Testing Gore-Tex Surround at IMS

Before I get things started I would first like to thank Gore for inviting me to the International Mountain Summit to test out their new Membrane “Gore-Tex Surround” before general release early next year. I would also like to thank Simply Hike for letting me go on this adventure and finally LeanneDowns for taking awesome pictures along the way which I have used in this post.

So, there I was hanging off a mountain with Rob Johnson on his advanced scrambling course in Wales, when my phone rings! Some how in the middle of nowhere I have managed to get signal!! I found this funny as I can barely get any in the city! The text was from my boss saying that Gore have invited the Simply Hike team to Italy to be the first to test out their new membrane concept “surround” and asking me if I would like to go. Well it would be rude if I said no really wouldn't it!

So there I was a week later on my way to Italy; to be more precise Brixen, South Tyrol. We left at 2am and got to Brixen at about 1 in the afternoon (off the top of my head). After about an hour of getting our heads down, it was straight to the center where all the talks at IMS are held. We headed to where Gore were talking about their new membrane “surround”. Gore had a brilliant presentation about surround and the thoughts and technology behind it, but to be honest I was just wanting to get my hands on a pair of trail shoes and test them out!

Once the talk was over that is when they started handing out the various trail shoes from different brands (Mammut, Meindl, La Sportiva and Scarpa). I got my hands on a pair of Meindl, a personal favourite of mine. I knew the quality would be great in the trail shoe so I knew that I could well and truly test the shoes to destruction!

Whilst everyone was walking around testing the shoes in the conference room it gave us enough time to introduce ourselves (sorry if I didn't mention it before there were other bloggers from all over Europe also testing out the new Gore membrane). I soon realised that the Simply Hike team were the only ones from England! So shall we say in some cases the language barrier was a little tricky but we met two bloggers from Sweden: Angeliqa Mejstedt and Jonna Jinton. Once we had played around with our new trail shoes we set off to dinner and then hit the hay. It had been a very long day!

This was it! Time to test out the Gore-Tex membrane, and this might sound a little crazy, but it was perfect weather, nice and hot! At one point I think it got to about 21 degrees which for that time of year (considering its normally snowing) is nice and warm! We set off from Brixen at around 9am to our starting point at Plose where we jumped on a gondola to start our hike. If I'm honest I was a little disappointed with this. Now I know everyone’s fitness can be different and Gore probably had to fill out lots of health and safety forms just to get us on the mountain but it would have been great to hike,scramble and possibly climb to the top part of the mountain.

Once we got off the gondola we headed up towards the Geislerspitzen which was around about a two hour walk with various stopping points where talks would happen (unfortunately none were in English). But, I was there to test out the “surround membrane” and let me say it really did the job. My feet were cool all day in the hot hot heat! The quality of the Meindl trail shoe with the awesome “surround membrane” just ticked all the boxes for me. Dare I say it but (for now) these are probably the most comfortable and coolest trail shoes I have every worn! The trail we walked wasn't a hard trail but with the added heat you could really feel the membrane working at keeping my feet cool!

Once we had reached the Geislerspitzen we had lunch (I had a meat platter, it was yummy!) and I took my shoes off! Now normally my feet would be hot and sweaty and most probably slightly swollen, but to my surprise they looked just the same as when I first put the trail shoe on. Just one word sums that up really: FANTASTIC! The only thing that needed to be tested was the waterproofing. Once we got off the gondola at the bottom, I noticed a water feature, so I went over to it and just stepped into it. Next thing I knew everyone had joined me! It was a weird sensation at first because you felt the water through the bottom of the trail shoe but after that they held their own. I was in there for about ten minutes in all and my feet were nice and cool and most importantly bone dry!

To sum it up Gore-Tex Surround is an amazing membrane. It kept me nice and cool all day in the heat and still kept my feet nice and dry! I cannot wait to see them push it into other hiking equipment! The trip was great: I met lots of different people from all types of backgrounds and got to hike in a beautiful part of the world!