Starting the descent of the cleaver Mt. Rainier. Crocodile gaiters in their element.
There is a simple beauty in the basic design and function of a gaiter. As a result, we tried not to overcomplicate things. We did some basecamp testing, weighing them, saturating them with water and dumping dirt over them. Ultimately though, we just pounded out some miles on trails, glaciers and scree fields to see how they held up. We typically wore multiple pairs on a single trip, sometimes with different styles on each foot to try and control for environmental conditions. We also tested each with a variety of footwear to assess each pair's versatility and did our best to wade through water crossings and stomp through the muckiest parts of the trail.
Breaking trail and testing gaiters.