Winter Hiking Gear

Hillsound Trail Crampon Ultras and Kahtoola Microspikes are the most popular winter traction aids for hiking on packed snow, ice, and mixed ice and rock. They’re like tire chains for your feet, with tiny metal spikes and chains that are attached to an elastic harness that you slip over your …

Winter backpacking and mountaineering are great sports. But the cost of winter gear is very expensive, upward of $2000 or more. In my experience, it’s best to acquire winter backpacking gear over a period of 2-3 years, so you can spread out the capital expenditure required while using some of …

MSR’s Lightning Ascent Snowshoes are lightweight, durable snowshoes that are ideal for winter hiking and backpacking in mountainous terrain. They’re designed with a unique 360-degree traction system that allows you to walk up slopes or laterally across them without losing your grip. The Lightning Ascents were the first snowshoes to …

Atlas’ Serrate Snowshoes are teardrop-shaped, nylon-decked snowshoes with crampons and a heel lift designed for hiking and snowshoeing in mountainous terrain. They have a simple-to-use binding system that’s compatible with virtually any kind of winter boot or shoe but runs a little on the bulky side when strapped to a …

The Salomon Toundra Mid WP winter hiking boot is a lightweight boot that is perfect for hiking and snowshoeing in winter weather. Rated for -40 F, the Toundra Mid WP is insulated with Aerogel, an ultralight foam insulation that NASA developed to protect the Mars probes from extreme cold. Considered the …

There are three kinds of winter hiking boots: insulated winter hiking boots, mountaineering boots, and pac boots. Which kind of winter hiking boot is right for you? Here's a detailed guide that explains the differences between these so you can pick the right footwear for winter hiking, snowshoeing, winter backpacking, and winter mountaineering.

KEEN Summit County Winter Hiking Boots are waterproof and insulated winter boots that are good for snowshoeing, winter hiking, and peakbagging. They have KEEN’s signature oversized toe box with body-mapped insulation to keep the parts of your feet that need extra insulation warm. Large non-marking lugged rubber soles provide a good …

Hillsound makes three different types of winter hiking traction aids, which unlike traditional mountaineering crampons, are primarily designed for use with flexible-soled winter boots and shoes. Hillsound Trail Crampon Ultra Hillsound Trail Crampon Hillsound Trail Crampon Pro Unfortunately, Hillsound chose to name all three products similarly in a confusing and …

MSR makes great snowshoes for winter hiking and backpacking that provide excellent traction and flotation over packed snow and ice in mountainous terrain and powder in higher elevations and drier climates. With an ironclad guarantee, MSR also has a great reputation for replacing snowshoes that fail, something that will save you …

Crescent Moon’s EVA All Foam Snowshoes are high flotation snowshoes that are made of foam without any metal crampons or heel lifts. Highly rockered, (curved like a banana), they’re good for walking and running on well-packed trails and groomed cross-country tracks. They have a very simple velcro binding that’s compatible …

The Tubbs Flex VRT is a plastic decked snowshoe with an aggressive crampon setup that’s ideal for snowshoeing in steep and mountainous terrain. It has an easy to use Boa binding system that clamps down around your boots and won’t slip in use, along with a flip-up heel bar to reduce …

Dachstein Extreme Warm Wool Mittens are very warm boiled wool mittens popular with mountaineers. Made with very dense boiled wool (more on this below), they’re windproof and virtually waterproof. When the mercury drops near zero or below, these are the mittens you want to be wearing. They’re also ideal for …

Every season there is a lively discussion among those that hike and backpack in the winter about what the “right” pair of boots are. The problem is that the correct answer is “it depends” on what you are doing and where you are going. You will likely need different boots if …

The freestanding 2-person Black Diamond FirstLight Tent the oldest tent that I own. I mainly use it for winter backpacking and still love it because it’s lightweight, freestanding, and fast to set up. At 2 lbs 11 oz, the FirstLight is extraordinarily lightweight for a 4 season tent. It’s a …