Plastic boots

Plastic boots
they were broken last mounts after more than 20 years usage

Plastic Boots

When I actively went to mountains about 15 ~ 20 years ago, plastic boots are really popular for climbing on snow / ice.   Many people liked the benefit, like better water proof, better insulation, than a traditional leather boots.   The maintenance is also easy.

However around year 2000s, some people reported that older boots got suddenly broken.  It is nature of the plastic material.  So that many article worn to use older boots for mountain climbing.

My boots

I used to have a pair of mountaineering boots and a pair of back-country ski boots.  Due to an injury of a mountain accident, I had not had a chance to use the mountaineering boots and I gave them to a friend.   However, I kept the back country ski boots and kept using it a few times a year.  It's been more than 20 years.  I did not have any problem at all.

However, I went skiing last mounts.  I brought my old boots there and it looked all right.  I just put my feet into them and did not tighten the buckles.  I walked to the piste and try to tighten them when I started skiing.   When I tighten a buckle, the plastic part of a buckle was cut.  then cracking many portion and it was finally broken.    I do not complain this, but I think it is not very good if boots are broken in mountain.  In my case, this happened in a ski resort.  So that I can rent another boots from the shop or I just need to stop skiing.   But if it is in a mountain, even if the boots are broken, I need to walk back.  It is not easy to walk on snow with broken boots.  

Need to be careful to use plastic boots in back-country / mountains

It's been for a while, people are talking about a risk of plastic boots.   I recognized it and I tried to check it before use.   However, it looked all right and hard to tell it was going to be broken.

Nowadays, mountaineering boots is getting back to leather boots with Gore-Tex laminate.   I was looking for plastic boots for my spring activity.  But I could not find them any more.  So for mountaineering boots, I have a less concern.   People needs to use non-plastic boots.

Regular ski boots are usually used in a ski resort, so that this is also less concern.

For back-country ski boots, they are still plastic and people pay more attention of their boots.
I do not know how long people can use it.   In may case, I bought them around late 90's.  Since then I had been using them and there was no problem except last months.  Based on my experience, it is hard to tell if there is a problem or not.

I do not have a good solution / suggestion for this problem.  But I want to share this to other people.
It is hard to tell, but people need to be aware this.   It is hard to carry spare boots, only thing we could do would be carrying some repair kits to minimize risk.