Review of Oboz Mt. Ranier Boots

  I managed to get some work done (sorting through stuff) today at a very moderate pace. I'm in no rush and the mess is impressive. The house doesn't smell like it, but it pretty much looks like a dumpster.

So, I'm going to start reviewing some of my gear. On a scale of 10 stars, I give these 8. Pretty good. Very good, in fact, since I'm a real grump about expensive gear that doesn't perform as promised. These are Oboz Mt. Ranier boots. Of course, they've already tinkered with the design a bit, so I suppose my comments might not be pertinent to the new design. But perhaps the overall design from Oboz is still good.

I got these for Christmas 2020. Here they are brand new. The link below was my initial reaction.


It's difficult to say exactly how many hiking days I've worn these. They were too hot to wear if the temperature was about 35 or above. I also tried not to wear them for a whole lot of days in a row- see below why I knocked off one star. But they've probably got about 500 miles on them.

These are winter boots. They would be much too warm to wear year round. In fact, my feet are usually too hot, and I found I could not even wear wool socks with these boots or my feet were boiling. This probably means they are just warm enough for a lot of people.

Here's how they look now. They've still got lots of use in them.

The first negative comment is that my left foot never got used to the boot. This finally got a little better after loosening the laces a LOT. But the ball of that foot hurts most of the time when I'm wearing the boot. I have no particular explanation for this. It's not a place I usually experience foot pain. But I tried to switch back to trail runners for a day after wearing the boots for about 3 days. When the snow was deep, this wasn't an option and I just had to put up with the sore foot. The boots were especially troublesome doing road walks.

The second star got knocked off because these are supposed to be waterproof, but that feature didn't last long. I had to keep spraying them with silicone every other day. They aren't really suede, but neither are they really smooth leather, so I didn't think something like mink oil was a good option. Plus, I didn't want to deal with the mess of that product inside the trailer.

One of the reasons I gave up on boots for 3-season use was that they kept irritating my Achilles tendon. These boots threatened to do this a couple of times, but it never became a problem.

Overall, given how much difficulty I have finding shoes/boots that my feet will tolerate, I am quite pleased with these. Footwear is a very subjective topic. You may not find these comfortable at all, and I will always tell people they should wear whatever makes their feet happy. However, these boots are a quality product and if they fit, I think they are worth the price. I paid $175 for them in 2020. (Actually they were a gift, but that's what they cost.)

8 of 10 stars.

See Maybe I've Grown Up