Gear Review: KEEN Alamosa WP Hiking Boots

I'm really impressed with KEEN's waterproof Alamosa hiking boot.  You can watch my short video review here and/or read the text below:



This is a review of the KEEN Alamosa hiking boot that you see right here in front of you.  I've owned this boot for about 6 months now.  I've done a number of mid-length hikes in them: Grand Canyon (down and up) Mount Baldy in the San Antonio range in California, and some shorter ones in cooler weather up in Ontario and the Canadian Shield, which is where I live.

The construction of this boot is all very soft, very pliable leather.  Very lightweight.  I want to emphasize that... it's a lightweight hiking boot.  It's probably not going to give you the support of a full, heavier hiking boot.  But for what you're getting it's amazing.  Amazing support for this lightweight hiking boot.

Together they weigh less than 1 kg.  About 990 g, that's about 2.2 or 2.3 lbs for he pair, together.  So, nice and lightweight.

Being a KEEN, it's got the nice toe-stop here, and a very generous toebox, which is what I like.  This is a size 11, which is a European 44.5.  It fits me perfectly, my first pair of KEEN's actually but probably not my last.  Lots of room in the toebox which is what I like and then you can cinch up the ankle with the lacing.

One lace, lots of little pulls that are adjustable.  So if you see here, this will give if you want.  It's connected down here and around the back and it comes out again on the other side. So you can alce it up and get a really snug feeling all the way around your heel and that's really handy when you're going downhill, or encountering some difficult terrain, or carrying a heavy backpack.

IT's got the quick lace-up here, all plastic, no metal on this boot.  Nice plastic quick lace.  They've got a really nice eye in there so the lace grabs right in there and holds it really well, really tight.

It's a waterproof boot, and I can attest to that.  I've hiked through water that's probably up to about here.  At least ankle-deep water, and my feet have remained largely dry.  Maybe a little bit, you know, where it's crept in around the tongue, a little bit wet there.  But that's just a function of the water going too high.  It's got the KEENDry system.  What you can see is that it's brown up here and inside it gets a little silver lining.  The lining goes all the way around and that's what they call the KeenDry lining.  I'm not sure if it's a GoreTex or something like that but basically from this point all the way around it's covering down, so you stay nice and dry in there.

Good ventilation.  All of this is mesh, so very pliable, very breathable in the hot weather.  It was about maybe 30 C in the Grand Canyon and my feet didn't sweat too much.  And then the hikes I've done around here I've gone down to about 10 C below 0, in the snow and they've been nice and toasty, as long as I'm moving.  Great hiking boot as far as I'm concerned.

On the bottom, not amazing traction but you've got at least 4-5 mm in the tread depth.  I don't know how they come up with these patterns but it feels pretty good.  It's a little slippery on ice or frozen rock as you would expect.  But if you have any kind of dirt or wood on a hiking trail it feels really nice, really good.

Maybe I'll just show you here, you can see on the left foot there's a little fold on the leather, a compression.  No one's two feet are the same, so when you cinch it up you can really, you just gotta pull on the top and the whole thing, even down here ill really nicely cinch up.  You can bring the soft leather in and it really feels like it conforms around your foot.  Your heel really stays back here very nicely.

So, I don't know if they sell them any more actually.  I was looking online, I got these at Atmosphere, which is a Sport Expert knockoff.  But they're also on OutdoorGear, Amazon, etc. but I can't seem to find any recently.  So I'm not sure if they stopped manufacturing them.

But if you want a lightweight hiking boot that gives amazing waterproof and amazing support, this KEEN Alamosa is the one.

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How to Set Up a Slackline

Setting up a slackline is pretty easy.  Unless you're going for one of those Gibbon gucci slacklines with the thick webbing and ratcheting come-along, your entire setup can be purchased for $50 or $60 (probably less in the USA).

