A great boot right out of the box!

By PaleoKid Ranked #662 - Men's Backpacking Boots March 6, 2010

I have been looking for a good "light" hiking boot, and have had a variety of Vasque boots, so I wanted to keep with this company. These are a good, intermediate weight, comfortable boot.

For those of you concerned about sizing, Vasque's are a bit dicey to get right. I have had 4 different Vasque models (Catalyst, Sundowner GTX, Kota and another one I can't remember the name of), and I have had both 11 and 11.5 fit me. The Sundowner was an 11, as was the Catalyst and Kota, the un-named (similar to the Clarion) was an 11.5, so I was really worried about the Wasatch.

It turns out that the 11.5 is right on. My foot is a bit wider than normal, and I have a high arch, and normally wear an 11 in street shoes. The Wasatch has a wider, higher toe box than most, which is great for me, as I have had terrible "black big toe-nail) on hikes down the Grand Canyon. The 11.5 allows my toes plenty of space, while the rest of my foot is held snugly by the lacing system (using Ultimax socks).

I'll re-post after I break them in fully, and we'll see how they do in the Wy. Badlands this summer (my Clarion-like were destroyed by the harsh terrain last summer!). If you are forced to buy online w/o trying these on first, my sense is a 1/2 size larger than your normal shoe size is the way to go!

View Details: Vasque Wasatch GTX Backpacking Boot - Men's

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