My Favourite Backpacking Footwear | Salomon X Ultra Trek GTX Boots.

so hello everyone welcome back in this video today i'm going to discuss footwear and my choice for the upcoming cape wrath trail i'm going to try and redo yes it was a nightmare the last time i attempted that if you haven't seen it watch my other videos i ended up with the blisters from hell and this time i think i might have remedied the problem or at least i hope so so we're gonna have a chat about what i've decided to use and why and yes just enjoy this lovely morning not sure about the wind turbines though i suppose needs must and all that okay folks let's talk about footwear now on the cape roth trail i had decided to try the innervates and it was the rock lights and i ended up with bad blisters really bad blisters i don't know if it was a manufacturing issue to do with the rock lights because and what's not helping either is these boots because inside there at the back the stitching hear this the threads are really coarse where the gore-tex liner is and honestly it's like a cheese grater really really quite bad and also i decided to use deck shell gore-tex socks so maybe it was a combination of both i don't know but i do know that the heel on the rock lights were it was quite bad now i had worn those boots before i'd done the cape wrath i'd worn them for many many miles to try them out to make sure they would be okay obviously i didn't test them when they were wet and that was my downfall i should have done that but anyway yes they failed me and at the time before i went even in the morning before i left i was going to wear my normal boots or the boots i've worn for years and it's the salomon x ultratrex i have worn these for wild camping backpacking diy walking the dog going to the shops just wear them all the time and i've worn these or this particular pair for about the last year and a half and i wore a pair before that as well and the only reason i swapped them out was because the sole was basically worn out much like these ones and i have found them to be a really good boot online there are many people who recommend using trail runners or lightweight shoes ideally ones without gore-tex and just embrace the fact that when you're doing something like the cape raft trail you're going to get wet feet i did give a go trying uh the ultra light shoe route didn't work for me didn't like it yeah i see where they're coming from it's just a personal thing you really need to try it and see how you get on with that but it didn't work for me doesn't mean it won't work for you though so yeah maybe give a bash i didn't like it now the other thing that many will say is that boots are heavy you know it's part of a lightweight shoe blah blah blah some boots are very heavy it's just picking a boot that covers the bases and doesn't weigh an absolute ton now these soccer knees that i use for trail running are lightweight they come in at 345 grams for one shoe so they're very lightweight and i had considered using these for the cape wrath and then decided against that instead i've went and bought another pair of my old favorites i've got on just now the salman x ultratrex and this is one of the brand new ones i've got here which i am in the process of breaking in which we'll talk about as well now this comes in at 540 grams so you know 340 odd five just 100 nod grams of difference what yeah i've worn this particular set of boots here for about a year and a half two years and it's still in good condition remarkably nothing is splitting and it was the same with my other boots there's no seams coming away there's no stitching coming away the front the stitching is still intact as well as the front protection it's just been a great all-round boot i think it's a lack of stitching on it and all the fancy fabrics and such likes that made it last as long as it has it's just a great boot and as i said because of the soft leather it just molds very very quickly you could get these broken in in a matter of a day if not hours to be honest the one thing i would change is the laces the laces that come with the new boots i find them a bit difficult to tighten up they don't kind of cinch down as well as some softer aftermarket ones i've bought but that's just uh yeah that's just one wee niggle i have with them but honestly when you look at these side by side they're not too bad after a year and a half of use and also the tread is worn right down but yeah after a year and a half of use they've been absolutely excellent it's just yeah i can't believe how well they do last yeah it's it can be a bit scattish on wet ground or steep grass and you know slimy rocks and things like that but then again a lot of shoes are going to be much the same you just have to be aware that they can be a bit yeah a bit skittish at times as the word i would use and just tread carefully but on the whole i have used these for the last maybe four years i've i think i've got through a pair about or a pair of lasts about a year and a half or so there are very light and yeah waterproof boot as well i would say now they're going to get wet at some point on something like the cape wrath if you obviously submerge them but what i've found and this is my third pair i bought but going by my last two pairs and the ones i'm wearing at the moment i have still not had wet feet as long as i haven't obviously submerged the boot completely but walking through wet grass walking through streams puddles all that kind of stuff winter and walking in the snow never had an issue with wet feet you will see that i often wear my foul raven habisco trekking tights or my alp cut running tights the black ones and the reason i use tights like these now is because i want to keep ticks out of my well away from my legs getting to places you don't want them to get to i just try and avoid tacks now i really do so what i will wear is tights to try and eliminate that and because of the high top of these boots it allows me to put my tights over the top of the boot and then kind of cinch it in with these gears it also stops all the kind of crap and stones and pebbles and everything getting into your footwear as well i just think it's a really good setup and it really does stop anything kind of traveling where you don't want that i also treat my trousers with a permethrin just to try and keep the ticks at bay as well and i did get a tick bite about maybe three years ago and matter of fact i think i could probably show you that now and this tech bite has never healed and you might have seen in some of my other videos where i was i've been out of puff and aching and i suffer a lot from muscle pain that was murder i really really had a hard time with that there my god i've done about five miles and god knows how long it's taken a long time a lot longer than it should have just legs just killing me and i found out online that people that have had lyme disease or got lyme disease suffer from a lot of muscle aches and pains and when i've been doing a lot of my hill walking i'm humming to stop all the time for a breather and it's not a fitness issue and i was really quite concerned i went to my doctor i got my uh that reason the veins of my legs checked they're fine i'm fat it's just so many tests i've had done the only thing that come up and all the blood tests continuously was a high white blood cell count so it's like i was constantly fighting an infection and i believe that tech bites like that one i've had has been the reason i've had a lot of medical issues and i believe that's what it was so now on i'm doing everything i can to avoid tax [Music] i'm getting blusters on blasters oh jesus oh you just see the top of my heel maybe yeah not good not good so the upshot of this video let's get to the point i'm taking the salomons i should have worn them last time and i wouldn't had this you had and i'm definitely wearing them this time however if all goes wrong it's going to be an interesting explanation video but no i really rate these i think they're a really good boot they pair up well with my tights and gators they're great for walking in the mold to your feet very quickly i've just never ever had an issue i've never had a blaster i've just never had an issue with them again the only thing i would say is just be careful on some terrain and be aware of their limitations and that's that that's what i'm wearing i hope to get another tent review done before i set off and hopefully it will be the tent that i plan to take with me so i can show you all what it's all about i'm really looking forward to doing this walk i just want to get out and a couple weeks away in nature be fantastic so stay tuned maybe like this video maybe not if you give them a thumbs up maybe not yeah as always thank you for watching and until the next time take care

Channel: RS Outdoors

Views: 23,545

Rating: 4.9484978 out of 5

Keywords: salomon x ultra trek gtx boots, salomon hiking boots, backpacking boots, salomon boots for hiking, salomon, boots for cape wrath trail, lightweight backpacking boots, salomon quest 4d 3 gtx review, salomon quest 4d 3 gtx, salomon quest 4d, best hiking boots, quest 4d 3 gtx review, salomon quest 4d gtx review, salomon quest 4d gtx, quest 4d gtx, lightweight hiking boots, salomon boots review, salomon backpacking boots, best hiking shoes 2021, salomon best backpacking boots

Id: 0EpVfS9uVJY

Length: 12min 18sec (738 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 04 2021