hiking boots

Salewa Alpine Trainer Boots

(Article originally published on kyledefoor.tumblr.com)

Boots have always been on a 2-3 year cycle in my experience. Meaning that you’ll find a good pair, that company makes them for a couple years, then you start again because the company changes something, sends to China, whatever.

I’ve worn every conceivable boot in the outdoor industry at some point. I’ve had my favorites; the Vasque Sundowner when it was made in Italy for instance, but sooner rather than later, I’ve had to search again. Which led me to the Salewa’s.

Salewa has been around for a long time making skiing and mountaineering products. I’d never seen their hiking and backpacking selections until a few months ago (I think they did have some in Europe for years though).

I was on the search for a new boot/shoe to wear in the summer (not as big as the quest), plus ride my motorcycle with (High over ankle) and be able to use during my Urban Climbing courses (figure the odds of finding footwear that would meet that criteria!). I still like the Salomon Quest for cold weather but its tok much for summer and climbing in them is a joke. I’ve been having really bad luck with the lightweight Salomon shoes lately and was tired of putting money into them. I noticed that the quality, design, and parts on the Salomon xa series changed dramatically recently.

Salewa Alpine Trainer in a nutshell; completely waterproof, bomber Kevlar and climbing rubber rand all the way around the sole, excellent Vibram sole which can be resoled.
Laces that extend to the toe for a infinitely adjustable fit over various thickness of socks, neoprene achilles dirt guard, dual insoles (they velcro together) that again help adjust fit, and not that heavy (20 oz).

Salewa has some type of blister warranty too, not sure the specifics, but I think you can refund if you get one or just don’t like them.

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(images courtesy of kyledefoor.tumblr.com)

The Vasque Wasatch GTX, a combat boot replacement?

“A journey into the wilderness is the freest, cheapest, most nonprivileged of pleasures. Anyone with two legs and the price of a pair of army surplus combat boots may enter.”- Edward Abbey

What we put on our feet can make the all the difference when we hit the trail. Support, comfort, stability all factor in to how our feet hold up, and how our feet hold up is THE determining factor of what kind of shape we are in when we get off the trail. For many years my absolute go to for a trail boot was none other then Edward Abbeys recommendation, a solid, cheap pair of US Army surplus combat boots. Yes they were hard to break in but once they where, where unrivaled in comfort and stability. My combat boots stood up to everything I could throw at them, up mountains and through alpine meadows in Alaska, over sandstone and washes in Utah, rainforests in British Columbia, swampy cedar stands in Wisconsin, and almost everything in between.

It was sadly and reluctantly that I was forced to retire my combat boots from hiking duty this fall. After spending the day in a recently flooded out Paria canyon in Utah that I found my boots in shape beyond repair. I can’t say if it was trekking in the sticky mud of a canyon that had recently been flash flooded or just time but the soles of my boots were becoming completely separated from the boots themselves.

In desperation for something I picked up a pair of cheap low top trail runner/hikers to finish the trip off in. They worked well enough at first but the low top style left my ankles feeling unsupported and exposed. The final straw came on one of my last days in Colorado where a simple misplacement of one of my steps left the bottom of my right foot feeling strained. Hiking the next day I found even stepping onto midsized stones with my right foot caused me to cringe in pain. This was something I’d never had happen in my sturdier combat boots. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I had to find something as reliable to replace surplus combat boots.

Read more – Max Venom

(featured image courtesy of maxvenom.com)

How to Clean Hiking Boots

You bought your dream hiking boots and they’re finally broken in, but you’ve just come home from a hike and they’re dirty – real dirty. There’s mud on the midsole and dust on the tongue.

Do you leave it or go for a deep clean?

Clean boots are happy boots. Here’s all you need to know on how to clean hiking boots.

When’s Your Boot Dirty?

Straight out of the box, your boot is in p-e-r-f-e-c-t condition. Meaning you won’t have to do any sort of treatment to, or cleaning of, your boot, especially if it has the GORE-TEX® Membrane in it. As long as you follow the proper break-in procedure, you’ll be golden.

But once you’ve got your first hike in with your boots, and they’re caked with mud, residual creek water, campfire ashes or fall leaves, clean them. Even if they’re not that dirty, it doesn’t matter. Each step on a hike results in dust, sand, or dirt creeping in. Any sort of build up inside your hiking boot that goes unchecked leads to excess wear and tear on your boot. Extend the life of your boot by cleaning it after each hike.
Don’t sweat it if you’re exhausted after a hike. A deep clean can’t wait a day or two so long as you follow the proper washing instructions.

Clean. Condition. Repeat.

Always, always, always check the label for washing instructions. Manufacturers include all you’ll need to know about the range of materials used in your hiking boot and how you should go about washing them. We asked GORE-TEX® footwear expert Andy McQuerrey about his advice on how one should go about washing a GORE-TEX® boot:

Read more – Gore-Tex

(featured image courtesy of gore-tex.com)

What Makes Waterproof Hiking Boots Waterproof?

