The Baldo GTX Boot Earns Praise from Outside Magazine

Excerpted from Outside,  8 Hard-Earned Lessons on Backcountry Gear By Wes Siler

Spend your money where it matters: your feet.

Speaking of expensive boots, those dollar amounts are a lot less frightening when you picture your feet staying dry, warm, and protected days into a challenging trip. A little over a year ago, I took the plunge and upgraded from a pair of mass-manufactured textile boots to a $270 pair of  LOWA Baldo GTXs handmade in Germany. I’ve barely taken them off since, except to wear my trail runners or the boots described above. And I haven’t gotten a single blister or bruised toe in that time. Much to my wife’s chagrin, I even wear them to nice restaurants and dive bars. They feel like such a natural part of my body that wearing anything else feels wrong.

The soles are nearly worn out now, but in what must total several hundred miles of wear, absolutely nothing else has gone wrong with them. No stitch has popped, no campfire has melted any part of them, and no water has ever gotten through the membrane. And more important, I haven’t once tripped, twisted an ankle, or landed awkwardly after leaping over a stream or fallen log. The value proposition here has become clear.

Image courtesy of Allen Crater

Content courtesy of Wes Siler / Outside