La Sportiva  Nepal Cube GTX Mountaineering Boots - Women's

I hated these shoes. Absolutely hated them. But, the shoes I loved most (Trango Cube GTX) were just too cold and not stiff enough for the climbs I had planned. SO I put up with the pain in my foot and the suffocating toe box... until I decided to unlace the shoe, and relace them skipping the first two sections. OMG what a difference! This loosened up my toe box and still kept my foot securely in place. I have never felt better and these shoes are officially the best mountaineering boots I've been in as a result. Comfortable, warm, and perfect for Rainier, Baker and all the other peaks I've planned to do.

Isa seems to like them a LOT :) says they climb really well. kept her feetsees warm at Lac Willoughby this Sunday -4f I got her size 42 and she deffinatly needs to get the narrow toe bails for her BD stingers. I have them ordered.

There are not a whole lot of options in the women’s mountaineering boots category. So I guess that makes picking easier, maybe. I usually go with a wider shoe so I was thinking I needed to go with Scarpa. But I tried these on anyways and I LOVED them. I went 1.5 sizes up, which I was worried about because walking in chunky, bulky, large shoes seemed like a terrible challenge. I have been out hiking twice in these so far and I must admit there seems to be an art to lacing up, more so than any other shoes I’ve ever worn in my life. I’ve gotten better at it, in addition to the best sick combo. I only had to stop about 3 times to re-lace on my latest trip. Once it feels right, hiking is a breeze. My feet were warm, I trampled through mud, slush, and 4 feet of snow. It was a blast! I have yet to do any climbing, I start a mountaineering course in January. Looking forward to using these!

Bought these since I picked up mountaineering and was hoping to break these in for a climb on Mt. Baker. The fit was fine for my feet since they tend to run narrow and these shoes do run narrower than others. I normally take 8.5 in Salomon hiking boots and running shoes and I got a 41.0 in these. I normally am an 8.0 in shoes and most people tend to buy one whole size larger for running but because my feet are narrow, I usually only go up only half a size otherwise shoes will be too wide for me, so adjust as you think you need knowing this. I had a really hard time trying to break these in. The boots are super stiff. I was able to walk about 6 miles each time over 5 different hikes in these but my ankle area would start bruising and I would be in great pain by then....not a sharp pain but it was like something that would build up and gets worse as I continued hiking. I called around and went on various blogs to get feedback and advice as to how to break these in: Tie them super tight around the top, tie them very lose around the top, wear mountaineering socks, get insoles, try them on steeper grounds, everything....finally after 6 miles on my 5th hike with these, I had a giant tennis ball sized bump on the side of my right leg above my ankle bone and it was all bruised. I finally returned them to REI. Thank you REI for your great return policy! I have never returned an item after using it, but this time around, I was very grateful to be able to do that. Heard these are the best for the 6000-7000 meter elevations but they did not work for me.