The Altra Lone Peak KILLER

well hey guys it's Darwin here with a full long-term review of what I'm calling the ultra Lone Peak killer the toppo [Music] pursuit all right so admittedly I have been an ultra Fanboy for years hiking thousands of miles of longdistance trails in a ton of their shoes uh from almost every single version of the Lone Peak to the Olympus and the temp I've used a lot of ultra shoes but about 6 months ago I started looking for something new something different to try on a bunch of my hikes mainly because of ultra's what seems like nonstop durability issues they just don't last like they used to when I first started wearing them and for years I've gotten a ton of recommendations into trying uh toos mainly because of their wide toe box just like Ultras and it wasn't until until recently when toppo put out their zero drop shoe the pursuit that I finally decided to give him a try so over the last 6 months I have been putting these things through absolute hell uh hiking a big long section of the PCT in Washington and the Cascades taking them to Nepal and doing a 10day trek through the Himalayas up to goo lakes and Everest Base Camp uh getting back into trail running and putting a lot of miles on these on my local trails and even doing some climbing trips where I was using this shoe for a ton of steep Rock scrambling I feel like uh I've got enough miles and usage out of these to give my final thoughts and and say if I really do think these are the ultra Killers so per usual toppo did not pay me for this review they didn't ask me to review their shoes and I bought two pairs of these at full price and before we get into what I like like and what I don't like let's go over the specs the pursuit is a zero drop Trail Runner with an extra wide toe box just like the Ultras it has a 28 mm stack height and features what toppo calls their zip foam midsole the outsole features a super grippy and well lugged vbr meag grip rubber it has no Rock plate in it and it is trailgator compatible with their own proprietary Gators I wear a size 12 and men's and on my scale these bad boys come out to 11.5 Oz a piece all right so starting off what do I like about the pursuit what are the pros for me first off is going to be that uh that zip foam midsole out of all the trail shoes that I've used over the last handful of years this has definitely been the most comfortable and most durable midsole that I've ever had in a shoe um after a couple hundred miles on a trail Runner that foam starts to break down it starts to kind of Squish and what I call pancaking out um to where you know it's just getting a little bit thinner and every time that you strike uh the ground especially like a rock a hard surface you can start to feel the ground more and more as you can see after all of the miles that I've put on these and all the crap that I've hiked on the foam is still in real really great shape they're nice and responsive they have a good amount of cush to them and they've still held up great as you can see they just haven't really squished out and speaking of the foam and that midsole it is a 28 mm stack height which for me is kind of the perfect amount of cush my old favorite shoe that I've ever used was the ultra temp 1.5 and it had a a 29 mm stack height so for me that is like the absolute perfect amount of Cushing whether I'm hiking with a pack on having that extra weight or I'm trail running so these having a 28 mm stack height is perfect it's it's not too squishy uh it's not too clunky but it's just enough to where I'm not feeling what I am striking on the ground whether it be rock or root or anything else the other thing that I really love about this shoe is the uh is is the grip um out of all of the vbr grip uh the outsole vbr outsoles that I've had this one has definitely been the grippiest whether it's on wet Rock loose Sandstone Rock I was hiking on a bunch of glaciers over in Nepal this stuck to everything super super well so I really really really dig the vbr grip now I've had tons of different Trail Runners that have had vbr Mega grip on them but I think it's a combination of that and then the lug pattern that toppo decided to put on this shoe and then the other thing uh really the main thing that I love about the pursuit is its durability out of all the things that I've put this shoe through out of all the miles that I've hiked on it out of all the different environments out of rock scrambling and running and rock just everything this shoe still looks great it has held up way better than any Ultra Shoe that I've ever had at this point of its life there's no delamination the foam hasn't squished out um there's no holes in the mesh uh the shoe looks great it's a little dirty but aside from that it's held up great there really only two spots in the shoe that wore out uh first off you know the lugs have definitely worn down a little bit just after all the miles that I put on them but still have a ton of life left in them and on uh one of the shoes this foam right here this uh this fabric has kind of ripped open in a few spots mainly because I was