Sole Searching: How Danner & America's Oldest SAR Crew Built a New Mtn Boot

For the latest installment in our ongoing Sole Searching series of deep dives into past, present, and future icons with partners Vibram, we head to the Pacific Northwest to learn about a new boot from an longstanding brand synonymous with durability and function, Danner. To see how we got here, check out past Sole Searching features on NNormal and Arc'teryx.

Sometimes a shoe or boot gets made because a company sees a chance to make some money. Other times, a piece of footwear finds its genesis in a serendipitous collision of people, businesses, volcanic geography, and Samaritanism over nearly a 100 years. That is, essentially, the story behind Danner's recently released Crag Rat Evo, a rugged, all-season light mountaineering boot built on a platform of purpose-built Vibram rubber.

The introductory Sparknotes to that story are as follows. In the 1930s, Charles Danner began making spike-soled boots for logging and moved his namesake company to Portland, Oregon to support the Pacific Northwest's booming timber trade. A decade prior to that, a group of climbing enthusiasts in nearby Hood River began aiding in mountain rescues, and, by circumstance, became the Crag Rats, America's oldest volunteer search and rescue organization. The all-volunteer group still operates year-round in the Mt. Hood and Columbia Gorge region today.

Decades later, in 2018, Danner made a technical leather boot for heavy hiking and light mountaineering and gave it the Crag Rat name as an homage to the group. The bootmaker tapped Christopher Van Tilburg, medical director of the Crag Rats for a three-day photoshoot. That gave Van Tilburg an idea. "Crag Rats are most often in ski boots," he says. "When we are in hiking boots we need something that can tackle rocks, cliffs, glaciers, deep canyons of the Columbia Gorge, creeks, etc. I realized that none of the Danner boots really worked as a 'do it all' SAR boot."

So Van Tilburg proposed that the company make one. Recalling his experiences in the Alps, what he had in mind was even more technical than the leather Crag Rat: a European style boot that was light but rugged, waterproof, laced to the toe, had a full rand, and, most importantly, a beefy sole. Danner's design team worked with Van Tilburg to get a full picture of what the Crag Rats face in the backcountry—weather, environmental conditions—and necessary performance requirements. "It was critical to understand their needs in as much depth as possible," says Gabriel Phillips, senior designer at Danner. "This data informed the very first sketches and became sounding boards throughout the refinement process."

By refinement process, he means months of testing and tweaking in an open dialogue with Van Tilburg and other members of the Crag Rats. Danner integrated new techniques at the company's Portland factory, the Crag Rats put prototypes through the paces. "If something didn’t work exactly like it was supposed to, the team would figure out a solution, make a new prototype and put it back out in the field for testing," says Phillips.

The final version of the American made Crag Rat Evo is one of the most technical mountain boots Danner has ever released. "Making a pinnacle product for people who literally put their lives on the line to help others meant that we were undoubtedly going to use the best materials we could find," says Phillips. It has a synthetic upper made with breathable Perspair thread and a PrimaLoft Aerogel toe cap for insulation, a GORE-TEX waterproof liner, an OrthoLite footbed, and, crucially, a Vibram Mulaz outsole.

"The Mulaz is one of the most trusted mountaineering outsoles in the world and adapts to a variety of alpine conditions and terrain," says Will Pennartz, Vibram's VP of marketing in North America. This particular Vibram sole is specifically made for technical use in the mountains with a spread of stability lugs, multi-direction lugs, and a smear zone for edging. Imperative to the design is the company's Mont rubber compound, which is formulated to perform in sub-zero temperatures. "Since the Crag Rats will see extreme temperature ranges during rescues, we knew it would be the ideal compound," Pennartz says.

For Danner's design team, a Vibram Mulaz outsole was a no-brainer. "For those who pay attention to performance elements like this," says Phillips, "the Mulaz is an icon."

The Crag Rats continue to operate similarly to how they did nearly a century ago. The group is made up of volunteers—doctors, nurses, ski patrollers, mountain guides, orchardists, lawyers, teachers. Eighteen is the minimum age for initiation but one member is 95. Qualifications include completion of a basic first aid class and Incident Command System certification, and also successful climbs to the summits of Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams. There's a hut in Pine Grove that serves as a meeting hall and a search and rescue base in the Cloud Cap Inn at 6,000 feet. There aren't uniforms, but wearing a black and white buffalo plaid flannel serves tradition.

Now the Crag Rat Evo is part of that story too.

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