (again, with thick socks.) I don't consider them abnormally heavy, either, and I'm very sensitive to unnecessary bulk on shoes (looking at you, Chaco sandals.) So that's that. I've replaced my standard winter boot with these puppies, AND I've actually tried them in a setting for which they are designed! Hey! Imagine that. Sorry, hypothetical Lisa from Knoxville, your reviews on true cold weather gear aren't worth much.