Can We Please Share the Road Until Springtime?
For a brief time every winter, we runners are forced onto the roads with the rest of the world. Can't we all just get along and share the road?
Let’s talk trail running shoes. We’re in an era where you can have a quiver of trail shoes with models to match the various types of terrain you run on on a regular basis. But do you want a shoe for a specific type of trails, or a model that is versatile and able to cover just about everything? There are a lot of good models to choose from, so maybe the answer is both.
My favorite time of year to run high mountain trails starts in early June and continues through early October. After a few months running high-elevation routes in Colorado, I finally feel fit and agile enough to dance through the rugged singletrack trails at higher altitudes. Lately it’s been a great way to beat the heat and catch the last of the wildflowers before cool nights begin the slow transition back to fall and winter.
With that in mind, I’ve been running trails and dirt roads in the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area, Rocky Mountain National Park, and the Mount Massive Wilderness Area in four new and very unique shoes that hit stores recently: the Hoka Mafate 5, La Sportiva Prodigio Max, NNormal’s Kjerag 2, and Arc’teryx Vertex Speed.
While each has excelled on a wide range of mountain trails, they’re quite different shoes based on how they fit, feel, ride, and grip the ground. Knowing the differences is key to figuring out which one might be best for you and the terrain you’ll be running most often.
Price: $185
Approximate Weights: 10.1 oz. (women’s size 8), 11.7 oz. (men’s size 9)
Heel-Toe Offset: 8mm; 44mm (heel), 36mm (forefoot)
Best for: Rugged trails and semi-technical trails with uneven terrain; it runs fine on smooth dirt trails or gravel roads, too, but you’ll feel the additional weight and bulk on those surfaces.
The Mafate was the original trail shoe Hoka rolled out 15 years ago, and I remember being skeptical about running such a high-stack maximalist style shoe on anything but smooth gravel roads. While that initial shoe wasn’t ideal on rocky trails, it was great for mild trails and the innovative idea (more cushion, not less) took hold. Fast forward to this edition, and it’s a versatile, max-cushioned marauder.
The Mafate has evolved in numerous directions with a variety of namesake models, including the high-stack carbon-fiber plated Mafate X that launched in the spring and now this non-plated Mafate 5 that has launched in early August. While the former is a slightly bulky, but energetic mega-maximalist shoe best for running gravel roads, the latter is a maximalist rugged rambler that’s adept at running technical trails.
The Mafate 5 is built on a softer, more energetic top layer of supercritical EVA foam with a more stable and a partial bottom layer in the forefoot that’s made from compression-molded EVA. It has a medium volume interior with a slightly wider toe box that is appreciated on more technical terrain. The key to making this shoe a capable trail runner for a wide range of surfaces (including technical, rocky routes) is the aggressive and reliable Vibram Megagrip outsole, which offers very good traction on dirt, rocks, gravel, pebbles, and mud. The breathable, reinforced upper, and padded heel collar are helpful, are appreciate on long runs
Price: $185
Approximate Weights: 9.0 oz. (women’s size 8), 10.4 oz. (men’s size 9)
Heel-Toe Offset: 6mm; 31mm (heel), 37mm (forefoot)
Best for: Running up to moderate paces on semi-technical to rugged, technical terrain that includes jagged rocks, steep terrain, and unstable footing; It runs just fine on gravel roads and smooth dirt trails, but it can start to feel like it’s too much shoe for those surfaces.
For years, La Sportiva was known for its extremely grippy, durable, and low-to-the-ground trail running shoes with firm cushioning. That made sense from a traditional point of view and the brand’s heritage as a leading climbing shoe and mountaineering boot company. But in the age of super foams, it needed to catch up. And beginning with its Prodigio training shoe last year—which was the first shoe to include a highly responsive midsole foam—it has made leaps and bounds progress in creating softer, energetic trail running shoes that are still adept at tackling technical terrain.
After the release of the soft and bouncy Prodigio Pro trail racing shoe earlier this year, La Sportiva has released its best mountain running shoe yet in the Prodigo Max. It’s built on semi-soft (aka not marshmallowy) and mildly energetic two-layer Xflow Endurance midsole that includes expanded thermoplastic polyurethane (ETPU) interior cushioning and an supercritical nitrogen-infused EVA outer layer that combines to serve up optimal cushioning, agility, and stability on rugged terrain.
One of the hallmarks of every La Sportiva shoe is its sticky rubber outsole, and this one has the brand’s FriXion Red (XT 2.0) dual-rubber compound with stickier rubber in the center and more durable rubber on the sides of the sole.
