Aku Spider Tested

Aku Spider Boots Tested

Price: £ tbc

Weight: 1820 grammes (men's 42.5)

Features: Kevlar micofibre uppers with Duratherm lining, Vibram outsole, rigid carbon-fbre lasting board, direct-0injected PU internal mid-sole, radical lace hooks, removeable, adjustable tongue, asymetrical closure, curved mid-sole, three-layer insole.

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What's It For? Developed in cooperation with the renowned Spiders of Lecco climbing group, the new Spider Kevlar GTX is Aku's showpiece superlightweight mountaineering boot.

To put it in context, it's a bit like, say, Fiat, building a Ferrari and attempting to do it better than Ferrari do. The Italian company - Aku that is, not Ferrari - is best known for its light-hiking boots which use lots of advanced technology to lose weight and improve performance.

With the new Spider, Aku decided to apply it's design brain power to producce a technical mountaineering boots suitable for all-round technical climbing - rock, ice and mixed - in sub-zero temperatures down to around -15 C they say. And - this is the important bit - weighing in at around 20 per-cent less than comparable boots.

It'll take a fully automatic C3 crampon and thanks to its cunning construction, should combine comfort with technical precision, which isn't always feasible.

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The Techy Bits As you might have have guessed, the Spider is something of a technical boot construction fest with cunning solutions all over the boot aimed at improving performance, saving weight and, for heaven's sake, improving comfort.

The upper, for example, uses a non-wicking, Kevlar-based synthetic microfibre fabric for what Aku says is a tough boot that will also resist stretching and abrasion. There's no heavy rand either. Instead that orange pattern is a tough plasticky overlay designed to offer some extra protection.

There's more weight-saving from the expanded PU-injected mid-sole, which also improves comfort and from lightweight lace hardwear including a cunnng patented upper lace system allowing easy lock off at the ankle. Even the Vibram sole has been designed to Aku's specification to reduce the amount of heavy rubber used while maintaining grip.

The ankle area has asymmetrical padding so there's less material in high pressure areas, more where there's naturally more room and the entire tongue unit is held in place with Velcro tabs so you can move it up and down and from side to side to fine tune the fit of the boot on even weird feet...

The lasting board is curved for comfort but made from carbon fibre for lightness and totally rigid and gives the underside of the boot a distinct curved rocker for walking comfort - often an achilles heel with fully rigid boots.

We could go on, but you get the idea, the boot has been exhaustively thought through and developed with feedback from the Lecco climbers at every stage.

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How It Performs All the tech stuff's fine, but does it work? We've used Spiders in the Alps, then we lent them to Adam van Lopik for some Scottish winter climber earlier this year. Here's what we made of them:

The Alps we took the Spiders for a three-hour mixed walk from the Diavolezza Hut where the boots were launched. First impressions were of just how light and comfortable they felt on the foot. That's something you expect with a lightweight walking boot, but it's unusual with a technical mountaineering boot.

They felt cushioned and reltively easy to walk with on rock thanks to the curved rocker of the sole unit, supportive around the ankle but not uncomfortable and precise in a way that full-on mountaineering boots rarely are. They were also warm thanks to the Duratherm insulation and kept our feet dry on an un-alpine, Scottish-type day.

They felt fine with crampons too with enough ankle flexibility for easy movement on undulating glacial terrain and steeper ground. They're comfortable enough that we would just about wear them for Scottish winter mountain walking, but they have a reserve of technical useability that most boots this light don't.

Scottish Winter (Adam van Lopik) Adam borrowed the Spiders for a week of Scottish winter climbing in February. He thought the fit was excellent for a narrow to medium voume foot, maybe too narrow for a classic British wide foot.. He had no problems with heel lift used with a set of Charlet Moser S12s.

Walking, he says , was better than with most heavy mountain boots, though still quite 'stiff and clumpy on rocky paths'. On mixed ground and rock he found the boots lights and very precise. He wasn't able to front point consistently in them, but reckons the padding at the front of the ankle would be firm enough to prevent the laces from digging in.

Though the weather was relatively dry for Scotland and not super cold, he found the boots stayed dry when leather boots were having to be dried out at the end of the day.

Adam reckons that the skeletal PU protection pattern was sited a bit high to have much real use and had minor problems with laces popping off the top two lace hooks probably because of the tension within the lacing system changing. He liked the novel Aku lacing system with its dual hooks.

He summed them up like this:

'In summary, I really liked them. They're as good as anything else i've tried but significantly lighter and they seem to take up less water and dry quicker than leather boots. They're certainly ideal for general winter climbing and on the right feet I reckon they could climb very hard indeed. I think that they're maybe a bit over the top for a winter hill walking boot - you'd definitely want to be doing technical stuff to get the most out of them.'

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Verdict

It''s testament to the quality of Aku's operation that they've come up with a technical mountaineering boot that weighs the same or less than a lightish winter mountain walking boot, yet is clearly capable of tackling hard climbing. Adam climbed a III and a IV in them, but could see their potential to go further.

All that technology really does seem to add up to a lighter, more precise and very effective boot and if you're looking for a winter climbing boot this year, they're definitely worth considering.

To underline that, Adam got back in touch a couple of months ago to borrow the Spiders for an alpine trip after scouring the shops for an alternative and being unable to buy a pair himself.

Finally, the performance of the Spider emphasises the overall quality of Aku's footwear. We spent half a day at the factory in Italy - above - and were blown away by the care and thought that goes into producing a typcial pair of Aku boots.

The Spiders will be available in the UK in October, just in time for winter. More information on availability from UK importers Ardblair Sports.

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Light, precise, comfortable and technically adept. They won't be cheap.

Performance
Value

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Aku web site

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