I bought the La Sportiva Trango Alp GTX boot when I moved Seattle so that I would have a lightweight boot to climb in the Cascades.  The boot is technically a 3 season alpine climbing boot but I have been seriously impressed so far.  I have not taken the boot out in winter yet but I have attempted to climb Rainier twice with the Trango Alp and they have performed flawlessly.

The boot is very similar to the Trango S Evo GTX so much so that at first I didn’t see much of a difference.  The Trango Alp uses a leather upper while the Trango S Evo uses a cordura upper.  The Trango Alp also has a more durable sole that seems to be made for scrambling while the Trango S Evo has a stickier sole that is more for technical climbing.  I compared the soles of the boots and the major difference is that the Trango S Evo has an edging platform at the toe.  While the edging platform looks cool and all, I figured that if I need to edge across a lip that small I’ll probably be putting on my climbing shoes.  Now I’m sure that there are some people climbing hardcore enough to need a toe platform but I am not one of them.

My personal experience with these boots has been pretty amazing so far.  My last boots were the classic orange plastic Koflach’s.  I still have them and they serve a purpose but they are straight up heavy.  When I tried on these boots I was shocked by two things.  One was how light they are and the second was the simple fact that I could walk with a normal gate in them.  Everyone’s foot is different but these boots are seriously comfortable.

I’ve taken these leather boots up to Camp Muir twice so far.  Both times were in late season and once was in marginal weather.  My toes were never cold, my feet stayed dry even when walking through slush and the slog didn’t feel like a death march because of the boots.  All in all I couldn’t be happier.

**Update after having them for a couple of months***

If you read the previous trip report you’ll know that when I attempted to climb the Fisher Chimneys on Mt Shuksan I took the wrong gully system and ended up climbing some 5.easy in these boots.  These boots were superb on this scrambling, climbing and snow sloggin’ route.  Even with jamming the toes of the boots in some rough cracks they came out little worse for the wear.  If I had to buy another boot I’d buy these again.