The 2022-2023 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. Yes, the test team braved some signature Bachelor high winds but managed to not cancel a single day of testing. 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.

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 ski industry professionals like coaches, instructors, patrollers, rental technicians and resort administrative staff to test boots.

For our boot test team the last few boot tests have felt a little like watching Formula One and seeing how certain brands trade off for the lead in terms of most high scoring boots entered in a given test. In just the same way that the deck was shuffled this year on the F1 circuits, our top ranked boot brands have mixed it up a bit too. When it was all said and done, the Constructors Championship went to Rossignol by way of its entries' highest score average, but Tecnica, Lange, Head, Nordica, Fischer and Salomon all came in close behind, clustered within three tenths of a point.

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 (some categories have more options there) and addressing your performance needs by choosing the appropriate Flex Index (see our reviews Detailed Specs to find softer versions of the models we tested).

What we've been reminded over the past couple years is that skiing sure is fun! Nothing like a pandemic-driven lockdown of society to make you re-appreciate sliding down a snow-covered hill, right? Okay, so everybody else had the same idea and the mountain commutes and lift lines have gotten a little crazy. While the mask-over-nose goggle fogging phenomenon may be over there's a new challenge: keeping one's cool in the midst of the like-minded crowds. It's been proven that warm and comfy boots will extend one's patience horizon and help avoid embarrassing on-hill conniption fits. An ABB bootfitter near you can help with that...