Salomon Salomon Elios mid XCR

I haven't seen many people mention these with reference to mid boots. Salomon's always used to be a good fit with me (I wore out the forerunner of the Megatrek Light 6 model), but I shifted over to Meindles of late. Terrocs don't necessarily agree with me and I was wondering whether to 'return to the fold'. I see only one review for the Elioses - any other views?

Edit: I have just found the OM review here where they're seen as comfortable, but could get hot in warm weather. Anyone had experience of them getting hot like this?

Mine are comfortable, not too hot, but unfortunately not too waterproof either! The gtx didn't do the job for very long at all. Not that Salomon are worse than many others in that respect.

I've got a pair of these, and mine have stayed waterproof. They aren't overly hot, do feel nice and light, and all in all, are nice to wear. Strangely, I find that sometimes they rub the back of my heel if I'm carrying a heavier load than just a day trip (ie, I'm carrying a tent, sleeping bag, cooking gear etc) but on the whole I'm happy with them, as most of my walking IS just day stuff. Having said that, I usually wear inov8 shoes now, and prefer them, now that I've got my head round the 'never mind getting wet feet' philosophy.

 Oh, and you don't get hot feet when yer shoes let water in! ( they stay nice and cool, but dry out quick.)

I tried them on in a shop recently as I was looking for some light, summer hillwalking boots.  I found them to fit quite small, so I needed a full size bigger than my shoe size, despite wearing just one pair of thin socks.  They are quite narrow, but not exceptionally so.  The sole is fairly bendy both front-back and side-side, but it looks deep and gripping. 

The thing that worried me most was that the insole seems to be glued or otherwise fixed in place.  Not good if you like to replace them with something sturdier (the Elios insole is very soft and comfortable, but not supportive).

In the end, I decided that the Keen Targhee were a better bet - slightly more comfortable with possibly a slightly less aggressive sole, but a whole lot better insole.  Though they do look quite ugly.  I haven't bought either yet as I want to try some more before deciding.  Why can't someone make a light summer boot in black rather than all these horrible multicolour eyesores!

YMMV.

My insoles weren't fixed - I replaced them with blue superfeet no problem at all.

The ones I looked at were grey with some minor orange trim.  Note sure if that makes a difference, but I would assume they were the latest model.  I will try to look again.  It is possible that the insole was just wedged in there real tight so that I did not pull it up, but I was certainly expecting to, so I don't think I was that gentle.

Another thing I thought of is that the super grippy sole is also quite soft.  When I used it for edging / contouring (still only on the ramp in the shop), it seemed to flex quite a lot in the knobs of the sole.  For normal lower level walking this will not be an issue, but on high, steep rock it shows the limitation of the design, but then it was not designed for high steep rock.

I checked again at the weekend, the insole is removeable, but very thin around the edges, so you need to get your fingernails under it to start lifting it.  I think that was where I went wrong looking at the boots the first time.

Big problem with replacing insoles is that the crappy things in footwear are far slimmer than Superfeet. This means that once you've replaced the footbed your feet aren't sitting properly in the shoe / boot, but sit  generally higher than they would otherwise be. I've found that sometimes the back of the foot doesn't sit well in the heelcup. What I want is a boot that'll take my blue Superfeet without compromising fit. Right now, I get a better fit in my Raichles without the Superfeet.

Good point about footbeds altering the height of your heel CB.  I've had no end of trouble with my low-volume feet and actually reverted to wearing odd boots (Aku and Reichle) because one of each caused problems.

If the boot is on the large side I use Spenco insoles.  These are similiar to Superfeet with different types for general walking/backpacking etc.  But I prefer Spenco because they have pads of different consistency underneath which are positioned at stress points. Also the surface of the footbed is slightly cushioned and not as hard as Superfeet.   Cost is around £25 if I remember correctly.

I've found the boots that fit me best are Scarpa Peak (but i think they've altered the sole -damn!) and Scarpa Treck 2  (no goretex)  Both have the Skywalk sole which I find OK.  Go Outdoors were offering the Peaks at £55 (half price) some time ago but like a complete pill*ck I didn't get any.  Scarpas newish Infinity GTX won't fit and I think they're made on the same last as the Peak!

I have just returned a pair of Elios boots to Cotswold Outdoors in Tunbridge Wells as I found they leaked water in just light rain and wet grass.

I wasn't impressed to be quite honest but am happy to have a go with another pair. CO have sent the first pair off to Salomon to get them looked at.

As for the boots they are VERY comfortable, quite narrow as mentioned earier, but as a general use boot for walking the dog on the forest in, I would say they were excellent....as soon as I get a pair back that are waterproof that is!

Chairman Bill wrote (see)

Big problem with replacing insoles is that the crappy things in footwear are far slimmer than Superfeet. This means that once you've replaced the footbed your feet aren't sitting properly in the shoe / boot, but sit  generally higher than they would otherwise be. I've found that sometimes the back of the foot doesn't sit well in the heelcup. What I want is a boot that'll take my blue Superfeet without compromising fit. Right now, I get a better fit in my Raichles without the Superfeet.

That is why I take my footbeds with me when I try on any new footwear. If the sales person is not happy with me removing the footbeds in the shoes/boots when I am in the store then, I find another store.

I've ordered 2 pairs of the women's version from the Tunbridge Wells store of Cotswold Outdoors. The pair they had on the shelf had not been finished off properly and so would not have been waterproof or lasted long. They had loose stitching and the base of the sides of the tongue not stitched at all. They ordered me another pair but again I did not purchase this time as they appeared to have been worn and had shaped to somebody's foot. They then brought out another pair from stock and they had the same fault as those on the shelf. I showed them the stitching against the worn pair which had been finished off properly and explained it looked like a fault but they just put back on the shelf and offered a reduction which I refused. thse to try on are the most comfortable I have found and so I am still trying to find a perfect pair. I have ordered another pair from them but they have not contacted me to say they are in - that was 3 weeks ago.  For the price  (£90) I expect a well made boot so I am not sure whether it is bad luck that T Wells got the faulty batch or that the boot is not as well made as hoped.

I switched to a pair of Elios Mids after a couple of years of full on Scarpa's and have found them exceptionally comfortable. Did the Yorkshire 3 peaks last weekend and didn't have a single foot problem, granted my feet were tired, but who's wouldn't after 26 miles?? They were totally waterproof as well and they were given a thorough testing, marching through some very wet bog from pen-y-gent to whernside!! Possibly there has been a bad batch and this has lead to poor waterproofing and finishing off, but mine have (so far away) been great. Finished off perfectly and seem very waterproof.

I am very happy that i've found what seem to be a very good pair of boots, which technically i reckon could deal with just about anything apart from heavy snow work.

The only criticism of them, is that they seem a little slippy on limestone, now i know limestone is notoriously slippy when wet, so any boot maybe be slippy here, just need to take a little extra care!