The Altra Lone Peak 8 is a zero-drop path working shoe that’s good for mountaineering and working throughout a variety of situations. It’s a reasonably cushioned shoe with a really large toe field so your toes can splay out and loosen up. The impact feels such as you’re strolling in naked toes with an enhanced diploma of path really feel. A 25 mm stack top makes the Lone Peak 8 a reasonably steady shoe and helps stop ankle rolling. The sneakers have grippy 5 mm multi-directional lugs with a rock plate and a rubber toe kick for defense, with well-draining mesh uppers that stop sand and path grit from getting into and consuming your socks.
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Specs at a Look
- Gender: Males’s (Girls’s additionally out there)
- Large Sizes: Large sizes can be found in sure colours – go to Altra for greatest choice.
- Weight: 11 oz (males’s)
- Heel Drop: 0 mm
- Heel Stack Peak: 25 oz mm
- Forefoot Stack Peak: 25 mm
- Midsole: Proprietary Foam
- Outsole: Proprietary Outsole w/ 5 mm Lugs
- Rock Plate: Sure
- Gaiter Entice: Sure
- Width: Common & Large
- Weight (pair): 1 lb 6 oz
Path Really feel
The Altra Lone Peak 8 is a reasonably cushioned path working shoe that can be utilized for mountaineering, backpacking, and path working. The shoe’s signature characteristic is an outsized toe field which lets your toes splay out as for those who had been strolling barefoot by means of sand. That is very totally different from most fashionable sneakers, together with many path runners, which nonetheless have slim toe bins that prohibit toe motion, placing extra stress on the balls of your toes and metatarsals, and may end up in longer-term situations like Morton’s Neuroma, which manifests itself as a tingling or burning sensation in your toes. I endure from Morton’s, and a shoe with an enormous toe field just like the Lone Peak helps eradicate my signs.
The Lone Peak can also be a zero-drop path working shoe which means that the heel and the toes are degree and an equal distance from the bottom. The concept is that this permits for a extra pure and extra steady foot strike, mimicking the movement of barefoot steps, leading to a extra pure and environment friendly stride. It additionally signifies that impacts may be unfold out throughout the complete floor of the foot.
One in every of my favourite options on the Lone Peak is the gaiter lure, situated on the again of the heel of the shoe. It’s a bit of velcro that makes it quite simple to put on a Soiled Lady Gaiter and removes the necessity to glue a strip of velcro there for that function. It additionally stays affixed completely, whereas the homegrown velcro patches I’ve to attach on different path runners fall off comparatively shortly.
The Lone Peak 8 isn’t as large within the heel or as lengthy within the toebox in comparison with the earlier mannequin, even in an everyday width measurement, which is an effective factor so far as I’m involved. The earlier mannequin tended to buckle and crease on the base of the toe field which I discovered annoying: it doesn’t do this anymore in model 8 of the shoe. The marginally smaller and shorter toebox additionally makes the Lone Peak 8 much less sloppy on uphill climbs or scrambling throughout rocky terrain.
If it nonetheless feels too large for you there are many lace holes on the shoe to tighten the match. In the event you nonetheless want a narrower match, significantly within the heel, the Altra Superior can be a better option.
Stability
The Lone Peak could be very steady, partly as a result of it’s a zero-drop shoe the place your forefoot and heel are on the similar top. With its 25 mm stack top, which is fairly common for a path runner, it’s much less liable to ankle rolling since you’re fairly near the bottom. That and the improved proprioception you get from strolling with spayed toes make it a lot simpler to sense altering path situations and terrain so you possibly can adapt your stride accordingly.
Safety
As a path runner, you will need to have a shoe that’s going to guard the bottoms of your toes from what lies underfoot, but in addition have a breathable higher that enables your toes to ventilate whereas additionally protecting out particulates of mud, sand, and grit that may wreak havoc in your socks.
The Lone Peak 8 does each. The finely pored breathable mesh of the higher does a very good job of protecting your toes cool whereas stopping coarse sand and grit from getting into the shoe. Drainage can also be glorious for these instances, particularly in spring, when you possibly can’t keep away from big mud pits or excessive stream crossings. It is a huge deal since many path runners with large-pored mesh uppers fail miserably on this dimension, particularly in sandy desert terrain.
The Lone Peak 8 has a rock plate (Altra calls it a Stone Guard), which is a must have for mountaineering on extra technical rocky trails. It’s embedded between the outsole and the midsole of the shoe for underfoot safety and helps defend the soles of your toes from being bruised by any of the sharp rocks and stones that you could be stroll over.
There’s additionally a well-padded rubber toe kick in entrance of the toes, barely off-center and positioned in entrance of the large toe, though I want it prolonged additional down the perimeters of the toe field for extra safety. Whereas there’s a gentle rubber rand that runs alongside the skin of the toe field, it doesn’t cushion impacts as a lot as defend the mesh higher from abrasion.
Traction
The Lone Peak 8 has multi-directional 5 mm lugs, that present a very good grip on trails and rock. The important thing to their success is how gentle the rubber is. This gentle rubber is essential to offering traction, significantly on moist surfaces, much like the softer rubber utilized in snow and all-weather automotive tires. Nonetheless, be forewarned that the soles have a tendency to wear down pretty shortly, someplace between 250-400 miles, particularly for those who hike or run in rocky terrain. Whereas Altra soles present enough traction on moist rock, sneakers made by a climbing shoe firm like La Sportiva carry out significantly better in such situations, though the mileage you get out of them can even be comparable.
The Lone Peaks lugs are intentionally organized on the underside of the only real and sized and oriented for various features. For instance, the lugs beneath the metatarsals on the ball of the foot are the most important and designed to offer traction when working or climbing on steep terrain. The lugs towards the rear of the shoe are oriented in the wrong way to reinforce braking and extensively spaced to reinforce drainage, whereas there are bolstered areas beneath the large toe and on the skin of the heel to make the only real last more.
Interspersed in and among the many lugs are drain holes to shed water if the sneakers get soaked, for instance, in a stream crossing. The drains are fed by a round gap minimize into the footbed beneath the ball of the foot and under the insole that comes with the shoe. Whereas a lot of the water that will get into the shoe drains by means of the mesh higher, some does make it beneath the insole and thru this drainage port. Good drainage in a path runner is a must have for those who hike in a moist local weather with a whole lot of stream crossings.
Suggestion
Altra Lone Peak 8 Path Runners are a sensible choice if you’re somebody who’s on the lookout for a path shoe that gives a whole lot of floor really feel, a reasonable diploma of safety, and a reasonable cushion. They’ve a big toe field that lets your toes splay out and loosen up with aggressive lugs underfoot which might be positioned and oriented to offer enhanced traction and braking. This new model is true to measurement, which is one other distinction from the earlier very which tended to run a bit large and lengthy. If you would like a narrower match we suggest that you just strive the Altra Superior 6 path runner as a substitute.
Whereas zero-drop sneakers just like the Lone Peak do promote a extra “pure” stride like that of strolling barefoot, they put much more stress in your decrease legs and toes than sneakers the place the heels are greater than the toes. You’re greatest off transitioning to the Lone Peaks or different zero-drop sneakers over a interval of 4-6 weeks to stretch and strengthen your toes and calves earlier than working off to hike in them on a long-distance thru-hike or a high-mileage day hike.
