Blethering Blonde

I've had these on a few times now and so far they are just what I've been after to get me through the winter for most of my days out. Salomon describe them as being perfect for "light hiking" - take that whatever way you want ;-) They come in at 1210g for the pair and feel fairly easy on the feet. They've handled saturated grassy stuff without me applying the famous arse plant (so far!!). They even seemed to be OK on rocky stuff too. Where I have been really impressed with them is how they handled the snow on Na Gruagaichan. It was hard enough that we were kicking steps. This was easy enough for Steve in his Scarpa SL's and Iain in his La Sportiva Nepals. Initially I followed their steps then decided to give it a go myself. I occasionally had to kick a couple of times on some of the really hard stuff, probably more down to my poor technique than the boot, but they managed well on the cover we had for the ascent. As my balance is rubbish I decided to apply...

Footwear - where to begin!!!!!!!!! When you have big feet you don't get much choice in womens footwear. In fact, you get none from trail shoe and boot manufacturers if you are bigger than a size 8 UK. The sizing in itself is a minefield that I also have difficulty in understanding as an EU 42 could be a size 9 in womens but size 8 in mens. Aaaaaarrrrgggghhhhh. I now just go into the shops and ask for EU 42 or 43 in mens and hope that they might fit. I've been chatting to ptc* , Sandy and bobinson for a few weeks about what to do on my footwear dilemma. Over the last few winters I have been wearing a mixture of La Sportiva Trango Evo S and Keen Targhee Mids . I managed to trash the La Sportivas playing on scree in Skye and replaced them with the next model up the Trango Evo Alp for proper winter playtime. The Keens are exceptionally comfy but are leaking like sieves and not the best on wet rock. As the Alps are for proper snow and a bit like overkill for our wet cold wint...