La Sportiva TX5 GTX, Men's Mountain Boots

Product Information

The Keen shoes were very comfortable and cool and were a good choice on hot and warm days. They don’t shout ‘outdoors’ so are good for use in the urban environment as well as out on the trail. They are medium weight, tipping the scales at less than a kilo for a pair of 9½s. Now that your boots are done up properly stand up on your tiptoes and walk on the spot on the balls of your feet as if you are walking up a steep hill. If your heels lift more than approximately 5mm from the footbed you may need to pull the laces tighter, or the boots may just be the wrong shape for you.

The shoes are towards the lighter end of the scales and this, combined with good comfort, made them a good choice for longer walks. The lacing extends to the toe section, allowing a good snug fit to be obtained. The forefoot is fairly wide and there was no pinching of the foot and toes. The insole has a good amount of foam padding too, and the shoe has breathable Moisture-Tech lining. The Mountain Trainer 2 is, as its name suggests, aimed at walkers heading for the peaks and hills, and has features designed to provide stability and protection on technical routes. The Belorado II is a European-made trail shoe with fabric and suede uppers with the addition of Gore-Tex waterproofing.If you can see this amount of space then you are pretty much on the way to making sure that your boots are the correct size. This space between your toes and the end of the footbed ensures that you will not stub your toes on the inside of the boot when you descend. This can be excruciatingly painful. If you can’t see this amount of space then it’s a good bet that the boots will be too small. The main part of the uppers is made from polyamide, and there are suede sections at the toe, rand, heel and tongue areas. The toe box has an added rubberised overlay, with a small outsole extension at the very front of the shoe. The outsole has additional stiffening elements in front of the heel section which provided extra torsional stability in what is a fairly pliable shoe. Best use: technical terrain, scrambling, via ferrata, mountain paths, maintained trails, urban walks.

The uppers are soft and pliable and there’s a low rubber toe box bumper, along with rubberised protection at the heel cup area. The top two lace holes are linked to part-covered cords which cinch in the instep area of the foot when the lacing is tightened. In our Hereford shop we offer a professional boot fitting service where we assess your feet, find a selection of boots that match you foot shape and most importantly we make sure that they are comfortable.This iseasy to do in the shop, where we have access tothe right tools, the option of letting you try on as many styles as you like and a knowledgeable member of staff that cancommunicate directly with you regarding your needs. The forefoot is wide and felt quite roomy, with quite a large volume, despite the low profile. The heel cup held the foot well on uphill sections, and the ankle cuff and tongue had just the right amount of padding. The uppers are 1.8mm suede and offer a good snug fit for the foot. The lacing is climbing style, extending to the front toe area. The stiffened toe box has a wide rubber overlay. A polyurethane rand wraps around the lower area of the shoe from toe box to heel cup, which is also hardened for protection. The fit of the La Sportiva TX5 Low GTX is slightly small and therefore a half size up to a size bigger is recommended. The shoes are suitable for normal feet. The ladies version is built on a ladies last that is narrower at the heel. ConstructionIt’s the lightest in the test, and uses a close mesh fabric in the uppers, with a plastic overlay round the bottom half of the shoe. The mesh contains recycled material. The Venture Vent is a neutral-design shoe that doesn’t look out of place on the High Street but is equally at home on the trail. Although the Mescalito has no membrane, the suede uppers did repel some splashing and coped with a shower or two.

The Salewa shoes felt very robust, stable and protective and worked well on technical routes, while tipping the scales at less than a kilo a pair, making them good on longer walks. Feet remained fairly cool on warmer days thanks to the venting in the uppers. Although there’s no waterproof membrane, the suede uppers did resist rain and splashes quite well. NOTE: The above table is only a guide. Manufactures don’t like tomake it easy as every single oneof them strays from the measurements above. So it’s important to think of what use you’re going to put the shoes too. We evaluated a wide variety of footwear including some with waterproof features, some without. Some of the shoes felt more at home on Britain’s mountain paths; others more suited to a stroll on the riverbank or an urban outing.

Performance Comparison

The design in understated, making them suitable for everyday use, as well as technical use on the hill. The La Sportiva TX5 GTX is an approach shoe designed for those carrying heavy loads or heading on longer hikes into the hills. However, even after the most rigorous assessment and testing, there is no better way to be absolutely sure than to have the boots on your feet for an extended period of time. We therefore offer our Home Trial Period which gives you the opportunity to wear the boots around your house to give you an indication of how they feel before you venture outside. We recommend that during the Home Trial Period that you wear the boots for as long as possible and at different times of the day, wear them up and down stairs, when moving around and when resting, you can even sleep in them if you want. Garments engineered with GORE-TEX® product technology are durably waterproof and windproof combined with optimised breathability. Gore invests heavily in field testing to understand end user needs which allows Gore to provide the GORE-TEX® GUARANTEED TO KEEP YOU DRY™ promise.