merrell chameleon wrap slam 3 blaven

Fri, Jul 23, 2010

It’s time for the third installment of my testing for the Merrell Chameleon Wrap Slams, kindly provided by Fitness Footwear and this time I took them up a mountain. Blaven to be precise. My initial thoughts are here and here and this time I wanted to test them on a day out on the hill, taking in paths, scree and scrambling. I couldn’t test their grip on steep grass this time as there isn’t really any steep grass on Blaven, just steep rock! Also, I replaced the provided insoles with my Superfeet ones, which at size 9, fitted the shoes ok.

With a pack on my back, the first thing I noticed on the walk up the path was the lightness of my feet. These shoes are really light compared with what I normally wear, the KSB Dartmoors, which have a goretex lining and are more robust on the outside, so I think they’re a bit heavier. Not much but enough to notice the difference in the Merrells. I really skipped along the path. In fact, I was on the summit in two hours from the car. I didn’t feel tired at all and after a breakfast of five weetabix I wasn’t hungry either. So I just plodded on, all the way to the top and I’m pretty sure the shoes contributed to that.

Having sussed that the shoes are excellent on paths, they were again good on the rough path up into the coire and they did well on the really steep scree up to the bealach below the south summit. I didn’t have any problems with bashing ankles or anything although I did slide around a lot lower down where the scree was more abundant. They did give pretty good grip on the upper sections though, where it was steep bare soil and rock. One thing I noticed was when a foot was at an extreme angle, the insole seemed to push the shoe out of shape, prolly due to the inner “on demand” neoprene stuff but once the foot returned to horizontal the shoe sprang back into shape with a creaking feeling. Quite bizarre.

I kept to the right going up the ridge where I got lots of great scrambling on rough gabbro, Grade I, sometimes maybe II and it was here I felt a little uncomfortable. I’m not sure whether it was the cold that kept the shoes from sticking to the rock but they didn’t smear very well and I felt distinctly uneasy on some big slabs as the shoes felt like they might skite out from under me. I’ve been up here in KSBs and Meindls and never felt like that. I do think these shoes were a bit out of their depth on the steep rock. Normally on this route I would tackle the harder parts but I backed off a short climbing step, maybe Diff. A small overhang of conglomerate type rock. The shoes just didn’t inspire confidence at all on this. Perhaps it was down to the sole profile.

Once past the scrambling though, they were back to their normal comfortable self on the path and scree. Also, they were up to the job of traversing to the main summit, down the chimney and across the block at the bottom. No problems there at all. In fact they felt secure enough that I went down the chimney one handed, as I was filming the descent with the other! Having doubled back onto the cliff to inspect the upper traverse on the basalt ledge, I was a little more nervous of their grip on the cold basalt but all shoes will be like that on cold basalt. It’s just that the insoles tended to distort the shoes and affect my balance on the vertical rock.

Having had some toe bash on the Suisinish walk, I laced them up tightly at the summit and that helped a lot on the descent. No toe bash at all this time. In fact, lacing them up tightly but not so that blood flow was restricted or my feet were cramped, turned me into a ninja! It was really easy to skip from rock to rock, with my aim spot on each time. The shoes became an extension of my feet. Rather than the heavier and hotter KSB Dartmoors which feel like I’m targeting missiles when descending steep rocky routes, these shoes let me concentrate fully on my feet placement. They were a revelation. The only problem again was the insoles pushing the sides of the shoes out and distorting them. It was a little weird at first as my feet would move slightly after the shoes had stopped on the rock I was aiming for but I got used to it. I suspect if I put the provided insoles back this wouldn’t happen, as Superfeet are quite hefty bits of gear.

Back on the path in the coire, my feet normally get very very hot in the KSBs as they have a goretex lining but I’m glad to report that these shoes kept my feet fresh to the end. Unfortunately I ended up with a blister on my right heel though. It started at the bealach and by the time I got down it was rubbed red and raw. Again, this might be due to the Superfeet being quite high at the heel end but it didn’t affect my left heel. Perhaps they just needed more breaking in. Not really sure. That was the only downside. The KSB Dartmoors did the same to my heels when I first wore them for more than a few hours so I think this may just be down to breaking in.

All in all though I’m really pleased with these shoes. I think I’ve scoped out their operating regions. Paths, scree and mild scrambling. I prolly wouldn’t wear these on, say, North Buttress or Curved Ridge of the Buachaille but they’re not designed for that. At first I thought the snugness of the fit would be a problem but it actually helps on rough terrain where your feet placement becomes more accurate. Fitness Footwear stock a range of Merrell shoes so it might be worth having a look.