Garmont Dragontail

Summary

A great shoe that is brought down by a small but crucial design flaw in the fancy pants lacing system. Exposed webbing gets ground through if you're actually out in the mountains in them. Customer service was willing to fix them if I shipped, but urged me to fix myself....on a design flaw that is sadly going to fail again.

Too, too bad. Had these for 6 mos, did five alpine peaks in them, fair amount of hiking and approaches. Loved them until they failed, as well as Garmont's customer service.

The yellow webbing that locks the heel down has ground through as it's exposed below the ankle, ruining proper lacing via the design flaw that exposes this webbing to lots of abrasion. Now that they are properly broken in, they have failed.

Otherwise, these perform great, just like my old Sticky Weekends that I had for over 10 years. Cust svc at Garmont, though speedy with their reply, told me to get some webbing from a gear shop and they would tell me how to snake it back through there.....mmmm, nope guys, you should be fixing it for me. They said they would if I sent them, but seemed to imply that they preferred I fix it. The design flaw means that they will just blow out again. Back to La Sportiva for the exum's replacement.

It's just too bad, I was way stoked on these as I spend lots of time in the High Sierra climbing peaks and such. Ive led 5.9 in them, carried over 50lb packs, hiked thru snow, etc. Their performance is let down by that one small but crucial design flaw.

Excellent shoe.  Takes on varied terrain.  Very light and no break in needed. 

I ordered a half size larger.

When I bought these shoes I was looking for a trail runner that wouldn't wear out in one season. After searching long and hard I came across these. They are listed as approach shoes but could be used for everything from running to carrying a loaded pack on moderate terrain. I would recommend these shoe to anyone interested.