Break-in Period

Some boots require a break-in period, some are ready to hike right outside the box. Boots that generally require a break-in period are the burly leather models in which the leather needs time to soften and conform to your feet.

My first pair of LOWA’s was the Mauria GTX back in 2014. The Mauria’s are in the class of the burly leather model hiking boot. They had been on back order and had arrived two days before I left for a hiking trip in Austria. Breaking in new boots before an epic hike is a risk but the Mauria’s ended up being that rare burly hiker that didn’t need breaking in.

And neither did the LOWA Explorer GTX mid. They were comfortably hike-able right out of box. No break-in period required.

Pro tip: I really urge you try boots on first though.

Fit

The Explorer GTX’s lacing system is a combination of webbing and metal hooks. Presumably LOWA used this combination of webbing and hooks to decrease weight. However, the metal hooks used are definitely not as brawny as the hooks on the Mauria’s, but they got the job done and delivered an outstanding fit.

Pro tip: Try your boots on at the end of the day when your feet are naturally swollen. Be sure to take your own hiking socks along.

Sizing

When it comes to hiking boots, always start with a half- or a full-size up. This is because you’ll want to accommodate thicker hiking socks and the normal foot swelling one gets from being on their feet for a few hours. The danger, though, is sizing up to big. If you go to big, your foot will swim around inside the boot causing blisters.  

When I receive a pair of boots to review, the fit is a bit of a lottery because the firsts time I’m trying them on is after UPS or FedEx drop them off at my door. I wear a size 7.5 in shoes. When it comes to hiking boots or shoes, I go a half-size up. I went with the size eight in the Explorers and the fit is certainly what I’ve come to expect from LOWA.  

Waterproof-ness

“GTX” is code for “Gortex”. The LOWA Explorer GTX, therefore, have a Goretex liner that make them waterproof. Hiking the Superior Hiking Trail in early June, or any of the hikes I’ve done before and after, had their share of puddles, small creek crossing, left-over snowmelt and slogs in the rain. The Goretex must work because I never had to swap wet socks for dry.  

Pro tip: Allow me to clarify what waterproof means in a hiking boot. Can you walk into a knee-deep lake or river and emerge on the other side with dry feet? No. But if you’re hiking in pouring, sheeting, pelting rain or wading through puddles, or rock-hopping a shallow creek crossing and you lose your balance and you submerge your foot up to the laces, your feet should stay dry.

Support and Stability

An easy way to judge a hiking boot’s stability is to squeeze the sides of the heel counter. If it resists compression, or feels like you’re squeezing a block of cement, you have a highly-stable boot that is built to sustain long hikes on varying terrain while carrying a heavy backpack (like the Mauria GTX). If it compresses slightly you have a boot with less stability.

This is neither bad nor good. Not all hiking boots are intended to carry heavy packs for multiple days on rough trail with sharp ascents and descents. That being said, the Explorer’s split leather and fabric upper (more leather than fabric though) didn’t fully resist the compression test but it fought back gallantly. It took all the strength in my fingers just to barely move the needle.

A boot’s surface area also plays into stability. The more surface area in contact with the ground the more support the shoe offers the foot. When I compare the surface area of the LOWA Explorer GTX with that of the Mauria GTX, which is a highly-stable boot, the difference is negligible.

That sums up my experience of the Explorer GTX’s. Like the Mauria’s, they have a nice stiff, responsive platform for ascents while carrying a pack weighing around 36lbs.

Traction

No boot is immune to loose, gravelly scree or soaked rocks and wood but LOWA outfitted the Explorers with a Vibram Rock Trac with MegaGrip Rubber Compound outsole and DynaPU+ midsole to ensure optimal traction on varying trail conditions. Another contributor to traction is the lug pattern. A wider tread is better for shedding mud and debris and that ultimately is what improves your traction.

This combination certainly worked well on keeping me upright and sure-footed on the Superior Hiking Trail. It isn’t a trail with epic ascents and descents like you’d find on the Pacific Crest Trail or climbing a 14,000-foot or higher peak, but it traverses plenty a high ridgeline with rocks, roots and logs. When it rains, and these rocks, roots and logs become wet, and carrying a heavy pack, all I can say is pity the fool with a lesser boot and mediocre traction.

I rank the LOWA Explorer GTX’s, and its aggressive lugs, very high in the traction category.

