Salomon Toundra Forces CSWP

Do you freeze your toes easily? With these you won’t. These space-age waterproof winter boots are probably the warmest tactical boots found on this planet and the next. And we haven’t seen warmer civilian boots either, unless you count the biggest moon boots out there that turn you into Bob the Wobbler. Excellent for (Ant)Arctic military stuff, hunting, hiking, ice fishing, wilderness skiing, snowmobile riding, and snowshoeing.

Features

Salomon Toundra Forces is the tactical version of Toundra Pro. If you are familiar with the civilian model, featurewise these are very similar, but they have regular lacing instead of the hooks found on the hiking boots. Furthermore, they don’t have any reflecting bits.

At the first glance, this boot looks like a regular tall yet a bit chubby army boot. However, when you take it in your hand, you’ll probably be a bit amazed by how light it is. One boot only weighs c. 640 grams / 22.6 oz (size 42). Even though the insulation makes these a little bit bigger than summer boots, they are very pleasant to walk in and enable you to do all the tacticool moves that winter allows you to do.

The insulation, known as AeroTherm AeroGel, was developed for NASA. This waterproof material makes these boots the warmest Salomon boots. It is very lightweight and does not compress or lose performance under pressure. The company promises the following impressive figures: Comfort -30 °C (-22 °F) , Limit -40 °C (-40 °F) , and Extreme -78 °C (-109 °F). We haven’t been able to test them in those temperatures but sitting in snow at below -20 C (-4°F) for a few hours went very nicely.

The tread pattern is Winter Contagrip^®, which is quite coarse. The boots also feature the ClimaSalomon Waterproof (CSWP) membrane, so they also work in wet and cold environment. Made in Cambodia.

Use

These boots are made for freezing weather military and law enforcement use, and they do their job well. However, they are also great for wintery hunting trips, such as northern deer or forest bird hunting as well as forest skiing and snowshoeing. There is a groove at the back of the boot for the binding but the front isn’t shaped for e.g. traditional Finnish military bindings. But modern snowshoe and OAC ski bindings work very well.

When walking in deep snow, wear gaiters with these to keep the snow out. Because these are really warm, bring along indoor shoes if you plan on using these on your winter commuting. Otherwise your toes will boil in the office atmosphere.

If you want to find out more, read our field test article.

Sizing

Sizes are listed in the UK size, then you have the comparable EU size. Foot length in millimeters is found in the chart below. The fit is wide, which is good for winter use.

Below you’ll find the measuring guide for Salomon footwear.

• Use a shoe box or a wall with a 90° angle.
• Find a sheet of paper or a sheet of cardboard, a ruler and a pen.
• Wear the same socks that you would normally wear with this type of boot.
• Stand on the sheet of paper and place the outside of your foot against the wall. Or place your foot in the shoe box with your heel wedged firmly against the back.
• Use your pen and ruler to draw a line just in front of your big toe.
• Measure the distance between the wall or the side of the shoe box and the line that you have just drawn.
• Find this measurement in millimetres in the drop-down box. As a rule of thumb, winter boots should usually be a size larger than your summer boots.