Merrell Women's Aurora 6 Ice Plus Waterproof Winter Snow Boots - Warm Insulated Hiking Boots for Snowy Trails & Cold Weather Adventures

I am a repeat Merrell buyer-- all my boots are Merrells.When I was shown an article on the new Vibram Arctic Grip feature, I had to buy a pair of Merrells to find out how they were.First, specifics of the boot. I normally wear a size 8 in shoes. In my boots, especially Merrell, I buy a size 9. These are no different than most Merrells, though my orthotics (I'm a pronator) actually were smaller than the boot, and I have to push the orthotics to the back of the boot in order to not feel my heel falling back.They're not as forgiving when trying to fit your foot in the boot, but that's typical of winter boots that are more rubber than mesh.They're a cushy version of the Moab Mids I usually wear. I have Reynaud's, and my feet are constantly cold. I find when I'm walking in these, my feet are very comfortable. I haven't felt cold (well, my feet anyway) once.I've walked in all typical winter fare-- slush, snow, ice. My only complain is that they're mids, so I do sometimes get snow down them. I tried the Aurora Talls, and they dug into my ankles, so I opted for the mid instead.Now, the Arctic Grip feature.I fall. A lot. It could be because I pronate. It could be because I have two left feet. It could be because maybe gravity doesn't like me as much as it likes you. Whatever the reason, winter has become my sworn enemy, as I fall a lot more during the winter than any other season.I was skeptical. How can someone walk on ice? In anything? Except maybe cleats? But I saw some videos online, and I decided to give it a go.Of course, when I ordered them, there were only small patches of ice, so I needed to walk funny to test them out. But in the past week, we've had a lot of ice. Wet ice, dryer ice, snow on top of ice. Ice on top of ice. Black ice. I've been able to try every form of ice except the ice you see in spring where there are huge puddles on top.Holy cow, do these things work!My husband and our two dogs would be slipping all over the road as we walked, and I'd be dancing, giggling gleefully, because I wasn't slipping at all. I literally danced. Skipped. Ran.Big patches of white ice and regular black ice are the easiest to traverse on. If you're walking on ice covered in snow, it's slippery, but it's not as slippery as if you were wearing sneakers. I've also walked on very wet, almost puddle ice, and I found I didn't slip there either.These don't have cleat-y feet, so you're not 100% safe on ice (I wouldn't have a dance-off there). But you're 100% safer than you are with sneakers or regular boots (don't try to do the math there; just trust me).I'm very impressed with these boots, and I now wear them every time I'm even going to just walk from the car to a building.Great job, Vibram! (And thank you to Merrell for being one of the few brands who took it on.)