Najjar, Lawrence (2006). Gear Guy - Boots. Texas Caver, 52(2) (p. 8). Austin, TX: Texas Speleological Association.
Lawrence Najjar
It makes no sense to wear good hiking boots when you cave. Crawling, dragging your toes, sliding, water, and mud quickly destroy boots. We have two reasonable choices for caving boots - cheap hiking boots or rubber boots.
The reason to get cheap hiking boots is that when they quickly wear out, you don't care. I get Cherokee Vivek hiking boots for $18 at Target.
Cheap hiking boots offer good ankle support and great traction. But they are heavy, hard to clean, and take several days to dry out.
You have to be careful about which cheap hiking boots to get. Make sure to get boots with:
You can try to extend the life of your boots by applying adhesives like Goop to the toes and to torn seams. But the Goop hardens, gets ripped off, and ends up littering the cave.
Rubber boots are great if you're doing wet caves for several days in a row. You can pull out the insoles, dry them out overnight, and wear dry boots the next day. Sweet. They clean off quickly and easily. They're light, have good traction, and are cheap - about $18. Plus, if you get rubber boots that have heels, you can slip foot loops into the notch in front of the heels. This makes it easier to keep foot loops in place when you climb rope.
But rubber boots have some drawbacks. They have very weak rubber eyelets, so don't tighten them too much. They provide absolutely no ankle support. Since they are waterproof, any water that overflows the tops goes inside and stays there until you lie on your back and tip the boots upside down. And when the rubber soles get worn down, they are treacherously slippery.
I got six-inch high, lace-up, PVC Bata Boots from QC Supply online at http://www.qcsupply.com/Products/11465.aspx. They are only available in men's sizes. And they run a size large, so order one size smaller than you usually get or wear two pairs of thick socks like I do.
Get really good laces, especially if you do wet caves. Wet laces are weak laces. When you yank wet laces to tighten wet boots, the laces are much more likely to snap off in your hands. And where are you going to get new boot laces when you're 200 feet underground and 200 miles from the nearest Wal-Mart?
Regular cotton boot laces are a joke and even nylon boot laces don't hold up. Forget the fancy, outrageously expensive Kevlar-coated laces you can get online. They are not proven and are not worth the extra money. And don't fall for supposedly "waterproof" laces. They're just nylon laces with deceptive marketing.
Skip conventional boot laces. They don't work for cavers.
Instead, use accessory cord. Yep, three-millimeter accessory cord is tough, tough, tough. It has a solid nylon core with a nylon filamet covering and takes over 300 pounds of force to break. It comes in any length and has almost no stretch. Be sure to burn the ends so you can jam them through boot eyelets. The stuff is cheap (less than $2 for two 45-inch lengths) and comes in lots of fun colors. I got my purple accessory cord laces at REI. You can also get three-millimeter accessory cord online from Gonzo Guano Gear at http://www.gonzoguanogear.com/rope.html or other caving gear suppliers.
So, by doing a little work, you can get good, inexpensive caving boots. When you wear through the tops of the toes from dragging your feet through nasty belly-crawls, toss out the boots. And get tough, colorful boot laces by buying three millimeter accessory cord.
Great gear. Great caving.
I'll see you underground.