Equipment 

Here's what you need (clockwise in above photo):

• 1" Tubular webbing - The rolled, blue tubular webbing above is 15 m of climbing-strength webbing, rated for 17 kN.  MEC sells it for $1.30/meter here.  This is obviously the main part of your setup and should be good quality.  15 - 20 m should be good.
• 1" flat webbing (anchors) - Above I have 2x rolls of 4 m (8 m total) flat webbing.  You need something like this to wrap around your trees.  The larger the tree trunk, the longer the anchor must be.  The webbing above is accessory webbing and is not intended for climbing.  It's only rated for about 11-12 kN and is sold for $1.00/meter at MEC.  This should be fine, but if you want something of a higher grade, try MEC's flat climbing webbing.
• 4x oval carabiners - Do they have to be oval?  No, D-carabiners would work too.... BUT, Ds are more expensive to purchase and they don't hold webbing as nicely.  The Black Diamond biners above are $5.25 ea. at MEC and work great.
• 2x descending rings (optional) - Optional because they're not required for the setup, BUT they will ensure you do not need to tie knots in your webbing.  Knots weaken the webbing and distort its strength ratings.  Plus, I don't want to spend their time tying and untying knots.  MEC says they carry descending rings but my location does not stock them.  Wilderness Supply stepped up to bat and sold me the above rings (20 kN) for less than $4 ea.  Line lockers or padded chain links would work just as well.

Set Up

1. Find two trees (~ 25+ cm diameter) between which to set up your line.  Ensure you have about 5 m more webbing than distance.  
2. Wrap your anchors around the trees, several times if necessary (doubled if possible).  I sewed loops in both ends of my anchors for easy set up (if you do this, make sure you know how to sew the correct patterns for max breaking strength).  If no loops, use a water knot to connect the ends of the webbing together (see below)

3. Connect an oval carabiner to one anchor and fix your main line (tubular webbing) to it using the descending ring and a bight + line locker.  If you're not sure how to do this, check out these instructional steps.  If you didn't buy descending rings, you'll need to tie your main line to the carabiner.
4. Bring your main line to the other anchor (ensure no twists).  Add another carabiner + descending ring to the main line about 1 m from the anchor when taut, or about 20% of the total distance.
5. Steps 5 thru 8 will give a 3:1 mechanical advantage to tighten the slackline.  Add two carabiners to the anchor webbing and feed the main line through one of them.  If the top one, feed the line top to bottom.  If the bottom, feed it bottom to top.
6. Bring the main line back to the biner/descending ring combo and feed it through the carabiner the same way you did in step 5 (top to bottom or bottom to top).  
7. Bring the line back to the anchor and feed it through the other ring, the opposite way from step 5.
8. Feed the main line back to the the carabiner in step 6 and bring it under the webbing from step 6.  You should now have a tension lock and the line should hold itself up.  It should look something like this:

9. Finally, grab that loose end and pull!  Keep pulling until you tighten to the desired amount of 'slack'.  You may want to enlist the help of a friend.  The line is under a tension lock and will hold itself... BUT just to be safe, tie off that extra webbing in a knot as a backup.

Happy slacklining!

How many kg in a kN?

Quick physics lesson today.  Often we see carabiners, rings, rope, etc. rated for a certain number of kilo Newtons (kN).  What does that number mean and how does it affect me?

The quick and dirty answer, working with normal gravity, is that 1 kN = 101 kg = 224 lbs.  These are conservative masses, meaning I have rounded down.  To convert kg to kN, multiply by 0.00981, to convert kN to kg, multiply by 101.97.

Why is this so?  Glad you asked.  While a kg is a unit of mass, a kN is a unit of force.  The unit of measurement for kN is the Newton, defined as the force of earth's gravity required to move 100g (0.1 kg).   Since force is defined as mass multiplied by acceleration, we must apply some sort of acceleration to our unit of mass (kg) in order to get kN.  Usually, this acceleration is gravity (9.81 m/s).  With this in mind, we can see that a 1 kg mass under gravity is equal to:

• F = m * a
• F = 1 kg * (9.81 m/s)
• F = 1000 g * 9.81 m/s
• F = 9.81 N
• F = 0.00981 kN

So, as an example, that climbing item you have rated for 20 kN would not be able to take more than 2039 kg under gravity.