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| Mountain Hardwear FTX Ventigaiter |
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|  Average Rating: 4 out of 5 No. of Reviews: 4 RRP: £50 Year: 2002 Description: Gaiter with an FTX Ultra 3 layer Gore-Tex upper and a crampon tough Duraguard lower. This is an extremely tough, waterproof and breathable gaiter for the extremes of a Scottish winter. Features a roll back panel with mesh venting, tough urethane foot strap, lace hook and velcro front closure.
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|  | | Posted: 13/09/04 | | 'CRAMPON PROOF...BUT OTHERWISE NOT CONVINCED' | | Strengths:
Super durable: 'Duraguard' kick patches have survived being cramponed on several occasions without any real damage and the Gore-Tex uppers have survived all the abuse that has been thrown at them (uppers have never been attacked by crampons though).
The strap with buckle method of securing the underfoot strap is considerably better than webbing with a threaded plastic webbing lock as found on my other gaitors.
The velcro only seal at the front is snow proof yet quicker than a zip and easier with numb hands/mitts on.
Having a lace hook that hooks the laces from underneath is a much better idea that the usual hook from the top method, and stays hooked all the time. | | Weaknesses:
Whilst being a nice idea, the vents don't seem to add anything (depite being a hot runner I hardly noticed the difference) and if you are unfortunate enough to end up knee deep in sticky, gritty moranial mud (yep, happened to me) the waterproof zip can get clogged - highly annoying when your vents are stuck open and your wading though knee calf high glacial slush.
Some of the metalware (lace hook and rivet on underfoot strap) is starting to rust which is very disappointing after only one 4-week expedition, I would expect the materials to be chosen to avoid this as the designers must have known that the steel would get scratched and exposed to water!
Whilst the gore-tex seems to cope well on the breathability side, the duraguard kick patches are simply not breathable: when you take them off there is no condensation on the gore-tex but (for me at least) the duraguard is almost dripping!
They're not cut too well either, there is lots of spare material around the ankle area, increasing the posibility of crampon related falls and rips, and crampon straps increase the problem by pulling some material in, creating more loose material.
The velcro closure may be easier than zips with gloves on, but it's annoying and time consuming to try and line up the velcro closure correctly, and I the velcro at the bottom will not line up at all (size large ventigaitors on size 46 Mantas).
The underfoot strap is sold as being "field replaceable". How? Its riveted in place and where would you buy a new strap from, you can't just buy a length of webbing. This concerns me as the strap is wearing though already.
The drawcord would be much better emerging from behind the knee, the excess cord sticks out upwards from the front, which looks stupid and the plastic bit at the end is uncomfortable to kneel on.
£60 (from Rock and Run) is damn expensive for what they are. | | Overall:
Some nice ideas, but the overall product is not what I would expect from the brand nor the price tag.
The toughness is the one big plus, as not many gaitors will stand repeated attacks from your 12-points, but these gaitors are spoiled in their execution by poor cut and poorly thought through details (steel metalwork, clogable waterproof zip etc.).
By no means the worst pair of gaitors you can buy, but have a good look at other brands before buying these. |
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| | | | Performance | | 40% | | Reliability | | 80% | | Value | | 40% |
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