Top notch three/four season walking boot from the land of triangular chocolate and cuckoo clocks put through its paces on British hills.
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Raichle Mt.Trail XT GTX
Tested
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Price:
£140.00
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Weight: 1920 grammes (pair size
43)
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Features:
Full-grain waxed leather upper with Gore-Tex wasterproof and
breathable liner, Vibram Rolling II Advanced Sole Concept
(four-part sole), Motion Control, rubber toe cap.
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Stable, supportive, very comfortable.
Laces are bit thin.
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The Concept Raichle is a Swiss brand with a great reputation
for quality and the Mt. Trail XT GTX is a three/four season
'backpacking' boot that's a new this year development of their
top-selling Mt.Trail GTX, which had no 'XT'... As a three / four
season backpacking boot, it's intended to offer enough comfort and
support for long, walking days on rough mountain terrain and be
capable to taking a flexible C1 walking crampon when needed - though the boot isn't officially certified to do so, we reckon short periods of crampon use should be okay. For more sustained crampon work, you would be better off with the Mt Peak GTX.
Features The new XT differs from it's near namesake in using
full grain waxed leather instead of nubuck and adding a rubber toe
cap for protection up front. There's also a de rigeur Gore-Tex liner
to keep water out.
Less
apparent on visual inspection are two other key features. One is a
'motion control' system that uses reinforcement on the inner side of
the boot to control outwards movement of the foot along with flex
zones at the front and back of the ankle. The other is a four-part
Vibram sole unit that incorporates a polyurethane shock absorber
wedge along with a echnical polyurethane stabilizer allied to a
familiar Vibram outers sole unit. Raichle says the boot is designed
to roll forwards with a natural walking action.
Everything else is straight from the top-notch, modern boot
manufacturing drawer with neat lace furniture (!) and loads of dense
internal padding.
In Action You can list all the wowzer technical features you
like, but the real test of a boot is how it works in the real world.
The good news is that on the OM test foot, the Raichle worked very
well indeed. There's instant comfort from the ample, dense internal
padding and soft ankle cuff that minimises any breaking -in period -
we found them cushy straight out of the box.
There's decent lateral stiffness and support on rocky ground, but
what really impressed us was that the roll built into the slightly
curved sole unit meant that it felt like a more flexible unit, than
it is, particularly on hard surfaces. The cushioning underfoot was
good too, even on short tarmac sections. In fact we were surprised to
see the cushioning was ployurethane, we were expecting EVA from the
ride...
There's decent ankle mobility too with the soft, padded cuff
working well for both comfort and support. Overall quality of
manufacture and design seems very good and while it's not the
lightest boot on the market, the trade off is a solid, dependable
feel on the foot.
Harry Lime may have derided Switzerland for producing the cuckoo
clock, but all that experience of precision engineering seems to have
carried on over into boots with impressive results.
We found the Mt. Trail XT GTX offered a rare combination of
comfort, support and stability. In particular, we were impressed by
the way the rolling motion of the sole unit made the boot feel
effectively more flexible underfoot than it actually was. The result
is a boot that's comfortable over long days on rough ground and still
solid enough to cope with a backpacking load. Just about the only
improvement we'd make would be to fit slightly thicker, more
grippable laces and we'd also bear in mind that in hot conditions,
the Gore-Tex liner can make things a tad hot and steamy inside.
Fit is medium broad width and volume, so if Meindl, Scarpa or
Salomon fit your feet, then Raichle may be an option for you also. A
very nice three/four season boot.
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Performance
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Value
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Pushed for time:
Top-notch, three / four season Swiss boots that manage
to provide a winning combination of comfort and support
making them an ideal mountain backpacking or walking option.
Lots of techy features result in a nice rolling feel to the
foot strike that makes the boot feel softer underfoot than
it really is. Well worth seeking out.
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