Aku's New Lightweight Alpine Boot

Another interesting snippet from this week's Manchester trade show - this here is Aku's new all round alpine boot, the Edge GTX, which is due out in July.

Aku is another high quality northern Italian brand that's been making inroads into the UK in the past few years and looking at the Edge GTX it's easy to see why. It's a lightweight alpine boot in the modern idiom. Designed to take crampons with a rear bale and front cradle-tyype binding, a pair of size eight weighs in at just over 1300 grammes, which is pretty damn light for a boot that should handle everything short of sustained waterfall ice.

For your money - £140 in case you were wondering - you get a an extra stiff lasting board for crampon use, a suede 1.8mm Perwanger leather upper, full rand, Vibram outsole and a full rubber rand. There's also a waterproof and breathable Gore-Tex liner to keep your feet dry.

One other innnovation is the use of Aku's IMS Techology which uses a closed cell foam internal midsole directly under the footbed to improve fit and comfort and give a lower profile to the sole unit improving stabilitty. They feel impressively light and could also be a weight-saving Scottish winter mountaineering option.

More information from the Ardblair Sports web site.