I wear gaiters while hunting in the field, and while out in fresh (unpacked) snow.

I absolutely agree with commentary to date, gaiters are quite time consuming to put on.

I checked the mudroom, the pic is one winter boot with the gaiter still on it, undone enough to undress.

The zipper is in one leg of quilted arctic weight Carhartt overalls. Notice with two pulls these can be unzipped up from the ankle to tie the bootlace; and unzipped fronm the hip down to not overheat when coming indoors only briefly from the cold.

Also pictured is a wool liner sock, an expedition weight outer sock and a packet of toe warmers. Typically I would be wearing at least one layer of long underwear and a pair of pants under the coveralls as well.

Assuming I already have all the long underwear and all the socks on, with the toe warmers starting to heat up, the clock is ticking. If I don't get outdoors quickly enough I'll start sweating and having water against skin at -20F and below is bad. Very bad. No pressure, but here are the steps.

Pull the overalls up to the waist, and sit down. Sleeves later.

Unzip the pant legs from the cuff towards the knee.

Slip on one boot. Lace it the way you want to wear it all day, because coming back to here is going to be a project.

With the boot laced up, pull down the blue jean or wool pants.

Then zip the coverall leg back down to the cuff.

Pull the gaiter up over the coverall leg.

Fold a pleat into the coverall leg.

Zip up the gaiter.

Adjust the top gaiter strap length (it varies with how many layers under the coveralls) tuck the free end inside the gaiter and then buckle.

Perform yoga to tighten the strap that runs under the boot sole.

Repeat for other leg.

Unzip from hips down to top of gaiter.

Shrug into sleeves, zip up front.

Don scarf, hat, coat, gloves.

Zip the legs back closed.

Get outdoors (without forgetting anything like cell phone) before you overheat.



I deal with gaiters pretty much daily for four months of the year every year. Commuting back and forth between my house and my job not so much. Unless we got fresh snow last night.

They do two things for me. When it blows up here, it blows hard. Making the ankle end of the trousers wind tight makes being outdoors bearable instead of miserable. On deep enough unpacked snow, without gaiters, every step pumps a little more snow a little bit further up the trouser leg. On a long enough walk the snow melts against the bare skin on my calf, and then my watertight boots start filling with very cold water.

I will opine the 4 and 6 button spats pictured would probably help, in very dusty environments to keep dust from getting inside my shoes. I am also willing to wager that however hot your feet were in that environment without spats, they would be noticeably hotter with spats.

I know some of you guys can carry off the looks already pictured here very well. This thread has reminded me that I need to take the gaiters off my winter boots so the elastic doesn't get exhausted over the summer; and that is about all the fooling with gaiters I am going to sign up for this summer.

EDIT: in autmn gaiters are quite handy for keeping mosquitos from crawling up inside your trousers when out in tall grass for extended periods.