La Sportiva Wild Cat Review

in Outdoor Gear by Simon — November 10, 2011 at 10:30 am | 2 comments

Cats, they are all different; lions have the biggest roar, cheetahs are the fastest land mammal and domestic tabbies are just … evil. Wildcats on the other hand are known for being very secretive and hard to spot in the wild and it took a couple of days out on the hills for these La Sportiva Wild Cats to reveal their secrets to me.

Originally I bought these in a bit of a rush as I was looking for a shoe in which to walk the West Highland Way. As it turned out I stuck with my old North Face Prophecy IIs and the Wild Cats sat in their box for a month or two until I realised that the Mourne Seven Sevens was coming up fast and I needed to get out and improve my hill fitness.

Among folk looking for a lighter hill shoe, Inov-8 shoes have a good following in the UK; but to date I’ve just not found a pair that fit me properly and I know some other people who have started to look elsewhere. One of these is the author of the excellent blog Summit and Valley – Martin Rye – who consistently gives good gear reviews and when I was looking at shoes for the West Highland Way and saw the bright yellow Wild Cats, his comments about La Sportiva came back to me.

The most immediate impression when I pulled them on was how great the fit around the heel was. This is the problem with a few brands for me, they just don’t fit around the heel very well. Not so the Wild Cats! This is due to what La Sportiva refer to as a “trans-kinetic heel stabiliser”, but which to you and me is just a proper heel cup. This really holds your heel in place and provides a great deal of stability for the foot … but that was just the first impression in the shop, how did they perform on the hills?

The first time out with the Wild Cats was on a training walk for the Seven Sevens and I was playing catch-up with a couple of guys who started half an hour before me. Starting at Carrick Little car park, I set off up Slieve Binnian with the intention of walking the Mourne Inner Horseshoe. Initial progress was comfortable and it was good to be moving at a reasonable pace, with quick and easy foot placement. The grip on the peaty path and grassy side-tracks was good while the boggy bits were easily bypassed or jumped over. At the summit of Slieve Binnian a quick text showed that my quarry was still a good half hour ahead of me and I ran along the top of Binnian and down towards the foot of Slievelamagan. A network-interrupted phone call revealed that I had made up some time, but a fast ascent of Lamagan meant that I stopped for a drink and a bite to eat at the summit. Coming off Lamagan and over Cove, the steep descent confirmed my suspicions from the descent of Binnian – either the shoes were a poor fit at the forefoot or I needed to adjust the laces. A quick re-lace and things were feeling much more stable on the rest of the descent. By this stage I had given up hope of catching my quarry and relaxed into a slightly easier, but still fast paced walk. Reaching the Brandy Pad I decided to walk a steroid infused version of the Mourne Inner Horseshoe  and headed straight up Slieve Commedagh and then followed the Mourne Wall  to summit Slieve Donard and then south toward the Bog of Donard. Ignoring the minor track to the summit of Rocky Mountain I followed the wall down to Long Seefin, where I crossed the stile and followed the minor track back to road. A short march along the road and I was back at the car. Twenty-four or so kilometres in around 6hr 45min and I was sitting in the boot of my car knocking bag some SIS Rego.

So how about the shoes? And how about my feet? Well bear in mind this fact: I had never worn these shoes outside before and I had just walked 24km with 1611m ascent and descent. The shoes showed no sign of excessive wear on the sole and all the lugs were intact. There was quite a bit of dirt on the mesh uppers consistent with some of the boggy ground I had made my way through around the Bog of Donard and Rocky Mountain. There was a tiny bit of damage to the mesh uppers that had occurred during meeting of shoe and rock, but nothing serious or unexpected. My feet were fine; no pain, no hot-spots, no blisters. They felt better than they would had I just walked the same route in my Meindl Vakuums, in fact they felt great.

The second outing was a different route and different weather conditions. I’d exchanged the clear blue skies for cloudy greyness and dry(ish) tracks for rain soaked hills. Starting in Newcastle the route took me up Slieve Donard via the Black Stairs, along to Slieve Commedagh and along the Brandy Pad to Slieve Bearnagh, then following the Mourne Wall to the summits of Slieve Meelmore and Meelbeg. At this point I descended Meelbeg to the east, skirted Meelmore and back over Bearnagh once more, then along the Brandy Pad to the Saddle and back down to Newcastle. This 26km route showed a few different facets of the Wild Cats. Firstly, the grip that had so impressed me on mud and grass was awful on wet rock. That’s maybe not too surprising as many shoes are rubbish on wet rock, but I’d had high hopes for the FriXion® X-Axis sole unit; it’s supposed to be a sticky climbing rubber compound! The second thing, which again is pretty obvious, is that there is very little toe protection on the Wild Cats. There is a rubber toe bumper, but when a rock tips over and lands on your foot there is literally only mesh and sock to absorb the impact … let’s just say I was lucky. The third thing is that the yellow rubber on the sides of the soles is stupid; it is just painted on and after a little use it starts to flake off. This is merely cosmetic, but it gives the impression of a poorly made shoe. Once again my feet, which had got properly wet from early on in the route, were totally dry and comfortable by the time I got to the end. Mesh shoes might let in the water, but they also let it out again very quickly and high wool content socks (in this case merino wool) keep your wet feet warm and comfortable while they dry out.

The third outing for the Wild Cats was the Mourne Seven Sevens - hit up the link to read all about an epic hill day covering all of the major peaks in the Mountains of Mourne – but without describing the route here, it was a mix of forest trail, hill tracks, wet granite and deep boggy ground. At no point did the La Sportiva Wild Cat shoes let me down.  My feet got wet and they dried out, they kept me secure on the downhills (I avoided steep wet granite!) and allowed me to power up the uphills. Only once did I turn an ankle, but no damage was done and my feet felt just great at the end. By this stage, however, the shoes themselves were beginning to look a bit tatty; as far as I can tell it’s just cosmetic though.

The La Sportiva Wild Cat shoes are part of the La Sportiva “Mountain Running” range and these are definitely more of a running shoe than a hill walking shoe, but there is definite potential for use on long distance paths and lightweight backpacking. The heel cup, which I think is superb, is stiffened using a thermoplastic urethane fashioned into what La Sportiva call a “Transkinetic Heel Stabilizer”; whatever it is called, it works. The fit of the shoe is on the wide side of medium; which provides a comfort fit, although possibly at the expense of some performance around the forefoot. Continuing the comfort theme, the sole unit is a beefy affair and provides a lot a cushioning. The extra height and 12mm heel-to-toe drop won’t suit everybody though, especially those who prefer a minimalist experience. At 690g for the pair, the Wild Cats are the same weight as the Inov-8 Terroc 345 and while this may not be considered lightweight by some people they are more than light enough for me. Although the pair I bought were constructed with a mesh upper, they are also available in a GORE-TEX lined version. For me, the mesh uppers provide a superbly cool foot experience and I’m not sure that a GORE-TEX lining would improve that, especially when water over-tops the shoes and floods the inside.

If you are a mountain/fell/trail runner then these are definitely worth a look. If you are a lightweight hiker then these could be a great shoe if they prove to be durable enough – something that I can’t answer just at this point in time, but I’ll report back later as I put more miles under my Wild Cat clad feet.

 

Tags: County Down featured Gear Mountains of Mourne walking