Trail Shoes – Wind River Range

Wear the shoes that fit you best and provide the most comfort – IMHO this is much more important than minor variations in performance between different shoes. If you will be on trails, carrying reasonable (LW) loads and you are accustomed to backpacking in trail runners, then a trail runner should work just fine in the Winds. Even off-trail, many people prefer flexible light trail runners to heavier boots, with the caveat that they have become accustomed to them over time under these conditions.

The Ultra Lone Peaks are stiffer and provide more support underfoot against sharp rocks than many shoes, but for me they are not quite as comfortable as the Cascadia 11’s, even though they have better features IMHO (better traction, better toe protection and better uppers). My Ultra Lone Peaks do feel like they have a slight tendency to roll compared to my Cascadias, but it’s minor and I tac it up to expected model-to-model variability.

In case you didn’t see it, here is a recent thread of a very similar nature.  There were a few recommendation you may find interesting.

I had the LP 2s and really did not like them.  The toe box room and overall comfort were absolutely as advertised, but for me they were horribly lacking is sideways stability.  On any kind of side-slope the shoe would just collapse to the side and start to roll…this was severe enough that I actually considered them dangerous on rough trail.  I ended up relegating them to around town wear :(

I’ve been to the Winds several times over the years.

I think I had a different pair of trail shoes every time.  I could not tell you what  I wore other than they were trail runners that were all more or less similar tread, weight, size, and material.   All these trips were off-trail, some scrambling, and even some snow travel. All non-technical.

As Lester said, “Wear the shoes that fit you best and provide the most comfort – IMHO this is much more important than minor variations in performance between different shoes.”

What Lester said about what fits you.

I was just reading a Carrot Quinn blog post about the Wind River Range and the Altras were too wide *for her*. (which resonated, cause I just bough a pair and concluded the same for me). But maybe they’d fit you like a glove?

I wouldn’t switch to Altras just before heading to the WInds.  They tend to be wide and have a high stack.  If I was going to switch, I would put a couple hundred miles on them first.

I went with a pair of the old Innov8 Trailroc shoes that I have been wearing for awhile.  We did a lot of off trail in the Winds and I especially prefer the low stack when on that type of terrain for foot grip and better ankle stability.

Thanks everyone for the responses. I read the other thread referred to by JCH. Good general advice from Katherine and Lester. Nice to get specific info from Paul and Ben.

Say Ben what is the “stack”  the height of the foot above the sole? The drop or lack thereof ?  I’ve got a LOT of miles offtrail on slickrock in the SE particularly in Utah around Bluff, Cedar Mesa, Grand Gulch etc and some time in the Sierra, Cascades, Rockies etc. but the Winds sure look to be pretty rocky.

Your socks are equally important. If you wear an inner sock it will normally loose frictional contact with your outer sock. The result is that your foot will roll on a slope.

I have the Ultra Raptors. They are now confined to wearing to the market or library. I found them to roll on downhill trails that were not flat. I turned my ankle several times on a hike and never wore them again in the woods.

I’d like to try the Altra LP but no dealers in my area.

Just to close this one out; I went with the XA pros. Went up a half size and got the wide. They were the last of my problems with the possible exception of drying a little slowly when totally soaked as there were a few times there was no option but to wade since the snow pack and hence the stream flows were very high this year. Completely stable on the nearly endless granite, I think I basically rock hopped for @ 5 miles across the Lizard Head Plateau which was such a great spot. Lots of talus, Horse packing trail erosion, you name it they were great, stable, nimble.  I wore smartwool below the ankle running socks. The newer version with a little more poly in the mix wears really good. I’d basically forgotten about what I wore on my feet until reviewing the threads and came across this old query from before the trip.