America's Best Bootfitters, Period.

The 2023-2024 America's Best Bootfitters Boot Test was thrilled to be back at Mt. Bachelor in Bend, Oregon this past April for what was some of the best winter conditions of the season. With a typical springtime mix of powder, corn and sunshine testers found no shortage of terrain to test on with the entire 360-degrees of the volcano open for business. Again we felt fortunate to run our test out of the Pine Marten Lodge at mid-mountain where we could access a variety of different runs and aspects right out of the door. The reason it's such a good testing grounds is also the reason it's a Spring skiing destination--till the end of May!

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 by any or all of these filters: audience, test category, brand, boot type, hike modality and last width! 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 for our tips on how to find your best match….

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 Walk, 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 (and who also are good skiers and have been testing boots for many years). We also invite a variety of other ski industry professionals to test boots.

Three big stories dominated conversations among testers at this year’s boot test—the BOA onslaught, Lange’s Shadow project and Tecnica’s HV Cochise. And our normally curmudgeony, skeptical bunch loved all of them! Really! There was another big story though, and that was that this year marked what testers unanimously called the best batch of ski boots they’ve ever tested—no lie! It was actually really hard to clearly identify the winners when the top models of every category were set apart by mere hundredths of a point. But we did, anyway—read on to see which brands were in the top half.

The first step in your ultimate boot search is to know thyself! How and where do you want to 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 Walk, All-Mountain Freeride and Backcountry. Once you're there, your search is fine-tuned by matching your foot shape to a boot's Last Width and addressing your performance needs by choosing the appropriate 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 traveling boot test crew who came from as far away as Copenhagen, Denmark this year, to our fantastic sponsors who help set the stage for a well-oiled week. Leki, Flylow, Le Bent, BlackStrap, Slap Cap and Pistil Designs provided pieces from their premier lines to make our job 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!