Gear Review - Salomon Quest 4D 3 GTX Hiking Boots

Last summer I used the Salomon Quest 4D 3 GTX Hiking Boots. I bought them early in the year and broke them in when the snow was still on the ground before wearing them all summer. So far, the boots have seen snow, rain, high and low temperatures, and 400+ km of use. They are an all around sturdy boot that I would recommend to anyone wanting a heavier backpacking boot. Here's a more in depth review.

The Break In Period

The break in period with these boots was quick and painless. I started wearing them and was worried they would be stiff at first, but after about 5 km of walking in them they started to conform to my foot and by the end of 10 km they were happily broken in. Since then they haven't changed much and are holding up well.

Support and Protection

These boots have kept my feet in one piece through some rocky and hill trails in the Canadian Shield. When laced properly they provide excellent support for both the arch of your foot and your ankle, and have helped prevent numerous rolled ankles. They are also rugged enough that I haven't hurt my feet yet by accidentally kicking a rock or step while doing a climb.

Temperature Control

Like all waterproof foot wear, these boots run a little warm. I was concerned about how they would perform heat control wise last July when we were hiking in temperatures of 30 degrees celcius, but they were still relatively comfortable and I wasn't really suffering from warm feet more than I expected. I also found that there were no hot spots in the boots where they were causing and sores to appear on my feet or heat rashes, so all in all I'd say they did quite well.

I have also been using these boots as my winter foot wear for the last few months in Winnipeg, Canada. With a decently warm sock they are good at keeping my feet warm down to about -20 degrees celcius. Any colder than that and my feet tend to start getting colder after about 25 to 30 minutes. They've been serving me pretty well during the polar vortex were experiencing (temperatures of -40 degrees celcius before the wind chill) as my commuting foot wear.

Water Proofing

The water proofing on these boots works very well. I've used them to walk through low streams and pools of water, stood in pools of water with them for 5 to 10 minutes, walked through dew soaked grass and bushes, and taken them out in a down pour. In all cases, the only time the boots were wet was because of operator error (I forgot to wear water proof pants once in a rain storm).

With that being said, the boots take forever to dry out if they do get wet. On a good day your looking at 4 to 5 hours to get them to dry out if its warm and you can get a good breeze blowing in to them. If its cooler, say around 15 degrees celcius, and there's either no breeze or its humid out, your looking at 10+ hours to get them to dry. When these boots were soaked on our hike of the Pisew-Kwasitchewan Falls trail I had them off and tried to dry them out for about 15 hours but the humidity and temperature meant they were still soaked the next morning. This is a pretty common problem with water proof boots that I new about before hand, but it still sucks to put wet boots on.

General Wear and Tear

These boots have been used pretty well and so far are holding up very well. All the eyelets are still in good condition, the arch support is functioning properly, the tongue is in good shape, the treads aren't deteriorating too quickly, and the laces are working well. Not much else to say here except that they are pretty sturdy.

Conclusion

I would recommend these to boots to people that are expecting to be putting in some miles in rugged terrain or with a moderate or greater amount of weight. For day hiking these boots are probably a bit more than you need, but on multi-day hikes like the Mantario trail with lots of elevation changes you would benefit from using these.