Tecnica Forge line of hiking boots includes CAS Custom Adaptive Shape system the molds both the upper and a custom bed.

When I was a wee lad of 23, I’d become frustrated with mountain boots that only lasted me a couple of NOLS mountaineering courses. I was working as an instructor, backpacking hundreds of miles on granite gravel and rocks, snow climbing, and even rock climbing in my big klunky leathers.

While I did practice exquisite denial about the cost of my gear, and was even then buying equipment on pro discount, I could not help but notice the cost of my boots was a good percentage of the money I made per course — coin which otherwise was destined to buy oatmeal for consumption in Yosemite. Giving up on mainstream products, I figured something custom built by Europeans in the Alps could perhaps last more than eight weeks. Specifically, the shoe makers in Kitzbuhel Austria, who I figured must possess the secret of cobbling boots that didn’t become tattered ribbons the first time they kissed Wind River granite. In a series of overseas letters and a scratchy international phone call, I ordered a pair of Haderer mountain boots, made from a tracing of my foot.