After that I started wearing the Timberland more extensively. It had already gone to Mr Mochi once. But after the North Bengal bird festival it gave in completely. The pasting came off once again. I somehow managed to finish the trek but the shoe will obviously have to be retired off. While I will take it to Mr Mochi once again, I cannot depend on it for long hikes on rough roads. It can at best serve as a motorcycle riding boot where long walks will not be involved. The shoes served me well for about eight years and I am very happy with them.
Incidentally I am keeping the Meindls with me for now. In case I go to England or the US I intend to try and get them repaired. They have highly professional repair shops there, which we don't have here. In fact Meindl itself repairs them - one has to send them through the dealer - but it costs 110 pounds or more. I shall see how to deal with it.
I knew I would buy the Salwa but was keeping it pending. But finally after coming home from Lepchakha I pulled the trigger on the Salewa MS MTN Trainer Lite Mid GTX. The colour is called Brown Bungee Cord and the size I chose is 8. I placed the order on 11th March, 2023.
The listed price is Rs 14000. But it would've worked out cheaper by tweleve hundred bucks due to all the cash back schemes.
Salewa is a German/Italian company that is based in Tirol. Officially the company is Italian but I guess the owners are German. Tirol is in the Italian-German-Austrian border and home to most of the legendary mountain boot manufacturers for more than a hundred years. This area has also produced many legendary mountaineers like Reinhold Messner or Peter Habeler. So mountain and skiing boot makers with any pedigree are all based here. That way Salewa ticks a major box off. Incidentally, designed as they are in Tirol, the boots are manufactured in Vietnam.
The box was delieverd in a day. I had ordered it on a Saturday (I had come backon Friday) and it came home on Sunday. Well packed in the original Salewa box. The first visual imprssion was it looks a tad narrow. I put them on and it fitted just fine. No problem whatsoever. My feet are slightly broad in the front but fit was not a problem for me. I felt a small hump under the bridge/arch of my left foot. Only on the left foot. I will come to that later.
I walked a few steps inside the house on the tiled floor of my flat to check for the basic fit and feel. The sole felt almost sticky. I am hoping the grip would be very good on mountain trails. These are not Vibram soles. They have used soles from a company called Pomoca. This is one of their group companies and perhaps explains why the boot is cheaper. This is my first pair of mountain boots that do not have Vibram soles. Many other companies too do not use Vibram any more, perhaps for their price.
My Salewa came with Goretex lining though. This is a major requirement for me while buying mountain boots. I think Goretex is worth the price you pay. It makes your boots absolutely water proof (unless of course water sips in throug the top, in which case even a gumboot is not waterproof). Some companies like Columbia have ditched GTX for their inhouse material but I have no experience with them. Not using GTX certainly makes anything significantly cheaper.
On Monday I went for my maiden walk in them. I had a haircut to take and I decided to walk it out and chose the Salewa as my boot. I added it to my gear list on Garmin Connect and made it the default shoe for any recorded walking activity. This means every time I walk with the Garmin on, these shoes will be added to the activity and I can see how many kilometers it has covered. I hope to get at least a couple of thousand kilometers out of them with a good part of that being in the mountains. However, with my current condition of the knees I don't know for how long I will be able to nurture the dreams of walking in the mountains.
I intend to use these as my main shoes for any walk. Be it in the city, jungles or mountains. That's the best way to keep a pair of boots happy. They are not happy to be kept in shoe racks. This is also true for most things like a car, motorcycle, camera, recorder, computer. Anything that stays idle for a long time develops problems.
Out on the street I could feel that hump under the bridge of my left foot. I once had plantar fascitiis and this happened. Even the softest and the most comfortable pair of sports shoes were hurting me under the bridge as if the sole had bulged up. So I realised may be my sole is not in best shape after the walks in Lepchakha. But after some time, perhaps less than a kilometer, the hump started to become less pronounced. By the end of the day that feeling was gone.
I don't know if the shape of the boot adjusted to my feet but it's okay now.
The boots also felt a little warmer than usual. Goretex certainly makes anything warmer. But this particular warmth is perhaps to do with the boots' material and how it is sealed. I am okay with it. Even in Calcutta this was fine for me.
I couldn't feel that grippy stickiness of the sole I felt off the box at home any more on the street. And the boots had no signs of any stiff new boot. It didn't require any breaking in unless that left foot issue was about breaking in. If it is so, then it got broken in within a kilometer.
The shoes, I must say, are not as comfortable as my Meindls. That sole in my Meindl had a midsole which was quite soft and gave great cushioning. But that is the part that crumbled like dry leaves or cookies and made it unrepairable in India.
The lace is slightly shorter than I have seen in my other hiking boots. That is not a problem for me though. It's just an observation.
Among other things, the boots have rand around the toes only. Not a full rand. That's fine for me, given that I am not into heavy mountaineering. They also have two loops in the back to hang them, if necessary. They have some technical name that I forget now. I think bootstrap. They have no practical utility except that they give the boots a professional look.
I am hoping that these boots will serve me for at least a couple of thousand kilometers or more over the next at least 8/10 years. Let me see if they live up to my expectations. I am going to keep a tab.
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| Time to retire after eight years |
Adventures With The Salewa
May 2023 - Calcutta to Sandakphu driving trip. Combination of self drive (to and from Manebhanjang) and Land Rover taxi.
Bought a pair of Bata in-soles for Rs 500 before the VoF trek. Improved comfort considerably.
July 2023 - Valley of Flowers 21st to 26th July, 2023. The boots performed pretty well on wet rocks while going downhill with a 5/6 kg load on back. Not as comfortable as the Meindls but has a good grip. Perhaps better grip than the Meindls.
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| At VoF with the Salewas on |
October 24 - Annapurna Base Camp - Completed the six day ABC trek in Nepal in these boots. They performed just fine. No problem. The toe nails are intact. They both fell off after VOF.
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