[at-l] Montrail Melees are not for trail hiking...

[athiker@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Pete Fornof)]

You may want to look at a new model of Montrail's called the Excellerace. I
wore them out of the box and hiked sections 28 and 29 in VA which included
Dragon's Tooth, McAfee Knob, and Tinker Cliffs. I considered the sections
fairly rugged. Didn't get one blister or sore feet on the hike using these
mid-ankle trail racers. I recall that Backpacker Magazine testers all highly
recommended these shoes, and normally, you don't see all testers in total
agreement. Anyway, these were the lightest, most comfortable shoes I've ever
worn hiking.

Broknspoke
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sloetoe" <sloetoe@yahoo.com>
To: <at-l@backcountry.net>
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2003 5:52 PM
Subject: [at-l] Montrail Melees are not for trail hiking...


> <Ooops. Someone who's name I didn't copy, commenting on the
> nature of Gear Store Disco Boys, said>: I got a pair of Montrail
> Melees which felt okay at first, but after several hours I think
> they're going to be trouble.  They come up very high around the
> ankles and I think they're going to rub.  Other than that
> they're pretty comfy so I may perform surgery on them.  I think
> that'll make them unstable for the trail but fine for home.
>
> ### Montrail Melees are the lightest trail runner Montrail
> makes. They are essentially some tread, de minimums EVA, a full
> foot shank, and some large pore mesh on top. I use them ONLY for
> races, and NOT for any races where there is any extended running
> on rock or asphalt. The large pore mesh allows cubic yards of
> dust/detritus in, but allows almost 100% of water in shoes/socks
> to be splashed out. For their intended purpose (trail races on
> softer surfaces, lesser degree of small-grain dirt), there is
> little to compete with it.
> ### But the Melee on the AT, with MUCH travel on rock, and MUCH
> small-grain trail detritus to sift into socks/feet, would NOT be
> a good match for the Melee. If you want to bring durability into
> the picture too, ALL trail runners are meant to disintegrate (as
> doing so hopefully protects your feet -- like a helmet), but the
> Melee are intended to be even lighter, AND (even) LESS DURABLE
> than most anything else around.
> ### If you want to use the Melee for their intended purpose,
> consider
> http://www.mohican100.org
> ### If you want to consider a FINE[!!!] Montrail for a
> liteweight AT hike, the one I lust over is the Java.
> ### FWIW, most of my trail running is done in New Balance 805s,
> which I too evaluated to be both more substantial *and* more
> pillow-like, than the NB904/5s.
>
> Happy, limp-free, Trails,
> Sloetoe
> who models the Melee at:
>
http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prsm.dll?eventorder?photo=00TB0090010132
&start=0&album=0&adjust=-1&d=0
>
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