To me, this shoe has the unique ability to bulldoze over rocks, talus, gravel, and scree, while still being nimble enough to prance over precariously technical sections with rocks, roots, stream crossings, and other unique trail features. Plus, because it has no plate, it has plenty of cushiness and flexibility for long-haul comfort and underfoot protection. And all of that adds up to a good amount of versatility for a mountain running shoe.
Price: $195
Approximate Weights: 7.5 oz. (women’s size 8), 8.4 oz. (men’s size 9)
Heel-Toe Offset: 6mm; 26mm (heel), 20mm (forefoot)
Best for: Running all paces on semi-technical trails (with some roots, rocks, etc.), smooth dirt trails, gravel roads; If you’re a strong, agile and experienced runner (like Kilian Jornet) you can take it out on rugged ridgelines and highly technical trails, too, but that’s probably not the best terrain for most runners in this shoe.
You might not be familiar with NNormal as a brand, unless you’re familiar with Kilian Jornet. He’s a Spanish trail runner and mountaineer who lives in Norway, and is largely considered the greatest male trail runner of all time. He’s won the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc four times, the Hardrock 100 five times, the Pikes Peak Marathon twice, and the Western States 100 once.
Jornet helped start the NNormal brand three years ago with the intent to approach shoe manufacturing with a more sustainable ethos. He’s always been a runner who has appreciated trail shoes that offer good proprioceptive feel for the ground, so it’s no surprise this shoe isn’t an oversized, high-stack maximalist model. (He wore this shoe on his way to placing third in this year’s Western States 100 in June.)
The Kjerag 2 has plenty of great cushioning from its lighter, more responsive and more durable TPE-based midsole, but it’s also narrower than most shoes and feels much lower than most, and, as a result, more agile than most trail running shoes. It has a medium/narrow interior volume with a light and grippy Vibram Megagrip Litebase outsole (with low-profile lugs), and a durable and protective Matryx jacquard upper.
Price: $190
Approximate Weights: 7.0 oz. (women’s size 8), 8.0 oz. (men’s size 9)
Heel-Toe Offset: 7mm; 23mm (heel), 16mm (forefoot)
Best for: Running moderate to fast paces on technical terrain and scrambling over rock faces, especially with steep incline and decline sections; The cushioning is semi-firm and responsive to run moderate distances, but not the optimal choice for long, multi-hour trail runs.
In the early days of trail running shoes in the 1990s and early 2000s, approach shoes and light hiking shoes used to be all the rage. But now you only see them worn casually with white socks on Baby Boomers and middle-aged Gen Xers walking through airports and open-air shopping malls. OK, all kidding aside, those shoes were largely (but not entirely) replaced by the rise of lightweight, well-cushioned, and durable trail running shoes in the early 2000s. (I haven’t worn hiking boots, approach shoes or light hikers on any of my dozens of Colorado 14er ascents since 2001, only trail running shoes.)
Well, with the launch of the Vertex Speed, Arc’teryx used a little bit of Back to the Future pixie dust and created a very unique and multi-faceted hybrid trail shoe. While it appears to be a lightweight, nimble trail running shoe—and it certainly is, one that is especially good on rocky terrain—it also offers some more adventurous capabilities as a very durable light hiking shoes but also as a shoe that can be used for mid-run scrambling over vertical rock faces and high-mountain ridgelines.
Scrambling entails a challenging and dynamic mix of hiking, climbing, and trail running maneuvers over class 3 and class 4 rock faces. It’s a small but robust trend in places like Boulder, Colorado, Squamish, British Columbia, the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the Shawangunks in southeastern New York, and Yosemite, Zion, Grand Teton, and Shenandoah national parks. It might seem that the Vertex Speed is a narrowly focused niche shoe, but it’s extremely well built for that specific activity.
The essence of this shoe comes from two primary things: 1) the Vibram Megagrip Litebase outsole with low-profile, zonal lug patterns specifically designed to provide forefoot grip, and 2) 360 degree protection from a durable, protective Matryx upper, reinforced toe bumpers, heels, and sidewalls, and a stretchy, durable collar and interior bootie that keep trail debris from getting inside the shoe. It’s lower to the ground than most trail shoes, but it has ample semi-responsive cushioning from its dual density midsole that’s more absorbent in the heel and a bit firmer in the forefoot.
It’s a unique shoe with a unique fit. Although not nearly as tight as the fit of a traditional rock climbing shoe, it has a narrow, low-volume interior and fits short and snug in the toe box to optimize its maneuverability and feel for the rock.
Senior editor Brian Metzler has wear-tested more than 2,500 running shoes and is the author of “Kicksology: The Hype, Science, Culture and Cool of Running Shoes” (2019) and “Trail Running Illustrated” (2019). He has raced just about every distance from 100 meters to 100 miles, but he’s most eager to share stories about his experiences pack burro racing in Colorado.
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