Lowa Vertex GTX Hiking Boots

Owner Review
June 26, 2006

Tester Information

Name: Raymond Estrella
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Height: 6' 3" (193 cm)
Weight: 210 lb (95 kg)
Email address: rayestrella@hotmail.com
City: Huntington Beach
State: California
Country: USA 

Backpacking Background: I have been hiking for over 30 years, all over the state of California. I have also hiked in Washington, Minnesota, Nevada, Arizona, and Idaho. I hike year-round, mostly in the Sierra Nevada, and put 555 miles (894 km) with a pack on last year.  As I start my 4th decade of backpacking I am making the move to lightweight gear, and smaller packs.

The product

Manufacturer: Lowa Boots, LLC
Web site: www.lowaboots.com
Product: Vertex GTX
Year manufactured: 2005
MSRP: $240.00 (US)
Size: Men’s 11 (US)
Sizes available: Men’s 7-12 in half sizes, 13,14 Women’s 5-11 (US)
Weight listed (size 9): 3 lb (1.36 kg) Actual weight of reviewed pair 3 lb 9.8 oz (1.64 kg)
Color tested: Black/Silver, also available in Orange/Silver
Warranty: (From company web site) “Your LOWA boots are warranted to be free from defects in workmanship and materials for a period of 12 months from the date of purchase.”

Product description

The Lowa Vertex GTX boots (hereafter called the Vertex or the boots) are a medium duty hiking boot, with an interesting difference when compared to all of the other boots I have owned.

The boots came in the box pictured above. Inside of the box was a pamphlet containing care and use suggestions. The left boot also had three hang tags attached. One was from GORE-TEX. The others are from Merrell discussing the Biomex Protection System, and another of general consumer care tips.

The Vertex is a full height boot, as opposed to a low or mid.  They stand 7.5 in (19 cm) high at the front/tongue. The outside is made of what the company only calls “Synthetic, microfiber material combined with tough, abrasion-resistant nylon”, and limited areas of leather.

The ankle cuff is nicely padded. The tongue is bellows-style to help keep debris out of the boots. It has a lace-loop centered near the top to keep the tongue from sliding sideways during use.

The most interesting part of the Vertex (and the recipient of many awards) is the Biomex system. This is the light gray plastic wrapping around the boot that is seen in these pictures. It attaches to the boot at the black plastic disk on the sides. Here is what Lowa says about this system.

” BIOMEX® is a unique technology that combines an innovative ankle support system in lightweight construction. Originally developed to protect snowboarders and in-line skaters, BIOMEX® is now available for hikers exclusively in LOWA Boots.”

“Virtually every hiker has experienced an ankle twist or sprain at some point. That's because traditional boot design, which is based on a straight, vertical axis, has little to do with our bodies' actual geometry. As a result, the foot tires after a short time and becomes more prone to tripping. Once a trip or a twist begins, the leverage from the front of the foot creates pressure on the lower ankle joint, and presto, a sprain just ruined someone's day.”

“BIOMEX® is a simple yet revolutionary approach to protecting the ankle. It's based on the premise that prevention – in this case, ankle stabilization – equals protection. By stabilizing the ankle with a flexible, articulated cuff that's positioned at an offset angle, rather than on a straight vertical axis, the ankle is no longer subjected to the twisting forces that cause injury.”

There is a hefty rubber rand protecting the toe of the boot, along with a section of the sole that wraps up on to the front.

The round nylon laces run through a loop of leather above the toe and then thread through a series of 8 metal loops as seen on right. There are two pairs of speed hooks at the top.

The Vibram Vertex soles, seen below, have the usual aggressive treads, (what they call “non-slip universal profile”) and the famous yellow Vibram elongated octagon logo of course. They are attached to the boot with some type of adhesive. The soles have a dual density construction (the light gray seen above the lugs is stiffer) and continue up at the heel quite a ways for added stability.

Inside of the boots are some thin insoles that are nothing to write home about. I did not replace them on my first pair, but am going to on the next.

The quality of the Vertex boots seem to be very good. The stitching is all straight and uniform. There were no loose threads or blemishes.

Field Conditions

I have worn the Vertex boots on four major trips. They have been used in Yosemite National Park, the Sierra National Forest, the John Muir and Minaret’s Wilderness areas.

