America's Best Bootfitters, Period.

One of the key elements of a great boot testing venue is the same thing that attracts the traveling, spring skier—a thick, late-season snowpack. Last winter’s low snowfall in the west pointed out the scarcity of these reliably viable, April-May ski meccas. Predictably, a burst of late-April storms brought feet of powder to the Northwest, which highlighted another test venue challenge—operational will. Most resorts had let their bean-counters convince them to run for early-closure cover, but thankfully not Timberline on Mt. Hood.

While there are always surprises to be had at our boot test—certain new boots that delight our testers from brands they may be less familiar with, or brands that might surge forward with new boot designs or compelling features—there remains a regular group of brands that seem to always end up at the top. While they trade podium positions the way Formula 1 teams Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull do, they're always in the mix--check 'em out.

Considering all your boot choices can seem a bit of a blur, but our advanced boot searching algorithm lets you narrow the field of options. Start your search by selecting Reviews/Boot Reviews from the menu above, then select your FILTER parameters and hit UPDATE RESULTS. Happy hunting, and remember that this is just a start—finalize your search by trying on the boots that make your short list at an America's Best Bootfitters member shop! Read on….

We start the boot test process in early winter by working with our brand partners to determine which boots will be tested in each of five categories: Frontside, All-Mountain Traditional, All-Mountain Access, All-Mountain Freeride and Backcountry. Virtually every boot brand participates in our boot test as it remains the only one like it, worldwide. Our test team is comprised of a core group of Masterfit University instructors, MFU trained bootfitters and boot sellers who know boots inside and out.

The first step in your ultimate boot search is to know thyself! How and where do you ski? Are you groomer-centric or an off-piste munk junkie? Are you a human-powered ascent machine or a burger-loving fan of the chairlift and apres cocktails? Answers to these questions will guide you toward one of our five Boot Test Categories: Frontside, All-Mountain Traditional, All-Mountain Access, All-Mountain Freeride and Backcountry. Then your search can be fine-tuned by matching your foot shape to a boot's Last Width and your stiffness needs to its Flex Index.

The annual boot test is a huge team effort, from our brand partners’ help in getting us the boots we test, to our fantastic sponsors who help set the stage for a high-performance, well-oiled week. Flylow, Le Bent, Pret and Pistil Designs provided pieces from their premier lines to make our job more clear, drier, warmer, more fun and definitely made us way cooler than we would’ve been without them! Best of all, this was gear we all choose to use already—here’s to no learning curve and instant gratification!