Comfort and Performance

My barometer for testing a boot’s comfort may be fairly simplistic but it works:

• Do I need to stop every few miles and adjust the laces or just give my feet a rest? No.
• Do I have hotspots and/blisters? No.
• Do my somewhat-high arches feel like they’ve flattened? No.
• Do my heels throb and are sore to the touch? No.
• Is kicking them off my feet when I get to camp Priority #1? No.

The LOWA Explorer GTX mid is an insanely comfortable boot for thru-hiking, thanks to its shock-absorbing midsole slab of cushioning in the heel. Unlike the stiffer sole of its big sister the Mauria GTX, the Explorer’s sole offers an enhanced flexibility that conforms better to a natural walking gait. A nice-sized toebox allowed my toes to splay when they needed.

Pro tip: Wear a quality merino wool hiking sock and tie your laces properly.  

Quality and Durability

Outstanding. They’re LOWA and they’re made in Germany (not China). Hiking is a traditional pastime in Germany, thus Germans have high standards for hiking boots. LOWA represents that national pride in the art of bootmaking. Outsourcing their product to Asia for manufacturing doesn’t allow the level of quality control they require. The result of this nit-picki’ness and quality-control freak’ness is a hiking boot with outstanding quality and durability.

I can speak to durability anecdotally. I received my first pair of LOWA’s in 2014. They’ve summitted seven fourteener’s in Colorado, hiked hundreds of miles on trails in the United States, Norway, Iceland, Scotland, Canada and the Faro Islands. Last year, I took them to Greenland. They are still rocking it with no end in sight. The leather hasn’t cracked or deteriorated. The seams are still tight and the outsoles are still attached. The only things I’ve replaced is the stock footbed (replaced with a SuperFeet footbed a few years ago) and the laces, which I replaced last year before the Greenland trip.

The downside, certainly, is that all this quality and durability come at a price. Some budget-minded hikers will find the $240 price tag of the LOWA Explorer GTX to painful. But in hiking boots, as with most things, you get what you pay for. Six years from now, when you’re still hiking in the Explorers (or just about any LOWA boot), you’ll be glad you increased your boot budget.  

Final Thoughts

Because quality hiking boots aren’t cheap, I often get asked if there’s such a thing as a one-boot-that-does-it-all by folks who don’t want to invest in a heavier, stable boot for thru-hiking with a loaded pack and a lightweight shoe ideal for fast hikes in state parks with a daypack.

It’s possible that ideal one-boot-to-do-it-all is LOWA Explorer GTX Mid.

Nicely done, LOWA.

The post LOWA Explorer GTX Mid Review appeared first on gritandgearonline.com.

But Greenland offers a unique experience: It has no roads connecting the settlements and towns. Transportation is by foot or boat transfer. This is not the land of Hertz Rental Car and Lyft. Everything I pack will be carried on my back in an Osprey Xena 85L backpack.

Osprey Airporter Pack Protector

Osprey Airporter Pack Protector

Flying from Minneapolis, MN to Narsarsuaq, Greenland with a layover in Reykjavik means 8.5 hours in the belly of Delta Airlines and Air Iceland Express and rides on grease-caked baggage conveyor belts through sorting machines and junctions with sharp edges.

A backpack’s safety during air transport is always a lottery. My Osprey Xena 85L pack has been my multi-day pack for about six years. It’s still in perfect condition with many years of life left–as long as it’s protected during air transport.

The size large Osprey Airporter Pack Protector ($55) zips into a small, lightweight pouch that I can clip to the outside of my Xena or stuff in the top compartment and holds packs from 75L up to 135L.

Primus PriceTech Stove 1.3L

I look forward to embracing the local food of Greenland. On the off chance I grow weary of Arctic char, muskox, snow hare and lumpfish roe blinis, I have options. Plus, bringing my Primus PrimeTech Stove 1.3L ($149) means saving money because I won’t have to eat out as much.

TrailFork Backpacking Meals

TrailFork Oatmeal compostable and burnable packaging burning in a campfire on Lake Superior’s Apostle Islands

This is a cost-saving measure and the reason I’m bringing my Primus stove. The price of freeze-dried camping food in Greenland will be equal to the GNP of many a small nation. I first met TrailFork Backpacking Meals ($9-$12) when I was sea kayaking on the Apostle Islands.