doing a bunch of rock scrambling over in Nepal and I think that I just rubbed that on a bunch of rocks and broke it down but aside from that and the lugs being a little smaller than they were when I first got them these shoes still have a ton of life left in them and I can say that this shoe has kind of made me realize how long a trail Runner should last I was lucky if I was getting 300 mil out of a pair of Lone Peaks over the past handful of years this has well surpassed that and still looks and performs great so that's what I like about the shoe what do I not like about the shoe what are some of my dislikes well I I would say the kind of the biggest one that I don't like about the shoeer that I've had problems with is the insoles and not their insoles my insoles because of how they did their footed my custom insoles don't really fit in there quite right and when I first get a pair of these and I put my insoles in it's pretty uncomfortable for the first couple of days I don't know what it is I don't know if it's the shape that they went with the depth that they went with but my custom insoles don't quite fit in here right I have to do a lot of trimming and a lot of adjusting and eventually they do wear in but right out of the box they're a little funky that being said the insoles that they do include with these shoes are pretty damn comfortable uh I used the stock insoles for the first week and it's probably one of the cushiest nicest insoles I've had in a shoe so if you're a person that uses the stock insoles in a shoe that's not going to be a problem for you um but if you're someone that's like me and uses a custom inso know that there's a little bit of like a break-in period the other thing that I'm not a big fan of is something that I hate when any shoe company does and that is the whole proprietary Gator system so so as you can see the front has the little bitty ring on it where you can hook a gator into but the back has this kind of weird little bumper rubber bumper plate that has these little hook spots that only work with toppo's proprietary Gators I hate when companies do this shoe companies stop doing this I get that you want to make more money I get that you want people to buy your Gator and not use their own but if I wanted to use my favorite Gators right now the dirty girl Gators now I haven't used these for years but if I wanted to use them I couldn't even glue a piece of Velcro on the back because they're really isn't enough room for it this is a bit of a bummer if I did want to use some Gators and I had to use theirs and then the last thing I guess I can say about the shoe that I don't really like is uh is the price I just bought another pair of these and they retail for $140 which is pretty damn steep for a pair of shoes they're probably the most expensive Trail Runners that I've ever bought that being said they do last a long time you can see the durability is phenomenal so I guess you get what you pay for I feel like you know I can get uh by the time I go through one pair of these shoes I would have already used two pairs of Lone Peaks so it's something to consider if you're thinking about investing in a pair of these shoes as they do have a pricey uh price tag so overall what are my final thoughts on the toppo pursuit is it the ultra killer for me yeah I think that this is a perfect replacement for the ultr Lone Peak and the temp right now if I was going to go out and do another through hike of say the PCT or the CDT this would be the shoe that I would reach for mainly because of the durability I know that these are going to last I know that they're going to hold up and I know that they're going to be comfortable and not squish out for quite some time so to me yeah this is definitely the ultra killer and I will probably never buy another pair of ultra shoes Ultra step your game up all right so hopefully if you've been thinking about making the switch or finding something different from Ultra or you've been thinking about uh trying a pair of topos the Pursuits in particular hopefully this review gave you a little bit of an Insight uh from my experience with the shoe what I've liked and what I haven't liked speaking of that uh have you tried topos uh have they become the ultra killer for you or what other shoe have you been hiking in what has been working leave me something down below and let me know your thoughts guys I hope you're doing well I hope you're taking care of yourself I hope you're taking care of each other I love you and as always thanks for [Music] watching [Music] a

Channel: Darwin onthetrail

Views: 93,767

Keywords: UL Backpacking, UL Hiking, UL Hiking Gear, AT, Zpacks, Visp, PCT, Pacific Crest Trail, PCT Thru Hike, AT Thru Hike, Appalachian Trail, Colorado Trail, Great Divide Trail, Backpacking, Hiking, Adventure, Hiker Trash, Long Distance Hiking, Thru Hike Gear List, Favorite Backpacking Gear, LOng Distance Hiking, CDT Thru Hike, Continental Divide Trail, CDT, Altra Lone Peak, Altra Timp, Topo Pursuit

Id: fUUYw05wPWo

Length: 11min 10sec (670 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 08 2023