Kayland Mountaineering Boots

I recently went through the process of getting a set of 3 season mountaineering boots and ended up settling on a pair of Kaylands. These don't seem to be very popular in the US and I ended up getting them for a steal through Sierra Trading Post ($189). Kayland is an Italian company that seems to sell mostly into the UK and Europe - that's where I found a small amount of info on them.

One of the struggles was getting info on these boots - since they're not extremely popular there are very few reviews out there from folks who have actually gotten their hands on them. I ended up ordering in 4 different pairs of the Kaylands to compare:

-Apex Plus GTX (don't have photos of these, sorry) - $150 on STP
-Apex GTX (the pair that I'm keeping) - $180 on STP
-Apex Rock - $200 on STP
-Cross Mountain - $150

Overall I will say this - Kayland puts out a product that is absolutely on par with Sportiva, Scarpa et al. Just because they aren't very popular in the US doesn't mean they are 2nd rate, fit and finish as as good or better than all other brands I tried.

Apex Plus GTX:

I don't have photos of these, but here's a stock photo:

Auto crampon compatible, integrated gaiter, insulated. Technically a B2 boot, but a really stiff one - seemed like it would handle ice climbing pretty well. I would compare them to a set of Nepals.

Lacing system is great, a set of friction hooks about the midfoot and three standard hooks above those to finish off the upper. Lots of options for different lacing techniques. This is a standard lacing system for all Kayland boots, so I won't mention them after this as I found them all adequate.

They do have somewhat of a rocker to the sole but I wouldn't want to hike in them for too many miles. Unfortunately STPs return policy doesn't allow for much more than walking around the house so I can't comment on the long term approach comfort.

I really wanted to like these boots but the lace crossing directly above the arch pinched my feet when walking downhill/down stairs. No combination of lacing could make it go away without getting heel lift, so I decided to pass on these. 

Apex GTX:

As mentioned above, these are the boots I ended up keeping. These boots would be a competitor to something like the Scarpa Charmoz (another boot that I tried for a few months).
Pretty good rocker, hikes well. Really good heel lock system, I'm sized up 1/2 a size from my street shoe and get little to no heel lift without any special lacing techniques.

Takes a semi-auto crampon, not full auto. More flexible than the Apex Plus for sure, but probably more in line with what I'll actually be using it for in Colorado (spring routes, usually with long approaches). They have quite a large toebox, bigger than the Charmoz for sure. This fits my foot quite well and allows for a little room if doubling up on socks - if I had tried this with the Charmoz it would have put enough pressure on the toe area to make them go cold faster.

Vibram New Mulaz soles in Kayland's Mountain Pro Last shape. Takes crampons quite well, my CAMP C12s fit them without issue.

I haven't put a ton of miles on these yet, but so far they have been comfortable and exactly what I was looking for. Between this and the Charmoz was a $120 difference, so keeping these was a no brainer. I also much prefer the lacing system of the Kaylands over the Charmoz and the heel lock system.

If anything changes, I'll update the review.



Apex Rock:

These boots are really, really similar to the Apex GTXs. The upper is a suede leather instead of the hardened synthetic, and the price was slightly higher. The green color was a bit odd to me too - not terrible but a little atypical. Other than that, these have the same soles, rand design, last and everything as the Apexs.





Cross Mountain:

These boots were interesting to me. They're marketed as a crossover between a backpacking boot and a technical boot, but I don't see any reason why they couldn't be used similarly to the Charmoz/Trango/Apex. They are a slightly lighter boot that the Apex GTX, a different last but with the Vibram New Mulaz soles.

They are a good deal more flexible, but stiff enough to take a crampon if things don't get too vertical. I ended up not going with them because of the stiffness issue and the weird green color. No reason why they wouldn't work well for a lot of applications though.



In the process of boot selection I also tried:
Asolo 6B+
Asolo Ascender GV
Scarpa Charmoz
Scarpa Rebel Pro
Salewa Crow

If you're curious about any of those as well I can share my thoughts - just wanted to keep this post about the Kaylands.

Hope this helps folks in the future, Kaylands really are good boots and can be found at amazing prices.

Kayland's are geat, I own several pairs and M11+ is the best ice/mixed boot I ever climbed in. 

+1 for the M11. Great boot, except I do dislike the cam lock thingys on the laces. Other than that, really good.

Beware of false websites claiming to sell Kayland.  STP and the real company https://www.kayland.com/en/   are good websites.
 " the website  kaylandbootsusa.com is not an official online store of the brand Kayland or a reseller. "

Can you comment on their fit relative to well-known brands? Good for wide or narrow feet?

Thank you. I have been wondering about these for some time now.

Kayland just like Aku and Zamberlan is a boot company, not a climbing shoes manufacturer that also makes boots (all three are very popular in Europe). I will never understand why it does so poorly  in the US (same story w Simond ice gear).

BigRed11 wrote: Can you comment on their fit relative to well-known brands? Good for wide or narrow feet?

Sure, but keep in mind this is all with boots that aren't broken in, just testing them out in my house.

All the Kaylands had pretty wide toeboxes, comparable to Scarpa. Midfoot is a little more narrow than the Scarpas and this combined with the good heel lock system gives a nice feel of stability between foot and boot while still allowing for some toe mobility and/or layering potential without squeezing the toes.

This was one of the bigger selling points for me, I found the Charmoz toe box to be too short (vertically) for my foot and it was putting pressure on my toes if using with multiple pairs of socks or one thicker pair (making toes cold). So far the extra height in the Apexs have given a fair amount more temp range for me, I used them with 2 pairs of light/medium weight merino blend socks down to ~15 deg in snow without issue.

I'd definitely like to hear your thoughts on the Asolo 6b+. I grabbed a pair on STP over the summer for a trip to the Sierras in the spring and some winter trips here on the east coast, but haven't had a chance to really test them out yet.

Noah Borthen wrote: I'd definitely like to hear your thoughts on the Asolo 6b+. I grabbed a pair on STP over the summer for a trip to the Sierras in the spring and some winter trips here on the east coast, but haven't had a chance to really test them out yet.

Iif you have them in your hands, you probably know as much about them as I do. Unfortunately with STP's return policy I was only able to walk around in the apartment, and maybe once through our parking lot/sidewalk area.

They seemed well made to me (unsurprising), very stiff and perhaps ran a little large. I ruled them out pretty quickly for my purposes as I wanted a boot that would hike pretty well. I believe the 6b+ is intended more for ice climbing than general mountaineering, I just got a little carried away when I placed my order.

I like the kayland boots I’ve tried.  Unfortunately I bought something else that’s never been as good as I remember the demo kaylands to be.  

As far as lace pressure.  A common trick against lace bite on ice hockey skates is to make sure the laces are routed from the outside in - not inside out.  This made a huge difference in my lace bite problem and you lace up ice boots similar to the way you  lace up hockey skates.

 Maybe try changing up the lacing direction if that’s the only hotspot in otherwise well fitting boots.  Lacing outside in pulls the boot in closed instead of just cranking down on the tongue.  

Kayland seems to go through a revival every 5-10 years in North America. Fantastic boots. I really liked my M11+'s.  I remember talking to a store owner once and they said the distributorship was really poor and after the first year they had trouble stocking boots and then it would fizzle out. 5 years later, another distributorship would take it up, push the product and things would be great for a while, then fizzle out...