After doing a quick Google search for the definition of a waterproof hiking boot, we found things like “impervious to water,” “a garment, especially a coat, that keeps out water,” and “rendered impervious to water by some special process, as coating or treating with rubber.” We also saw what others call pseudo synonyms like water-repellent and water-resistant.

You’ll see those terms (waterproof, water-repellent, and water resistant) thrown around a lot if you browse a hiking boot catalog or walk through a store aisle, but what’s really the difference? We asked our Technical Consultant – aka GORE-TEX® hiking boot expert – Jonathan Swegle, and this was his answer:

“There are no agreed upon footwear industry standards for water-repellent, water-resistant, or waterproof footwear. What I can say is that the GORE-TEX® Brand logo is only placed on a garment or footwear after meeting a firm product specification for waterproofness and breathability, which varies depending on the product end use and category.”

So, the terms are thrown around interchangeably, but not with the GORE-TEX® Brand. If you see our tag on anything, it means one thing: that product is backed by our GUARANTEED TO KEEP YOU DRY® promise.

With a little bit of help from Jonathan we’ll walk through how the GORE-TEX® membrane and footwear came to be, how it’s been used so far, and what’s in store for the future.

The GORE-TEX® Membrane: Where did it come from?

Back in 1969, Bob Gore found himself in the lab trying to heat polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), traditionally used in hookup wires and coaxial cables. Instead of slowly stretching the heated material, Gore, out of frustration, applied a sudden, accelerated yank to the material. Cue the birth of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) soon to be known as the GORE-TEX® membrane.

The rest is history, as ePTFE was found to have low water absorption and good weathering properties. 1976 marked GORE-TEX® fabric receiving its first commercial order, but it wasn’t until 1982 that the GORE-TEX® membrane was used in a hiking boot. There’s some debate within Gore on who used the GORE-TEX® membrane in hiking boots first, but it was either Kastinger or Hartjes. Since then, we’ve been working to keep explorers dry from head to toe.

Read more – Gore-Tex

(featured image courtesy of gore-tex.com)

My Favorite War Boots: Zamberlan IDRA GT

There are some great boot companies out there (Asolo, Sportiva,etc) but Zamberlan is my personal favorite. These light hikers pictured are great for just that, I would also have no problem going on RECON with these boots. They have great ankle and sole support (the sole matters).

I humped a pair of the heavy weight Zamberlan’s (model not made anymore but they’re similar to this pair) all over the Afghan mountains. I even strapped gators to the boots and used them to snowshoe up some snowy peaks in north-eastern Afghanistan.

I first fell in love with these boots when I was a “new guy” M-60 gunner. Our guys were getting injured because the issued boots pretty much sucked (Desert Jungle and that goofy assault boot Oakley made among others). My Zamberlans saved my ankles in the desert under heavy load and harsh conditions. The boots that guys were going heavy to back then were the Asolos and Zamberlans.

Boot Buying Tips

Check the sole for support. Vibram soles are great for a lot of things but they are unusually noisy and bad to hunt in if you’re in the woods. If you’re climbing around rocky terrain then no worries.
Get the sizing right. No two companies have the same sizing.
Try your boots on and put weight on your back and test incline/decline. Most good stores will let you do this and you get a good idea real fast if these are the boots for you.
Upgrade to Superfeet. Your feet and back will thank you. Everything rests on your feet so take care of them with good support.
Beware of the break-in period. It seems every boot has one…2-3 weeks. Wear them wet and cut that time in half.
Ask for help. There’s some people at REI and Dicks that work to hike, take advantage of their expertise.
Make sure you are getting a well made boot that will hold up it’s worth the extra money and they’ll likely last you a lifetime.
Gore versus No Gore. If you’re going to get wet then get Gore. If not, don’t worry about it and your feet will breathe better.
Use the Double Lace through! When lacing up double through before the bow. If you take one extra wrap before making your double bow it will bind the lace in place and you will get less slip through. This is important for uniformity when carrying a pack. Try it!

Notice the extra wrap (double through) up top and just below before the lace transitions to the hooks.

WARNING: When I bought my Zamberlan’s (yess I paid $220 for them) at REI last week, I tried on a pair of Vasque Wasatch hiking boots. Everything was great about these boots but when lacing them up the metal lace tabs at the top of the boot cut the shit out of my finger (split my fucking finger nail in half and cut underneath).

I felt the tabs afterwards and they were like little razors. This is obviously a HUGE human factors oversight on Vasque’s part. I swear REI thought I was going to sue them when I had blood all over their nice packaging. Not so but, my love affair was quickly over with Vasque.

This was a deal breaker for me, if that happened during casual lace up then I’d hate to see results of lacing these boots up in the dark of the night. Medic!!!! The devil is in the details and one small oversight in human factors integration into manufacturing can kill a product……

Quality Counts and is worth the extra $$

A lifetime warranty is trumped by quality manufacturing every time. And warranties don’t matter when you are away from base camp or enemy territory. Pay the extra money and sleep well at night (keep your boots on if you’re on Recon) knowing you’ve got one less thing to worry about.

My money where my mouth is: I just paid $200+ for these boots. Worth every fucking penny.