They have been worn in San Jacinto Wilderness and the Bristlecone Pine Forest in California, along with Buffalo State park in Minnesota. The elevations have ranged from lows of 100’ to over 13,200’ (30 to 4,023 m). I have had them in rain and snow as well as nice dry trails. The lowest temperature encountered with the Lowas strapped on was a chilly 17 F (-8 C) morning in the Sierra Nevada. The highest was in Minnesota where it was about 85 F (29 C). I have worn them on dirt, mud, pine duff, rock, scree and snow.

Observations

I bought these boots in September of 2005. I had a 100 mile (161 k) trip planned for October on the John Muir Trail. I had liked what I had read about the Vertex boots in the magazines and thought that the extra ankle support might be a good thing.  I took them to Minnesota and walked a couple of days at a nearby State Park while my children were in school. I probably put less than 10 miles on them to “break them in”. They were very comfortable right out of the box.

I took a lot of extra moleskin along on the JMT trip as the Vertexes were still pretty much new boots, and I was worried about blisters. I needn’t have. I have never got a blister while wearing these boots.

The strange looking hinged exo-skeleton around the top of the boots actually work as advertised. They have proven to be very stable. I had some concern that it would be stiff bending forward with the hinge point, but that did not prove to be the case either.

It was because of this level of ankle security that I chose them to wear on my climb of the Cactus to Clouds trail, what Backpacker Magazine listed as the 5^th toughest day hike in America. Most of it is on a very rocky unmaintained trail that rises through the desert in Palm Springs to the top of Mount San Jacinto. In 11 hours, I went 23 miles (37 km), with 10,700’ (3161 m) of gain. Again the boots performed excellent.

I always wear a liner sock and medium to full weight wool sock with these boots. (The weight depends on the temps expected on the hike.)

The GORE-TEX liner worked very well also. I love to just blast through water if it is not too deep. And blast I did on the JMT and up at San Jacinto. No water got through to my feet.

I took the Vertex boots on a 33 mile (53 km) trip to White Mountain in May 2006. As we had a very long approach hike and would be on a varied terrain (rock, dirt, snow and ice) I figured the Lowas would be able to do it all. I brought some Grivel AirTech2 crampons to use with them and some MSR Denali EVO Accent snowshoes. Once again they had excellent support, traction and comfort.

But the GORE-TEX liner failed on the first day of the trip, in the toe areas on both boots. The front of my feet were soaked, which is not good when you are camped in the snow at 11,200’ (3414 m) and it is going to drop to 28 F (-2 C) in the night.

They are showing a lot of wear for the amount of mileage put on them so far also. They have only 166 admittedly tough miles (267 km) on them to this point. I feel at the price point these boots occupy, they should get a lot more use than what I have seen.

Because I had been so satisfied with the boots performance in 2005, I bought another pair in March of this year. I did not expect to have to break them out of the closet so soon though. I have two hikes coming up this year that will put 140 miles on the new pair. I will track the results of their use and put an addendum to this review next winter. Hopefully the early failure of the first pair will prove to be an isolated event.

Pros: Excellent support, great traction, comfortable.
Cons: Seemingly poor durability, weak GORE-TEX liner.


Wearing the Vertex boots in Yosemite.

Customer Service Addendum July 2006

In July I took the Lowa boots back to REI and told them about the failure of the GORETEX and the amount of mileage and use incurred. They sent the boots to Lowa and said they would contact me with the results.

I was informed that the GORETEX could not be fixed (which I expected) and that they would have to replace the entire boots. (That too I expected.) But the company decided that due to the amount of wear that they would have to pro-rate it and would send me new ones for $50.00 (US). (This I did not expect!)

They asked me if that was OK. As I try to find the humor in everything I laughed and said that I guess it is going to have to be. They asked if I agreed that it had excessive wear to which I replied yes they do, but the fact that it got that excessive wear in only 166 miles (267 km) and over the course of 8 months, which last I checked was under a year, I don’t understand them not being covered completely. I gave them my credit card info and expect to see some new boots soon. I will very carefully track the usage of the new boots again.

I honestly do like the boots a whole lot. (I am going to start breaking the new pair in this weekend for two upcoming hikes.) But this has soured it a bit for me.

August 3, 2006