Lowa Mountain Boots
Equipment Review for Wildlife Britain
© Lowa
When you're out enjoying the countryside, or busy tracking particularly elusive wildlife, you don't want anything to detract from the job in hand. Particularly not the sensation of sore feet.
Now, I'm quite hard on my footwear. I like standing in muddy puddles for no reason, before walking for miles, crossing a river, then climbing up a cliff. My previous pair of boots had served me well, but when their time came to an end, the search was on for a worthy replacement.
I expect several features from my footwear. Firstly, and in common with everyone else in the civilised world, I expect them to be comfortable. Furthermore, I expect them to be comfortable all day long, regardless of whether I've been walking on flat ground or terrain of a more undulating nature. Typically this entails some form of ankle protection.
I expect good tread, not just to provide traction in muddy conditions, but also to help out in more slippery situations - wet rocks, for example.
Things get more complicated with my final two demands: because I never really grew out of the childlike phase of jumping in big puddles, I also need my boots to be waterproof. 'Water-resistant' is something of a modern misnomer that leads people to believe that their feet will be kept dry in all conditions, when in fact a 'resistance' to water really only means dealing with a passing shower. Water-proof, however, generally means what it says on the tin, and usually includes a bellows arrangement around the tongue to keep water out.
And lastly, I need to be able to drive in them.
So, a tall order, then?
Made to the specifications of the German Army along with the similar, but taller, Combat Boot, the Lowa Mountain Boot offers a number of carefully thought-out features to satisfy even the most demanding consumer.
The boots are designed with an asymmetric walking position whereby the ankle section is canted outwards at an angle of 2°, the idea being to make the boot feel more like an extension of your leg from the moment you first take them out of the box. The need to break-in a new pair of boots is said to be almost completely removed.
A flex panel in the heel section allows the ankle to move in a natural and unrestricted way, reducing fatigue in both the wearer and the boot itself as the day passes.
© Lowa
A system of insulation and ventilation ducts (dubbed the 'Advanced Climate System' by Lowa) provides retained warmth in the winter months whilst also using the pumping action of walking to provide air circulation for use in the summer.
The tread offers three distinct areas - the braking zone, stepping-off zone and stabilising zones - although I couldn't necessarily identify each one without the aid of a diagram. It's true to say, however, that I haven't fallen over once while wearing them.
Add-in the Gore-Tex construction and the nearly full-length bellows tongue to cater for my water-proof demands, and we have what appears to be a full complement of features. So how do they work in practice?
After months of hard use, I can vouch for their initial comfort - no breaking-in was necessary - and they almost immediately adopt the feeling of your favourite pair of old boots. Traction is more than adequate, and crossing streams the easy way (i.e. walking directly through them) doesn't involve a change of socks afterwards.
I did discover one negative aspect, however - noise. Stalking wildlife is a pastime that demands blending into the surroundings. My camouflage clothing is selected on this basis, so I was a little surprised to find my new footwear making a passable impression of Gordon the Gopher. Luckily, the squeaking was silenced by a liberal application of boot polish around the tongue area.
Priced towards the top-end of the market at around £140 a pair, the Mountain Boots represent reasonable value for money. They're certainly the most comfortable boots I've owned, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they stand up to years of use and abuse.