The SCARPA Rush TRK Pro GTX Hiking Boot offers the wearer excellent grip and comfort in most conditions, writes Mike Gormley.
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It is some time since I have had some new SCARPA boots to try out and it is really good to be back with this well-regarded long-standing brand. SCARPA ‘suit my feet’, so I know this manufacturer’s footwear will be comfortable. Perhaps a bit unusually, it took a few miles in these to settle in and really reach the expected level of comfort but soon we were there and, importantly, before I set off on a trip to the High North.
It was with an aim in mind I sourced these, as I was heading to the cold and snow and was looking for a boot that would give me good grip in the frozen north. I really don’t like falling over in any circumstances, but on ice and snow the opportunities are escalated as one would imagine. As well as this, I wanted something that would offer comfort and warmth for long and varied days. These Rush boots did all this.
If you read the spec of the soles, it soon points you to the fact these will grip. The outsoles are Presa TRK-01, SCARPA’s own, and are made from Supergum compound. This certainly sounds positive for a boot sole you intend to take somewhere that is likely to be slippery. I was feeling at ease as soon as I stepped out into the minus lots-of-degrees conditions of mid-Sweden in winter. Pretty much everywhere was covered in a layer of packed snow and ice, if not deeper softer snow. I quickly had confidence in these boots and notably realised I was in a better place than most of the others around me.
In Central Sweden I was in a good area to compare and the SCARPA Rush showed up well, I am very happy to say. One place we were staying was very cold and covered in white stuff with our accommodation up a quite steep slope of hard-packed snow. I found I could walk up and down this with little more than normal caution, whereas colleagues in ‘suitable’ footwear were nowhere near as confident. On top of this I was able to try the Rush boots when out on snowshoes in quite testing conditions of deep snow and very cold conditions and they proved to be well able to deal with this.
The day I journeyed home from mid-Sweden I decided to wear the Rush Boots, though it seemed a bit OTT for what was to be a very long day of travel. However, to start with I was going to be in snowy slippery conditions, even when walking out to the aircraft at the regional airport, so I elected to wear these boots. After many hours encompassing a coach trip, two flights and several train journeys I arrived at my local railway station in the pouring rain and well loaded with kit to carry, so being sure-footed over bridges and platforms was a welcome thing. Interestingly when I eventually got home, I was in no rush to take my boots off. You will, I am sure, have had that ‘got to get my boots off’ moment. Well it was definitely not the case this day, which to me says a lot.
Checking the specs of these there is a lot going on in the design and build of the SCARPA Rush boots, which clearly works well to keep the user comfortable and secure. With all of this I have been using these back in UK for normal walking out and about and on coast walks, so they are now quite well ‘run in’.
The uppers of the Rush TRK Pro GTX are of Nubuck leather, which is backed up with the Gore-Tex Extended Comfort lining and membrane ‘sock’ to provide the waterproof and breathable elements. The lacing system is good and easy to use, which for me is essential and not always the case with some footwear. There is good all-round protection afforded by a sturdy rubber toecap and especially around the heel area. This is very robust and clearly well able to deal with those walks over rocky conditions which can hammer boots not so well-protected. This construction also offers great support. Both ankles are given very good protection in the softer uppers.
The colour of these boots is Volcano and Mustard with the mustard only being on the small, detailed embellishments. Size range is EU40 to EU48.These are right up there and what you would expect from SCARPA as a top end walking boot well-suited to a whole raft of conditions.
[images © Mike Gormley unless noted]
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