Berghaus Vapour Claw Trail Shoes

Vapour Claws out in Algonquin, Ontario - Photo by Sally Heath

Long before minimalist running shoes became fashionable, most fell runners were ahead of the game with Walshes being the shoe of choice. The Walsh PB model was low profile with very little cushioning on a thin but aggressive pyramid stuff sole. It gave no support but enough protection and loads of grip.

I became aware of the wider minimalist movement whilst out running the North Face 100km in the Australian Blue Mountains in 2010 where a bunch of folks were running in Vibram Five Fingers. After reading Born to Run and then going to the Copper Canyons to run with the Raramuri in 2013, my conversion to this type of shoe was complete, since I loved the more natural and connected to the ground feel that a minimalist style offered.

So when Berghaus kindly gave me a pair of Vapour Claws to try, eyebrows were raised since they are far from minimalist! My first impressions were mixed since they looked bulky for a size 7 and yet, weighing in at approximately 612g, didn’t feel all that heavy. The tread looked like it was clearly designed to cope with gnarly terrain and the upper appeared to be breathable or at least drain well in typically wet Scottish conditions. I tried them on and the eyebrows came up once again. The fairly wide fit actually suited me but they felt very cushioned in comparison to my normal trail shoes.
 

Overlocking at the top of the lacing.

My daughter is a passionate figure skater and when she was about seven years old, she taught me to tie my shoes laces! To maintain full control with her skates, every time she put them on, she laced them from the toe up rather than just a quick tighten at the top. Given the varied nature of trails, fells, mountains etc., I’ve gotten into the habit of doing the same now to minimize the potential for foot movement in the shoe. With the Vapour Claws, this was more important than ever given the generous internal volume if blisters were to be prevented. The supplied lace type didn’t lend itself to staying tight but a quick adjustment to “overlock” on the top two eyelets fixed that. Basically, instead of coming up from the tongue side, you go down through the eyelet meaning when you pull the lace, the pressure keeps it in place.

The first test…

I live close to a park with a mixture of trail surfaces which quickly established how the shoes would perform on terrain ranging from compacted ash to loose gravel and slippy mud. The short road section to the trails felt strange, since I’ve not run in anything cushioned for a long time, but by the time I reached the first hill that awkward first date feeling had gone and it was fun to relax and just see how they felt. Over the next hour, I was pleasantly surprised to find they coped well with almost every surface but still had a little more movement in the toe box than I would have liked.

The next outing for the shoes was in the Alps and the first day around Chamonix certainly amplified everything I had done in Scotland with much bigger climbs, and some steep and technical descents. The extra movement I had previously experienced had gone; whether this was due to more careful lacing or the shoes being a little more broken in, I don’t know, but I made the decision to stick with them for the rest of the trip despite having my usual trail shoes with me.

The second day saw an even greater range of conditions with some mud and snow to really challenge the shoe’s traction. I was pleased with the performance on both of those surfaces, and as I put more miles on them, the fit seemed to keep improving. By the end of the trip, the Vapour Claws and I were on the best of terms and now a confirmed happy couple.

As I’ve mentioned in other blog posts, the majority of my running is in the Scottish mountains and apart from during winter conditions, I only use trail / fell shoes on hill trips. The recent trip to An Clisham where I got to test the Vapour Storm in horrible conditions also gave me the opportunity to put the Vapour Claws through a similar experience. Again the grip was great both on the rocky sections and the peat bogs which formed the approach to the hill. My previous observation on the breathability / quick draining feature also proved to be correct and the mesh upper allowed the water to empty freely. The downside of this maybe a trade-off in terms of durability and I will update this post on that as I continue to use them.

Am I fully converted back to a more traditional trail shoe? Hmmm, possibly not yet. Acknowledging that it’s a very personal thing, I still prefer to feel the lumps and bumps under my feet when I run. Having said that, I have used them a lot now and for longer events or training runs where extra cushioning is an advantage, the Vapour Claws are certainly a great option and as I think about my next attempt at a100 miler, I will definitely consider making them part of the kit.

An Clisham in typical Scottish Summer conditions - they coped well !