Kibo GTX® Hunter 600 - Petersen's Hunting

Tested Tough: Meindl Kibo GTX® Hunter 600 Cold Weather Boots | By David Draper

For many years, I was one of the lucky few that rarely suffered from cold feet. With the right combination of moisture-managing liners and insulating wool socks, I was able to hunt in below-zero conditions wearing either uninsulated or lightly insulated boots. Yeah, sometimes my toes got cold, but I was young enough, or maybe dumb enough, to tolerate it. Then I got older. Each hunting season, I notice my ability to tolerate cold temperatures diminishes. I'm still able to hunt most of the fall with midseason boots, but in extreme cold I now lace up insulated boots that are a little more substantial to keep my feet protected. Most recently, the cold-weather hunting boots I've been reaching for are the Meindl Kibo GTX Hunters, which keep my feet warm during late-season hunts.

I've worn Meindl Boots for close to two decades, and have always been impressed with the durability, comfort and performance. So, when I need an insulated pair of hunting boots to wear on a trip to Tajikistan for mid-Asian ibex, naturally I reached out to the experts and Meindl USA. For an extreme mountain hunt in the middle of winter, they recommended their Kibo GTX Hunter 600 insulated boots, which are purpose-built for just such an adventure.

At the heart of the Kibo's ability to keep feet protected from the cold is a lining made from advanced high-bulk fleece called Gore Air Fibre 600. Any material designed to insulate does so by trapping and holding warm air - think of it like a home insulation's R-value. The higher the R-value, the greater the ability to insulate by trapping more warm air as a protective layer against the cold. Gore Air Fibre is a mass of hollow, synthetic fibers that trap more of that air than other comparable insulations, but does so with up to 15% less weight.

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