UKC

I did a quick sweep of old forum posts but only found a limited amount.

I would like, at some point, to get some crampon-compatible boots which are vegetarian/vegan which (for the sake of argument) we can just consider non-leather (I know in theory some shoe manufacturers use glues which may or may not come from animals but I think it is very rare these days).

If I had a clearer idea of what I wanted to do with the boots, then I'm sure I could get better advice, but unfortunately I am not entirely sure what I will get up to in them; it is mostly up to my (good) crazy French friend!

It might, however, include any of the following in the short-mid term:

Alpine scrambling rock routes
Winter walking/glacier crossing
General winter mountaineering
Easy winter climbing routes
Any other walking in the interim (since my current boots are both cheap and no longer waterproof)

Obviously in the long term harder things might be on the cards, and it might be worth to futureproof.

Anyway, getting to the point:

After a brief bit of research, I found the following boot options for similar prices:
Mammut Mamook GTX (advantage that I can try them on in, and of course buy from, Go Outdoors)
La Sportiva Trango Extreme Light GTX
Scarpa Charmoz Pro GTX

Anybody have any opinions of the relative merits of these boots, and have I missed any other purely synthetic boots which are good/not too expensive? Are these boots likely to be warm enough for 'most' things? Thanks all

In reply to andrewmcleod:

Vegetarian Walking Boots - Eat up the ground

Where do I register great marketing ideas? Sorry nothing helpful to add.

In reply to andrewmcleod:

Charmoz's are great. Super light but you might get cold in deep winter unless you size it for a very warm sock. Even lighter would be the Scarpa Rebel range, which I can only assume is the reason Ueli Steck is so fast.

If you plan on doing more snow/alpine based routes (as it sounds) then check the Phantom Guides, if you have cold feet or are just ambitious in the altitude department then you could up it to the Phantom 6000'S (though overkill for UK really).

Other super warm/durable boots could be La Sportiva Baruntse's (if you can find them around, some shops in mountain country have them). Or even something from the North Face Verto range, depends on what fits you!

Us vegans are spoilt for choice these days!

In reply to purplemonkeyelephant:

Thanks sadly I think the Phantoms and Baruntse's are out of my price range (at least at the moment)

Anyone tried the Trango Ext Light vs the Charmoz? Walking vs climbing?

I got myself some Charmoz last year but haven't worn them outside the house yet. I went to Thailand in January instead of Scotland.

On a related note what do people do for regular walking boots? I've got some Snowdon boots from Vegetarian Shoes but I'm not sure how long they'll last as the uppers have got quite badly scuffed from just three full days of walking and scrambling.

In reply to jwa:


I only tend to wear boots in winter - almost all summer walking and scrambling is in fell shoes, which are primarily fabric uppers. I've never checked if they're truely veggie/vegan, but I'd have thought there'd be a good chance. They do wear more quickly than boots (but they're also cheaper), but certainly last more than 3 days, at least in my hands!

Stuff like the Charmoz is also perfectly viable for summer scrambling if you're doing harder routes.