While I had some reservations about the durability of the lightweight mesh fabric, so far this has remained completely intact and seems to be much tougher than it first appears. Nor are they “cold” shoes: On Telescope Peak in May, we started out in temps below freezing, and my feet never felt cold. That said, there are deals to be had, and some less-expensive options perform nearly as well as much more expensive shoes. In the past, we've found approach shoes to be too specialized, leaving us with a pair for short approaches and a pair for long missions. Over months and sometimes years, we approached, scrambled, descended, hiked, schlepped, and slogged in each pair of shoes, as well as performing specific objective tests and climbing selected routes.

Overall, the TX3 offers much more comfort for hiking, and its mesh upper makes it a better choice for hot summer endeavors. The sole extends a little wider than the upper shoe near the little toes, which seemed odd to me initially. Traveling around the country in his van, Matt's spent countless hours hiking to the base of many crags.The TX Guide is a very firm and stable trail shoe that has been the perfect option to handle technical trails and heavy packs. Often, we find that the approach shoes with good climbing ability are not comfortable when used for long hiking approaches. These programs provide a way for me to earn commissions at no cost to you when purchases are made using the provided links.

The weight is definitely noticeable in comparison to most of my lighter weight trail runners, but the TX3 offers a lot of protection, durability, and stability with it’s slightly heavy feature set. Check all these menus of all of my reviews of backpacking boots and hiking shoes at The Big Outside. The women’s shoes come in a green or blue version (with bright yellow and orange laces, respectively).The TX3 clocks in at 1 pound 4 ounces for a pair of the women’s model, which is fairly average but still perfectly suitable for dangling on your harness up a climb or stuffing into a backpack on a longer ascent. We try to increase our certainty in this subjective metric by asking for as many user testimonials as possible to determine if the shoe fits a wide range of users or just a minority.