Comments about Mammut Mountain Crest LTH Mens Backpacking Boot:

I purchased these boots while working as an assistant forest ranger in New York last summer, and have put less than 400 miles on them. I waterproofed the boots with Nikwax off the bat, and field tested them for the first time right after hurricane Irene came through. My first day, I took the boots through 8 miles of wet, muddy, rocky, and muddy trail assessing blowdown. On it, my boots were bone dry the whole time. I even stood in water up the edge of the boot top for extended periods just to see if there were any leaks. Also, during the break in period, I didn't get a single blister. At this time, I didn't think I could have possibly gotten a better pair of boots, because they were comfortable, functioned well, and were waterproof despite lacking the 'gore-tex' label.

Then, this summer, I took a trip out to thru-hike the John Muir Trail, and this is where problems arose. Even though I reinforced high wear spots on my boots with shoe-goo, I began to get delamination issues with the Vibram sole at several points of the outsole. The outsole is constructed in multiple pieces, so along the bottom, I had several parts that began peeling. Worse yet, both toe caps began to quickly seperate from the toe, peeling back, with one completely tearing off about 120 miles into the trail, despite field repair attempts. The Sierra Nevadas are rugged, but I still never would have imagined this kind of wear from a trip such as this. I've concluded that the issue is with the Vibram sole. First, the type of material they use is far too soft (Vibram had tons of different types of materials and outsoles). This became apparent with chunks of tread ripping off in dozens of spots. Then, a combination of an insufficient adhesive mixed with a multisection ousole led to delamination from the boot bottom along nearly every seam. If these issues could be fixed with a more rugged vibram material, beefier adhesive, a one piece outsole, and stitching from the rubber reinforcement toe cap to the leather upper, the design would be perfect - an easy 5/5 rating.

The uppers are great, though, and even after wearing the boots for 20 days, 250 miles, and ~50,000ft of elevation climbing, I only got a single blister on each heel.

Now to decide if I should buy a new boot, or pay to have them resoled to my preference...

Comments about Mammut Mountain Crest LTH Mens Backpacking Boot:

purchased these boots a month before a trip to everest base camp. only put 10 miles on them before spending 10 days straight in them and had no issues at all. the most comfortable boots i've ever worn.