Mountaineering boots are one of those pieces of equipment that are hard to pull the trigger on. For starters, they cost a small fortune. The entry price point seems to be right around $300 a pair. Y’ouch.

And that price tag is made more painful by the fact that the activities that actually require these boots are the types of things most of us only do a handful of times each year. Things like ice climbing, winter overnights, and long mid-winter day hikes.

For Jess and me, the price just didn’t justify the use we would get out of them – especially since you can typically rent these types of boots when needed.

But, of course, that was before we moved to the Adirondacks. Winter shenanigans are no longer going to be restricted to long weekend getaways for us. In fact, we expect to be rolling around in the snow and ice every chance we get now. Mountaineering boots were something we had to consider, something we just had to suck it up and do some research and drop some cash on.

But damn, 600+ dollars for two pairs of these things is still a hard pill to swallow.

So imagine how big my eyes got when we drove by The Mountaineer in Keene Valley and saw a row of plastic winter boots on the porch! For those not familiar with The Mountaineer, the porch area often serves as their sale or outlet section – and in this case what they were doing was selling old rental boots… for cheap.

Perfect! We found our sizes, got some advice from our new friend Jan, and walked out of there with two used – but perfectly usable – pairs of Koflach Degre plastic climbing boots. All for a fraction of what we thought we were going to have to spend. Even if we only get a season or two out of them, we will still have saved a nice chunk of change.

It is almost enough for me to wish winter were here again (I know, I know, spring just got here…)