It’s good for the environment because all TrailFork meals are packaged in 100% home-compostable packaging and are burnable in a campfire. Greenland is a country that hasn’t been soiled by mass tourism (yet). I will do my part to keep it that way.

LOWA Mauria GTX Hiking Boots

LOWA Mauria GTXs get a pre-Greenland spa day

Backpacking in South Greenland means a hiking landscape full of contrasts – from green and lush hillsides to barren rock deserts and rugged mountain terrain. I expect marshy earth, river crossings and boots schlorped in mud and sheep manure. “Trails” marked only by deteriorating cairns.

Though I have a newer pair of LOWA boots, it’s my 5-year old LOWA Mauria GTX ($325), the gem of my gear closet, that I’m taking. They are waterproof. Have outstanding traction, support, stability and reliability.

Most important, they have the hiking cred I need for this trip: Five Colorado 14’ers, Austrian Alps, Swiss Alps, Norway and Scotland.

Wuru Wool Hiker’s Wool

It was “Richard” from the comment page and his “relief for hammer toe on long trek” that swayed me to try Wuru Wool Hiker’s Wool ($11)over the tried and true Moleskin.

Richard “left for a month-long trek in Nepal with open sores on the knuckles of 5 toes due to recently-developed hammer toes, not sure if I would be able to complete the trek.”

Poor Richard. At the moment I don’t have open sores on my feet and it’d be nice to keep it that way while backpacking in South Greenland .

Jack Wolfskin River Rain Pants

No matter where I travel, menacing and black Nimbostratus clouds follow. Even on a trip to Death Valley four years ago. The locals hailed me as a modern-day Chaac on that trip. I’m taking a risk with the Jack Wolfskin River Rain pants ($145).

As of posting, they haven’t arrived yet and I haven’t had a chance to test them with the garden hose. But they had me at “waterproof”, “windproof”, “lightweight” and “small pack size”. Full product review when I get back.

Lightweight, packable, marriage saver

Outside Inside Backpack Mancala Game

I am 100% confident that I will encounter rain while backpacking in South Greenland. Being rain bound in a tent for days without internet is both the nucleus and fountainhead for an argument.

Re-channel your inner Boston Strangler with the Outside Inside Backpack Mancala Game ($21), a soothing process of strategically moving beads around the board to win.  Then the argument can start!

Kuhl Jetstream Rain Trench

I love the Kuhl Jetstream Rain Trench ($199) rain jacket because it’s a longer cut than a normal rain jacket. It also folds into its own pocket and takes up very minimal space in my pack.

I got this early in the Spring and found that even though its light weigh, it still offered decent protection from chilly wind. When paired with a down sweater, it kept me warm to about 30 degrees.

Kora Shola 250 Leggings

Another gem from the gear closet. I got these Kora Shola 230 Leggings ($145)about four or five years ago and they’re my favorite long undies when out in the elements and cold weather. Made of Yak wool, they are warm and breathable, no matter how much vigorous exercise I do, and they never feel wet from my perspiration.

They’re also humane. The wool is collected only during the yak’s natural bi-annual shed when the farmer (almost literally) walks around the pasture picking up the shedded undercoat and giving the yak a nice brushing. Merino sheep are still sheared.

I’ll be in a tent about half the time I’m in the country and the nights will get down to the high 30’s to low 40’s. These will be great for sleeping and wearing under hiking or rain pants.

GSI Microlite 720 Flip

Constructed with wafery-thin 2mm walls that are actually thinner than most single wall plastic bottles, the GSI Microlite 720 Flip ($30) keeps cold beverages cold and hot beverages hot.

I’ve had this bottle for about a year now and have used it sea kayaking, winter camping, backpacking and cycling (fits great in a water bottle cage). When filled with hot tea or coffee, it keeps it warm for about twelve hours.

Stoked Roasters Stoked Stix

American goodwill in a neat packet

Coffee is one of Greeland’s national drinks and they take it seriously. Kaffemiks, social gatherings around a cup of coffee, are to Greenlandic culture what Friday happy hour is to the US. I’m bringing Stoked Roasters Stoked Stix ($9) to spread goodwill.

My itinerary includes staying over at sheep farms. I want to offer my host a gift from the United States. The packets are lightweight, convenient and instant. The taste and flavor is outstanding. The empty packets can even be burned in the campfire.

The post Backpacking in South Greenland Packing List appeared first on gritandgearonline.com.