Good climber, not so warm

By rhyang Ranked #1017 - Men's Mountaineering Boots September 1, 2004

Worked well for frontpointing on water ice, glacier ice, and alpine ice. Very stiff, and waterproof. I didn't find them very warm, but then I get cold toes easily. For winter I will probably stick with double plastic boots.

I measure size 9.5 in a street shoe, and these in size 9.5 seemed to work ok, though with a little toe cramping (I have wide toes). I usually wear size 10 boots, but these in size 10 seemed to give me too much heel movement. Strange, because size 10 Pro Rock boots fit me perfectly. Possibly the tight fit is why I don't find them very warm.

The plastic tongue stiffener seems to work, which I used with a heel lock lacing scheme (google for 'boot heel lock' and choose the Backpacker magazine link).

I've hiked about 60 miles in these both on- and off-trail, and the sole seems to have held out fine. I have a weak ankle, and these boots provided plenty of support on a 4000' descent with a 50 pound pack full of climbing gear. I would not say that hiking in these is very comfortable (they are climbing boots, after all), but they don't give me blisters either, as long as I don't hike very fast anyway.

The first thing to do with these is to replace the stock laces and insoles - 72" tecnica trekking laces and low-profile Shock Doctor insoles were fine for me.

View Details: Salomon Pro Ice Mountaineering Boot - Men's

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