The Altra Lone Peak 7 is a zero-drop path operating shoe that’s good for mountain climbing and operating throughout a variety of situations. It’s a reasonably cushioned shoe with a really broad toe field so your toes can splay out and loosen up. The impact feels such as you’re strolling in naked ft with an enhanced diploma of path really feel. A 25 mm stack top makes the Lone Peak 7 a reasonably steady shoe and helps forestall ankle rolling. The footwear have grippy 5 mm multi-directional lugs with a rock plate and a rubber toe kick for defense, with well-draining mesh uppers that forestall 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)
- Weight: 9.2 oz (ladies’s), 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 Lure: Sure
- Width: Common & Broad
- Weight (pair): 1 lb 6 oz
Path Really feel
The Altra Lone Peak 7 is a reasonably cushioned path operating shoe that can be utilized for mountain climbing, backpacking, and path operating. The shoe’s signature function is an outsized toe field which lets your toes splay out as in the event you have been strolling barefoot by sand. That is very completely different from most trendy footwear, together with path runners, which nonetheless have slim toe bins that limit toe motion, placing extra stress on the balls of your ft 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 undergo from Morton’s, and a shoe with an enormous toe field just like the Lone Peak helps remove my signs.
The Lone Peak can be a zero-drop path operating shoe which means that the heel and the toes are stage and an equal distance from the bottom. The thought 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 implies that impacts could be unfold out throughout your entire floor of the foot.
Considered one of my favourite options on the Lone Peak is the gaiter entice, situated on the again of the heel of the shoe. It’s a chunk 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 my homegrown velcro patches fall off comparatively rapidly.
The Lone Peak 7 is noticeably wider within the heel and beneath the toe field than the earlier mannequin, even in a daily width dimension. This could be a little disconcerting in the event you like a comfortable match. This doesn’t trouble me that a lot and there are many lace holes on the shoe to tighten the match. If you happen to desire a narrower match, notably within the heel, the Altra Superior is a more sensible choice.
What I do discover a bit disconcerting is the crease that varieties over the toe field as a result of the toe field is just too broad over my child toes. You may recognize this additional width extra in case you have bunions or very lengthy toes, however the unoccupied house makes the toe-off a bit sloppy on uphill climbs and when scrambling throughout rocky terrain. It could additionally create a possible put on level within the higher, the place the mesh abrades itself and breaks down.
Stability
The Lone Peak could be very steady, partially as a result of it’s a zero-drop shoe the place your forefoot and heel are on the identical 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 ft from what lies underfoot, but additionally have a breathable higher that enables your ft to ventilate whereas additionally preserving out particulates of mud, sand, and grit that can wreak havoc in your socks.
The Lone Peak 7 does each. The finely pored breathable mesh of the higher does a very good job of preserving your ft cool whereas stopping coarse sand and grit from getting into the shoe. Drainage can be glorious for these instances, particularly in spring, when you possibly can’t keep away from large mud pits or excessive stream crossings. This can be a massive deal since many path runners with large-pored mesh uppers fail miserably on this dimension, particularly in sandy desert terrain.
The Lone Peak 7 has a rock plate (Altra calls it a Stone Guard), which is a must have for mountain climbing on extra technical rocky trails. It’s embedded between the outsole and the midsole of the shoe for underfoot safety and helps shield the soles of your ft 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 comfortable rubber rand that runs alongside the skin of the toe field, it doesn’t cushion impacts as a lot as shield the mesh higher from abrasion.
Traction
The Lone Peak 7 has multi-directional 5 mm lugs, that present a very good grip on trails and rock. The important thing to their success is how comfortable the rubber is. This comfortable rubber is essential to offering traction, notably on moist surfaces, just like the softer rubber utilized in snow and all-weather automobile tires.
The Lone Peaks lugs are intentionally organized on the underside of the only and sized and oriented for various capabilities. For instance, the lugs underneath the metatarsals on the ball of the foot are the biggest and designed to supply traction when operating or climbing on steep terrain. The lugs towards the rear of the shoe are oriented in the other way to reinforce braking and broadly spaced to reinforce drainage, whereas there are bolstered areas underneath the large toe and on the skin of the heel to make the only last more.
Interspersed in and among the many lugs are drain holes to shed water if the footwear get soaked, for instance, in a stream crossing. The drains are fed by round holes lower into the footbed, beneath the insoles that include the shoe. It’s uncommon to seek out such an aggressive and complete drainage system on a path runner, however an essential function that units the Lone Peak 7 other than most path footwear.
Suggestion
Altra Lone Peak 7 Path Runners are a sensible choice if you’re somebody who’s in search of a path shoe that gives a variety 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 supply enhanced traction and braking. This new model runs broad and even a bit lengthy, even in a dimension common, so that you may even need to downsize in the event you’re between sizes. In order for you a narrower match we advocate that you just attempt the Altra Superior 5 path runner as an alternative.
Whereas zero-drop footwear 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 ft than footwear the place the heels are larger than the toes. You’re finest off transitioning to the Lone Peaks or different zero-drop footwear over a interval of 4-6 weeks to stretch and strengthen your ft and calves earlier than operating off to hike in them on a long-distance thru-hike or a high-mileage day hike.
Disclosure: The writer owns these footwear.
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