Footwear as a System | Boots, Gaiters, Crampons, and Overboots

Kit Creep
Kit Creep
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Published 2024-01-25
In this video, we'll be exploring footwear as a complete system. Systems are far more important to me than individual components. Building a good system for your feet will ensure you're able to stay out in the backcountry longer and more effectively. I hope this video will help you better understand what tool you need for the job. If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I'll answer as many as I can.

DISCLAIMER: I HIGHLY recommend doing your own research and only use boots with true B ratings to climb.


Types of boots:

- B0: flexible, lightweight hiking boot; best used with C0 Crampons; not rated for climbing (Everything except for the Bates Tora Boras and ski boots are NOT rated for climbing)

- B1: stiffer technical boot; no toe or heel welt; uses C1 universal crampons

- B2: little to no torsional flex to allow for use with crampons; feature heel welt for C2 crampons (Columbia Bugaboots have a false heel welt but it’s not nearly stiff enough to climb)

- B3: little to no flex due to hard shank; toe and heel welt for C3 crampons (My personal favorites for climbing)

- Overboots: can supplement base boot by adding water protection and/or insulation

- Mukluks: light weight, water resistant boot for dry snow in arctic conditions

- Ski boots: for skiing of course but can also be used for climbing and mountaineering if they feature a “Hike” mode (or if you hate your feet)
All Comments (17)
  • @KitCreep
    Sorry for the reupload! Please read the description
  • @thedownwardmachine
    Great video! Today I learned about overboots. I love modularity and modding what I've already got, if I actually went out into the super cold, I'd probably roll some. I actually have those OR gaiters and you're right, they work really well for tall wet grass. I've used them in standing water and they don't work for wading, but that's not what they're made for anyway. I used to use them on my hiking boots that I used for motorcycling when it rained. It did a good job of keeping the water out but eventually I moved to a proper moto boot.
  • @butl4665
    Another quality video. I appreciate your informative and no BS style
  • @Jedwoods
    Finally getting around to watching the repost - good video, good edits. Looking forward to the baselayer video
  • @Felix-wy7hs
    Now i got an excuse to re-watch your video😂, but serious, it is really informative. I would really like an comparison between the old ecwcs and pcu and an Glove video. What size is ur level 5?
  • @bd3199
    Do you use standard army boots? Will you give us your opinion on the M65 field jacket or give the Gen 1 ECWCS parka it's own video? You do good in depth reviews.
  • @noname-un8bx
    What do you think about Belleville/Bates MCB 950?
  • @MotoDash1100
    17:29 Jeezus man! They better be rates CE2, as well as ESD safe, non-slip water and oil safe, safe to weld in (composite toe rather than steel/metal toe), and a few other things. Like.. WOW.
  • @thefrogstronaut
    Do the danner combat hikers have a decent sized toe box, or do they run narrow? I'm seeing conflicting information online. I have naturally wide feet, and I wear super loose fitting rubber nonslip shoes on tile floors all day at work, and for any other activity I wear some sort of zero drop shoe/barefoot shoe, used to be just wide Vans but now it's mostly my Jim Green BFARs or Vivobarefoot boots, in the summer I wear Altama maritime mids or highs because my area is super swampy, been looking for a wider toebox alternative though. I've hiked up mountains on very rocky wet trails in all of these shoes with packs so suffice to say my ankles are very well conditioned and it's difficult for me to even put on "normal" shoes if they don't have an accommodating toe box. I've been looking for something with more support and protection just to have in the toolbox and these seem to be it especially with how cheap they are on ebay. I've tried a few milsurp european boots and they were all just too heavy without offering much more support, as well as being uncomfortably narrow.
  • @FucklesTheDog
    I cannot for the life of me find the overboots online anyone got a link
  • @MotoDash1100
    "This is because a ski boot is going to position your ankle in a pretty strenuous position" I stand corrected, motorcycle boots are better than ski boots for hiking. Whoo!! Let's go motorcycle gear!
  • @internetrules8522
    One thing I learned in this video: Kit Creep really knows his ACB's...... but to be fair, why can't we just call it a b1 crampon that goes on a b1 boot? why does the crampon have to be called c?