What happens when you take the technology used in light-hiking boots and apply it to a full-on, crampon-compatible mountaineering boot? A quick taster with more to follow soon.
This is a quick taster for you - a couple of weeks back, we flew
out to northern Italy to meet the guys from AKU boots in the
boot-making heartland around the town of Montebelluna.
The point of the trip was both to see AKU's factory in action -
more of which in the near future - and to have a scoop look and try
of AKU's new Spider GTX mountaineering boot, which is what you
can see in the pictures.
The company is best known for its excellent lightweight hiking
boots, but recently, they decided to develop a state of the art,
lightweight all-round mountaineering boot using the lightweight
technology developed for their walking boots.
To make sure it worked, they enlisted the help of an elite group
of Italian climbers, the Ragni de Lecco - literally the Spiders of
Lecco - who's members have included names like Cassin, Mauri and
Ferrari. The Spiders worked on the development and testing of the
boots and, of course, gave it its name.
We'll telll you a lot more about the boot in a few weeks time, but
as a taster we can tell you that features include uppers made from
microfibre and Nylon/Kevlar materials to save weight and improve
drying times over traditional leather, the use of a TPU reinforcement
rib - the orange wavey bits in - instead of a traditional rand, an
original lacing system and a specially designed lightweight Vibram
sole unit.
The result is a boot that's fully C1 crampon compatible, yet
lightweight and, say AKU, rated down to -25C.
We spent an afternoon meandering across a Swiss glacier in
Scottish-style conditions and we were dead impressed with the
combination of instant comfort, walking ease thanks to the rocker on
the sole and precision with crampons.
How light? When are they out? I'm afraid you'll have to wait for
now. Oh, and the writing on the heel, that's the signature of AKU
founder Galliano Bordin
