UKH

Anyone tried the Aequilibrium speed? They look like they’d be great for summer alpine and most UK winter outings. Any real world feedback on them?

https://www.lasportiva.com/en/aequilibrium-speed-gtx-man-yellow-31h100999
 

light and fast alpine boots to save anyone else the bother of looking them up!

Not tried them but look like they'd not be warm enough for Scottish winter.

You're not going to be using the for any proper winter mixed climbing and hanging around on belays for sure, but look perfectly capable for winter hill walking and scrambles. Neat idea, I find low rise approach shoes much more comfortable than boots and don't aggravate my arthritic toes the way big boots do, but still having the waterproofing of a high ankle is neat. 

I saw one of the Fort William guides (IIRC) on Instagram yesterday with a clip of using his new pair to do Golden Oldy (II) in 2.5 hrs gondola to gondola which sounds like a good proof of concept.

My son (just 18) has decided 'hiking is cool' after most of a life time I trying his best to avoid ever coming out for a walk with the family (passing his driving test plus him and his mates watching hiking influencers on insta 😆🤦 seem central to this). I took him for his first winter trip out yesterday - we did the full Snowdon Horseshoe (Winter) (I), which accounts for my super achy knees and ankles this morning (he just had a quick shower when we got in and immediately headed out to the pub for a friend's birthday party!). Anyway the only slight moan he had was his feet aching from stiff boots - he had my LS Trango Tower Extremes on, so they are a fully stiffened B3. My feet were similar with my very early version Trango Extremes that are about as old as he is. I suspect these new trainer-boots will be eye wateringly expensive, and just think how heartbreaking it will be when you catch the Goretex gaiter with a crampon and make a hole ) or when they inevitably start leaking anyway - but they do look perfect for the sort of big day out we did yesterday! 

Giving him B3 boots for a hike? Good job he's 18 now or that' be child abuse!

We had crampons on from halfway up Crib Goch to the col between Yr Wyddfa and Lliwedd so proper boots necessary - or at least seemed sensible to me. The throngs slipping around on the top of Snowdon I'm sure disagreed. 😆 

More seriously, my two pairs of lighter B1/B2 boots are definitely leaking as the Goretex linings have failed. So it's always a bit of dry feet or more tired feet situation. Anyway, being such a great parent I let him use these ones https://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/footwear/mountain_boots/la_sportiva_trango_... which aren't massively heavy. My at least 15 year old earlier version of those boots (much more leather involved) are noticeably more hefty. 

I'm interested in how stiff these new trainer-boots, like the Aequilibrium Speed, are? To safely take a standard semi auto crampon, I guess they have to be pretty rigid. Lighter is more comfy over a day, but I wonder how much of not knackering your feet comes from a bit of flex as well.

They are more flexible than the standard Aequilibrium. Work with flex bars. 
 

I wonder how breathable the gaiter will be in use as it’s very rubbery 

I wonder if the work with just standard bars as well?

Does the material seem tough then?

No reason why not, they are similar stiffness to the Trango tech. Flex bars I find give a better fit on most modern boots with a rocker anyway. 

yeah, it’s pretty tough feeling. 
 

I had a pair last summer but returned them as the size was a little small but just reorder in half a size up. in theory they will be great for my intended use, (assuming I can get the toe box to work)