Although I live in the soft south of England my regular winter routine type day walks include a huge variety of terrain. From road walking and hard packed chalk and rocky greensand, long soaking wet grass and down to the valley bottoms where footpaths turn to streams, deep mud made worse by vehicles/stock and much deep standing water.
So unlike the summer when I always wear my trusty Inov 8s I have tried a number of solutions. Just recently wore a very old pair of Nokia Bog Trotters (now called Trimmi). Very flexible which I like as feet get to work inside the boot rather than being static. Good grip soles which dont clog up BUT they leak! Probably my fault as for years I didnt use them and stored them in a shed!
So I now am undecided whether to buy another pair of Nokias or perhaps try the new generation of Welly such as the Aigle Parcours Bottillon Ankle Boot. I have the ISO which I bought just in case we get snow and I have to spend hours shovelling it from the drive. The Aigles are quite a bit thicker than the Nokias but not sure if this is a good or bad thing in practice. Walking on hard surfaces with the Nokias even with a Sorbothane Insole caused legs/feet to ache after about 7-8 miles but as I say good for the wet muddy sections. The Aigles are sold as being on a walking last. Wonder how they compare with the Nokias walking on hard surfaces and walking up steep hills. As I say the Nokias are very thin so they probably perform much like trainers where your feet are "active" and not "passive" which I like. I find as one gets older its best to work the feet as this appears to keep them more supple rather than encasing them in rigid leather etc.
Anyway any thoughts gratefully received and all the best for 2012. Frank.
i use the Aigle Parcours Vario Outlast Boot - simply because it's what they had in the shop (it's bloody diffricult buying wellies) and they fitted me perfectly - my shapely calf meant i couldn't use normal wellies (hell of a job trying to get them off).
i find them perfect for walking being able to just go in a straight line. mud? what's mud? i use a conform'able footbed in them to prevent my foot sliding about. they have the usual no sole stifness but the boot with the insoles provide plenty of support. once you get use to the all direction bendy soles they're fine. they work very well with kahtoola microspikes. i think the aching feet/legs comes from less all round foot support as you feet can slop about inside - rather the opposite of inov-8's.
should you be in london there is an aigle shop in the main part of the covent garden piazza.
oh, i would recommend you try them on first as i discoverd wellies come in a rather wide range of sizes
