Cerro Torre

These are great boots, but my feet have taken a bit of a beating getting used to them. They are getting better with each trip. I've gotten quite proficient at taping my heels up so it's not too bad any more. Aside from the blisters, they do keep my feet warm and dry when other team members have not been so lucky. The soles are very rigid, and I have never had any problems with crampons. If it weren't for the blisters, I'd give them five stars. Maybe it's just my feet.

It's not just your feet...

I got the same problem with them.

But they are a great shoes.

Good boot for anyone with D or E width feet and high volume feet, especially in the ankles and/or heels. Would also suit anyone who prefers a roomier hiking boot fit in their mountain boots. This is a solid, no frills, good value boot for not-so-technical, warm weather mountaineering incorporating a lot of walking or long approaches. Also good for heavy hiking with the occasional crampon required. Also available in an insulated version.

I just like them! They are extremely comfortable, they walk easy, fit wonderfull a wide foot, and I climbed rock with them and the grip is super. Used them even in winter for iceclimbing in combination with Grivel G-14 crampons. They are a little flex for that, but it works.

The new materials are light and waterclosed, but the yellow color is changing rapidly...and the kevlar is becoming a litlle flushy. I also think that the grip on snow is not optimized, but on rock it rocks!

Nearly all of my climbing happens in the Cascades on mountains like Baker, Adams, Glacier Peak and Rainier. In other words, long hikes in on dirt trails and summit days on glacier ice and snow. I don't get to break out my beloved Scarpa Alpha plastic ice boots often enough. Last season, I replaced my full-steel-shanked Vasque Pinnacles, which I found to be overly stiff for the long walks on the trails, with the Cerro Torre.



Instead relying on a steel shank for stiffness, Scarpa's leather boots gain their stiffness from plastic midsoles of varying density. The main advantage, I guess, is this makes for lighter boots. The Cerro Torre was about as stiff as the 3/4-shank and 1/2-shank boots I've tried on in the stores. During my approaches, I never felt my arches or achilles ache the way they had with my quite unforgiving Pinnacles. But they were plenty stiff enough to keep my crampons feeling secure walking in heavy, wet snow (on Shuksan in May) acending a dry glacier (Rainier in August) and frontpointing on steep ice (again, Rainier in August).



The boots proved nicely waterproof as well. And the interior of the Cerro Torres felt much more cushioned than the interior of my Pinnacles, which over time had collapsed a bit just behind the toe box, causing a maddening rub spot on the ball of my big toe.



During my climbs with the Cerro Torre, my climbing buddy, wearing Scarpa Freney boots, had some waterproofness problems on our climb up the Dissapointment Cleaver route and also found those boots somwhat less supportive of his ankles than my Cerro Torres. The Freney, which has a stiffer midsole, is more ideally suited to short trips involving smaller packs and steeper ice.



The problems I had with my boots I blame mostly on myself: I bought them too small. I'm a men's 10.5, and I stupidly opted for a 43.5 because in the shop those felt slightly more ideal than the size 44 boots. Trouble is, when you add a 60-pound pack to your back, your feet tend to splay out a bit and I'd left no extra room for my toes. It wasn't a huge problem on my Cascades hikes, but over Christmas, I did a 20-mile hike in Acadia National Park in Maine that included a scamble up the west face of Cadillac Mountain. The last seven miles my toes really hurt and I was cursing myself ruthlessly. What I guess I'm trying to say is if you try some of these on in the shop and find your feet are between two sizes, opt for the slighly larger size. If over time you find yourself wishing the boots were more snug, youi can always install a pair of Superfeet insoles, which take up extra volume.



The only other problem I had is somewhat inexplicable to me. I did develop a pretty massive blister on the back of my left foot (happens to be my slightly larger foot) during the 20-miler. I would assume this has to do with the boots being too small, but so many other reviewers have complained about blistering above the heel, I thought I should mention this.



Alas, all's well in the end. I'm selling these to my climbing buddy who wants out of his Freney boots and has slightly smaller feet. More than likely, I'll buy myself another pair, this time in a 44.

I found these boots to be excellent overall. However, I suffered from the heel rub others have mentioned. The first time I used the Cerro Torre boots my heels adopted a lovely one inch diameter blister. In search of a solution, I decided to try several variations of footbeds. The footbed I added was designed to take up extra volume, however, this did not help. But during my trial run with the new footbed (I had moleskin over my blisters) I noticed that the moleskin caused even more pain than without the mole skin, odd eh? This indicated that I simply had too much bulk in the boot. So I let my heel heal and removed the large expedition socks and liner sock I used and replaced them with a mid-weight day hiker sock. I also noticed that if I tightend my boots very snugly this also reduced the heel lift causing the blisters. The result was a perfect fit with no heel blisters. So to those who have had this heel problem look to your sock combination and tighten your boots very snugly it may help.

I've had my Cerro Torres for over five years now, and am very happy with them. Maybe I'm just inured to the discomfort of mountaineering boots (I have hard-to-fit feet), but I don't have an issue with the heel blistering. I've never owned a pair of boots that didn't rub me somewhere. They are more suitable for technical climbing than my Invernos, and I prefer them over the plastics whenever conditions allow. After five years they are going strong. I think the only reason I'll replace them is when materials have improved to the point where I can get a lighter, warmer pair of boots with equal or better comfort and technical performance. Things have definitely changed since I bought these, but I'm not tempted to lay out the cash when my Cerro Torres are still serving me well. Good value for the money.

Great Spring/Summer snow/rock alpine boots. Heel blisters can be avoided by experimenting with sock thickness. Thick socks = not enough room = blisters, assuming proper boot size to begin with. These boots climb rock very well with the proper fit, and are realtively light. I'm not going to even bother bringing my rock shoes on routes with snow and rock up to 5.6 or so. Take good care of the leather with Nickwax or something similar to allow for years of use.