Danner Mountain 600
Great! You have decided to buy a pair of shoes or boots specifically for your next hiking adventure. Let me you tell you about my buying experience, what I chose, and how they worked out for me.
For my epic hiking adventure in Peru, I chose the Mountain 600 by Danner pictured above and available from REI. Out of the box, these boots were broken-in and ready to tackle the steep, rocky terrain of Ausangate without any issues for my feet. They feel like modern basketball sneakers, but they look like old-school alpine hiking boots with some modern accents. I cannot recommend these boots enough.
Still not convinced? Read on to learn why I chose these boots (it was not on purpose) and why I am so glad I had them in Peru and on more recent hikes in Colorado.
Why Mountain 600 Boots by Danner?
If I am being honest, I bought the Mountain 600 boots on a fluke. In reality, I had paid nearly $400 for a pair of Danner Mountain Light hiking boots. I had always wanted a pair of these classic hiking boots, but the problem is that they were on backorder and when Danner pushed back the delivery date I was not going to have enough time to break them in before leaving for Peru. Hiking over mountain passes at 17,000 feet elevation was going to be hard enough, but with blisters, it would have been much worse.
I switched my order to the Mountain 600, saved over $200, and never looked back. I had about one month before leaving for Peru. On my first training hike in these boots, I walked 3 hours in 100°F heat with ZERO blisters.
Specifications
The Mountain 600 hiking boots from Danner come with features that satisfied all of my needs on a 4-day high elevation hike in Peru where temperatures dropped well below freezing at night, and day-time temperatures were pleasant.
- Uppers are suede leather and have a Danner Dry liner for protection against wet conditions. My feet do not sweat in these boots and I live in South Texas. The Mountain 600 boots also come in full-grain leather and Enduroweave.
- The Cushioning OrthoLite® footbeds made walking 6-8 hours per day easy on my feet.
- The Vibram midsole and the Vibram Fuga outsole are stellar. The support and grip on these boats are spider-like.
- They are relatively light-weight for a leather boot. I could play basketball in these. They are certainly much lighter than the Mountain Light boots that I had to cancel.
If you want a great pair of hiking boots right out of the box that looks great an feels even better then I suggest you buy the Mountain 600 boots from Danner.