The Zamberlan Story

Their Website

Giuseppe Zamberlan, the grand father, started the “activity” right after the end of World War 1. From simple shoe repair he moved on to footwear production, driven both by necessity and by his big passion for his local mountain range, the Piccole Dolomiti. He understood the poor performance of the early existing soles – made of leather with iron studs – and he both shared and supported the revolutionary ideas of Vitale Bramani, founder of Vibram, who was studying and developing rubber soles at the time.
These types of soles became accepted world wide for the future. He bought the fi rst machinery, started relationships with suppliers of raw materials, employed some co-workers and started a small workshop.
Of great importance was his wife – Maria – who became a skilled machinist and sewer.
Emilio, son of Giuseppe, grew up with the same huge passion for the mountains and helped his father to produce shoes until gradually he succeeded him. He continued his father’s work in directing the company towards foreign markets. Emilio was also supported by his own wife who helped him managing the company.

For more than 35 years now Zamberlan has been distributing to many European and world wide markets and today more than 90% of its production is destined for export.
Now it is the turn of the third generation. Marco and Maria now manage the family company. Like their forefathers, they too inherited the enduring love and enjoyment of the mountains and for their work, so closely related to that enjoyment, which takes them through all stages of designing, manufacturing, testing and distributing the most comfortable footwear for this purpose. 80 years after the beginnings Zamberlan is distributed in more than 40 countries and continues to manufacture its most traditional and prestigious models in Italy.

Brandon

Icebug Juniper RB9X: First Impressions

The first thing I noticed when I pulled the Icebug Juniper RB9Xs out of the box was their weight. “I thought these were supposed to be boots, not running shoes,” I thought. Well, they look like boots, but weigh less than most trail-running shoes. The Icebug Juniper RB9Xs are lightweight, waterproof, super-sticky winter sneakers.

Comfort

When I get a new pair of footwear, I don’t want to take it slow and break them in over multiple outings or wear them around the house before I actually test them. Somehow, I’ve been blessed by the foot gods, because I almost never get blisters. After running the Mountain Masochist 50-Mile Ultra, I ended up with a blister on my pinky toe about the size of a pin head. That was 2006, and I haven’t had a blister since. With the light weight and flexibility of the Icebug Juniper, I figured a ridge traverse covering 15 miles with 10,000 feet of elevation change was in order.

Wearing these is like wearing your favorite old running shoes. When laced properly, I found the ankle support to be adequate and the base platform stable. Two-thirds of the traverse was off-trail, over loose rocks, scree, ice, and about a foot of loose snow on the north-facing slopes. The sole is very flexible, but protected my feet from rocks and kept my soles bruise-free.

Specifications:

Colors: Charcoal (shown)

Sizes available: 8-12 US

Weight: 21 oz / 595 g per pair (size 11 on my personal scale)

Upper material: Icebugs’s BUGdri waterproof membrane with honeycomb textile. During my time using the footwear, I have yet to experience water or moisture leaking through the membrane. The tongue is sewn and connected to the rest of the upper, reducing the chance of debris or moisture entering the footwear. The inside lining, with very few seams, overlaps the other upper stitching, giving a sock-like feel.

Outsole material: The outsole is made of a rubber compound called RB9X. This stuff is super sticky and resembles approach-shoe rubber or climbing-shoe rubber more than a running shoe. The tread is ergonomically designed to provide traction for both uphill and downhill movement. The tread on the heel is specifically shaped to prevent the heels of the shoe from slipping on uneven or wet terrain.

Due to the short duration I have worn the Juniper RB9Xs, I cannot attest to the overall wear of the tread or speculate how many miles I will get out of the sole. I will give an update after using these through the spring and summer.

MSRP: $130.00

Application:

The Icebug Juniper is listed as a winter sneaker, but I believe it is much more than that. With the waterproof membrane and super-sticky outsole, these are every bit as capable off-trail as on. Unless you plan on carrying extremely heavy loads (I carried a 25-pound pack during the ridge traverse), these winter sneakers provide excellent protection and stability. From contracting overseas during the cooler months to thru-hiking the PCT, you won’t be slipping and falling due to your footwear. I have even crossed a number of wet Pacific-NW logs and felt just as surefooted as if I was in the dirt.

Pros:

Waterproof
Ultra-sticky rubber compound with specially designed tread for traveling not only uphill, but downhill.
Sealed tongue
Lightweight
Comfort 10/10. Obviously, every foot is different. I don’t find the toe-box to be abnormally wide or narrow, and my heel was kept locked in place.
After a full day of wear, even in warmer weather, the lining dries very quickly.

Cons:

Durability and wear of the tread is an unknown.
When the temperature rose to over 60º F, my feet got pretty warm and sweaty.

Bottom line:

Overall, I am very impressed with the Icebug Juniper RB9Xs. No matter the terrain, traction is excellent. If you are searching for a very light, cool-weather sneaker for hiking, scrambling, or operating overseas, these are definitely worth looking into. If you live in the northeastern United States, head out to Icebug’s new and first official test center in North America at the world-class permanent obstacle course racing facility in Shale Hill Adventure Farm, Benson, Vermont. The facility is open to the public, with footwear on site to run through the paces.