Mammut Ayako High GTX Boot

Moving onto rocky ground I was still impressed. The benchmark for me when it comes to a good scrambling boot is not how stiff it is or how small an edge I can trust my weight to or how well it holds itself in a pocket of rhyolite – it’s all about the feedback and the smearing… The trickiest bits of scrambles aren’t necessarily the vertical sections; it’s the slopey, treacherous boulders and shelves that look like they will be fine but can take you by surprise and bite you in the bum.

The Mammut Ayako High GTX are quite flexible along the length of the boot, but stiff across the short axis under the forefoot and again at the heel – they call it the TPU Motion Control System. The combination of lacing system, foam inner and overall shape also holds the foot on the insole and prevents any rotation of the foot within the boot on sideslopes.