Garmont New For 2002

It's hard not to like a company who give you an excuse to spend two days out in the Snowdonian hills, which is why we can tell you, unequically that Garmont boots are officially a good thing.

Garmont? They're the pedigree Italian bootmakers who produce KSBs for Karrimor. Now, slightly confusingly, the Garmont brand is also going to be imported by Karrimor. So what's the difference? Slighly different models and a different fit - the KSB range is designed for a slighty broader UK foot, or rather a higher volume forefoot.

Whatever. In practical terms it means that if your foot is too narrow for a KSB, it's worth taking a look at a similarly specced Garmont boot.

We had a sneak preview of the 2002 range and were fairly well impressed with what we saw and by our on the hill experience using the boots - see the impressions in the review section shortly. In the UK, Garmont are concentrating on three main areas: high end mountain boots, approach footwear and what they call 'active', which are lightweight trail running and walking shoes.

The thought that's gone into the design is impressive, but we won't bore you with all the sordid details here, instead, here are a few of the boots in the Garmont 2002 range that look interesting.

Mountain Lite GTX - £180

Apparently the idea for the Mountain Lite came from watching Will Gadd cutting the tops off his climbing boots at the Ice Climbing World Cup to improve his ankle mobility for those 'out there' moves. Garmont's answer is a boot with a fully rigid carbon fibre shank and a low cut ankle with a comfortable, flexible cuff for maximum mobility.

Looks like it could be the next step on from something like Scarpa's Freney for super technical winter climbing. It also uses a neat, new Gore liner called Duratherm, which is a waterproof / breathable bootie bonded to a quilted insulating layer. Other features are a construction that sits the foot low for more sensitivity and a conventional eyelet and webbing lacing system to really cinch the boot onto the foot. Interesting.

Ferrata Boot £110

The Ferrata is part of the Approach range and looks like it could be a seriously useful piece of kit. Essentially it's a modern re-invention of the traditional Kletterschue with a stiff inner sole for standing on smallish holds coupled with sticky rubber on both sole and rands for effective climbing use, but without sacrificing too much durability.

The name suggests these are designed for Via Ferrata-type protected climbs and we reckon they'll work well for these, but potentially it should also make an excellent scrambling boot, take a flexible crampon for glacier approaches and function well for lightweight mountaineering on long rock routes or for easy rock climbs. Fit is designed to be snug for precision. Could be a good bet for professional instructors and mountain guides who need a combination of toughness, support, comfort and climbing capability.

There's also a low-cut version of these, the Dragontail (£90) the point of which we haven't quite figured out, but is fancied to sell as a climber's lifestyle statement shoe. They look nice though...

R2 Active Shoes

The other area where Garmont is looking good is in the R2 'active' trail shoes, which use a cunning spine-like 3D Phylon mid-sole designed to give longitudinal flex like a running shoe, but with much greater lateral stability, so the shoe won't twist easily on uneven ground.

It's hard to say how well they'll work in practice, but a good hands-on sole flexing session felt pretty good and seemed to live up to the claims, they look nice too and at 50 quid, the Aroya, in men's and women's fit is competitively priced.

One reservation though, even the top end Pantera shoe, which has some running pretensions, has quite a shallow tread to the sole. It may work well on dry, hard trails, but it's hard to imagine them lapping up the Peak District mud for long.

Check out the Garmont web site.