We tested: New hiking shoes by Mammut. The test took us to, on, and high above the Walensee…
Mammut Sports Group AG, Switzerland’s world-renowned maker of mountaineering and trekking equipment, has a savvy social media manager in the person of Peter Erni. He has a habit of simply shipping a few pairs of Mammut hiking shoes to points in Switzerland, and then he sits back to see what the travel bloggers do with them. We didn’t have to be asked twice and stepped into the red and black best sellers for an exploration of the Walensee (Lake Walen) area.
From Walenstadt to Quinten
Along the peaceful Walensee, you can enjoy a “wine hike.” With a caution: Coming from the town of Walenstadt, before reaching the picturesque lakeside trail, be sure you put on really “good footgear” — hiking poles would help as well — so you can negotiate the steep forest hiking trail in good shape. And they who gather their strength in Calusa Beizli before the descent (or after the ascent) certainly won’t go wrong!
It was here in any event that we broke in our Mammut mountain and hiking shoes over Birnbrot (Swiss pear bread) and coffee before starting out in earnest on the acid test.
We trekked along below the majestic Churfirsten mountain range, negotiated all sorts of serpentines across roaring creeks on the above-mentioned steep forest section down to the Walensee. Standing on its shore, the wanderer gets fantastic views toward the town of Walenstadt or the hamlet of Quinten. And naturally of the vineyards, otherwise this could not be a wine hike…
On arriving in the car-free wine village of Quinten, head for the Alte Post wine cellar. In the small tasting room, you can sample your way through the Quinten Rebli wines Chasselas and Pinot Blanc, Blanc de Noir and finish up with the Blauburgunder (Pinot Noir).
Bottoms up!
Since there is not much to hike beyond Quinten, the wiser course is to eat and drink on the lake cruiser that very conveniently docks right by the Alte Post and then glide in sedate comfort back to Walenstadt.
About those Mammut hiking shoes
Mammut’s advertising campaign with a Matterhorn theme is maybe just a bit “over the top” for the Comfort High GTX Surround model, the comfortable and relatively soft shoe that we tested. Honestly, I’m not sure I would make it to the summit in them. There’s also the shape I’m (not) in, of course…
But then, for mountain climbing Mammut makes a “real” Alpinist model, the Magic Advance High GTX, among others (by the way, who thinks up these names? sounds like the shoes might fly you to the moon.)
As indicated at the start, the shoes came to us courtesy of Mammut. Thank you, Per Eni, for the super-comfortable hiking shoes! No way are you getting them back :-)
The wine hike with stops at Calusa Beizli, at a fire pit by the Walensee, and the wine tasting in the Alte Post was organized by Nina and Thomas of Outivity.
How the Mammuts fared on the Chäserrugg high above the Walensee in the Churfirsten range is recorded in our travel report on a truly spectacular hike at altitude…
