Danner Mountain 600

Lightweight, waterproof hiking boots for light duty and urban use.

Danner is a well-known brand in hiking footwear. The Mountain 600 is a bit different from what you normally think of Danner: a very lightweight boot, weighing not much more than a pair trail runners. The boot features Vibram soles, but not the old fashioned black soles you're familiar with. In their marketing speak: "Vibram Fuga outsole with Megagrip". Not sure what this means, but they do grip well on wet rocks and the like.

The boots that I bought are a sort of grey suede, but the leather is not particularly heavy duty—it's pretty light, and there's a pair of seams on each side—not sure why, except that it probably allowed them to use smaller pieces of leather. I've heard reports that these seams can blow out, but I've seen no evidence of this so far.

The boot is very comfortable compared to some of my other, heavier hiking boots (Vasque, Asolo, etc.). They really are like sneakers with some decent ankle support. There's a little medallion on the boot that says "Danner Dry - Waterproof". I've finally got a chance to test this out with our latest Northern California 'bomb cyclone': while the boots can get pretty wet on the outside, the water does not make it inside to your socks—probably something like Goretex inside. While I'm sure there are limits to how waterproof they really are, they work fine in rain—but I still avoid deep puddles and streams.

More marketing speak: "The Danner Mountain 600 features the Vibram SPE (Specialized Performance Elastomer) midsole, an all-new, technical compound engineered to deliver greater comfort and flexibility." I haven't really inspected the midsole but they are quite flexible. I'm currently using the stock insoles but I'm sure they would benefit from something like Superfeet Green, etc.

I would recommend these as weekend hikers and urban explorers. I don't think they would be great as hardcore backpacking boots, but they might work for some folks. (Heck, people backpack in Teva sandals these days, so why not?). I would hesitate to wear them in the scree and tallus, as the side-seam stitching could tear.

All in all, a fine lightweight day hiking boot, with the capacity for some light overnight backpacking. They look pretty cool as well.

Background

I've used these for some steep, dusty day hikes and urban explorations, but no overnight trips yet. (I would probably use another boot for backpacking.) The comfort is amazing, but I don't know how long they'll last. Bought barely used on eBay.