The Salewa Alp Trainer 2 Mid Gore-Tex boot is a three season hiking boot designed for alpine trekking. Here, our Lakes-based author finds out whether they stand up to being used and abused in wetter, boggier UK mountains.
The best three-season hiking boots are all about balance between competing priorities. Can they be light and flexible enough for all-day hiking comfort, but rigid, grippy and stable enough to cope with technical rocky ground? Will they provide bombproof weather protection without feeling like heavy clodhoppers?
It’s a tricky balance to strike, but this is exactly the middle ground the Salewa Alp Trainer 2 Mid Gore-Tex is aiming for – a boot that is technically proficient on varied terrain, yet comfortable enough to walk in from dawn to dusk, and all at a reasonable price. For the most part, Salewa achieves this goal admirably, hitting a nice compromise between weight, protection, stability, weatherproofing, comfort, durability and performance.
LFTOwww.alpinetrek.co.uk
Pros
- Grip
- Comfort
- Stability
- Suede leather uppers
Cons
- Not the lightest
- Less comfortable than ultralight pairs
Upper
The upper of the Alp Trainer 2 Mid Gore-Tex is predominantly made from a 1.6–1.8mm thick suede leather, alongside stretch fabric panels, a protective rubber rand at the toebox, a solid heel cup and a metal cable known as Salewa’s 3F system (more on that later). Internally you get a Gore-Tex Extended Comfort liner for waterproofing.
The upper initially looks strong and sturdy – this is not one of those flimsy, ultralight hiking boots – but on closer inspection, we found it also has good flex to it. The leather is supple and soft, and the boot has quite a lot of lateral and longitudinal flex. There’s just enough rigidity and firmness for technical ground, but the flex ensures good comfort levels too for all-day use. It’s that compromise thing we’re banging on about, yet again.
With climbing laces and a shape reminiscent of a classic approach shoe, this boot is unapologetically alpine in its style and look. The laces extend almost all the way to the toe, enabling a tight, fine-tuned fit for enhanced precision when required.
The ankle collar and bellows tongue are nicely padded, providing a reasonable amount of protection and stability, but both are soft and flexible for added comfort too. Indeed, the ankle cuff features a ‘Flex Collar’ at the rear, a feature designed to increase the ankle’s range of motion and comfort during descents.
The bellows tongue design, which attaches lower down the ankle cuff rather than at the top, means the flood level of the boot isn’t as high as it could be. It’s also worth noting that the rubber rand only covers the toe rather than wrapping 360-degrees around the full boot, like in some rival pairs.
Midsole
The Alp Trainer 2 Mid Gore-Tex has a midsole made from EVA (a plastic with rubber-like qualities). This provided us with moderate levels of cushioning, ensuring our feet were well protected from the lumpy-bumpy mountain terrain and delivering decent comfort levels underfoot.
But this is far from a bouncy or energetic midsole with zippy recoil. That’s not what Salewa are known for, and if that’s what you’re after, try Inov-8, Hoka or others brands with plush midsoles. The heel to forefoot drop of the Alp Trainer 2 Mid Gore-Tex is 8mm.
Outsole
The Vibram Alpine Hiking outsole (which is exclusive to Salewa) features dedicated climbing, traction and braking zones, and an aggressive tread pattern. It manages to provide both feel and precision on rocky scrambling terrain, and excellent grip in wet and muddy conditions. The toe ‘climbing zone’ is great for edging and precision footwork, and the sole unit has just enough lateral stiffness to inspire confidence over rocky ground further.
Features
There are two main features to take note of. Firstly Salewa’s 3F system is a thin metal cable, housed in a casing, that connects the third highest lace eyelet, instep and heel for tailored flexibility, fit and firm support. It's no gimmick, it really helps hold the heel in place within the boot, ensuring greater ankle support and side stability, and reducing the chance of blisters.
Secondly each boot comes with two insoles – what Salewa call, in a rather grandiose fashion, the Multi Fit Footbed Plus (MFF+) system. With just the main insole, the boot is voluminous, with more width and depth than average. For some foot shapes and sizes (or if you like to wear multiple pairs of socks), this may work fine. If you need a tighter fit, you can add in the interchangeable insole layers, included with each pair at no extra cost, for a fine-tuned fit. All of which means the boots will fit a wider variety of foot shapes.
Price competition
At just under £200, the Alp Trainer 2 Mid Gore-Tex is well-priced for a technical, fully-featured boot made from a hard-wearing suede leather – comparable pairs from other brands are more expensive.
La Sportiva's TX5, for example, is comparable in price, and a brilliant boot for techncial terrain, but lacks the comfort for longer distance walking that the Salewa Alp Trainer 2 Mid Gore-Tex has.
All-round performance has been excellent. We wore these boots on a frosty up-and-down hike of Skiddaw from Keswick, for example, with slippy conditions underfoot. The fit was generally quite comfy, although bedding-in time is required – I noticed some minor irritation on my heel during the descent, but nothing that more time in these boots shouldn’t solve. I found the interior of the boot quite roomy initially, but then fined-tuned the fit to my foot shape with the additional insole.
In-use the boot felt precise, supportive and wrapped the foot nicely. The waterproofing did its job, the toe bumper protected me on scree and rocky ground, and the heel stability was solid (so your foot doesn’t move around too much inside the boot). The grip was top-notch and there was a nice balance between stability and strength, as well as comfort and flexibility.
How We Test
These hiking boots were tested by James Forrest, one of our top reviewers. James is well known in the outdoor world for undertaking huge challenges, such is climbing all 1,001 mountains across the UK and Ireland. He can be always relied upon to give his gear a proper thrashing.
James tested these Salewa Alp Trainer 2s in their non-native habitat of the Lake District over the course of several winter months.
Verdict
A technical boot striking a nice balance between competing priorities – but the alpine-style design might not suit everyone’s needs.