Fireman Paul
Reviewed: 28 February 2008
UNCOMPROMISING. A SINGLE PURPOSE SHOE.
The Walsh PB Extreme ultra is a no-nonsense running shoe that does what it says on the can!
It has absolute grip on steep mud and rock.
Lightweight and yet surprisingly tough fabrics allow you to pick your feet up, even at the end of a tiring run. Water drains out of the shoe easily, a blessing in dartmoor's boggy depths. Designed to be worn tightly laced, it feels so secure that it almost becomes part of your foot. And the flexibility of the sole means you can feel every change in the terrain, and hurtle downhill confident that the soft studs will stick to rock, grass and mud like glue.
This is an uncompromising fell-running shoe and therein lies its ultimate weakness. The complete lack of cushioning makes it murder on the roads. And the tightness of the grip in the toe area can cause discomfort and blisters after a long day on the hills. Despite being wider than its ancestors, I find it too narrow to be truly "comfortable". Lastly, the very low back to the shoe can rub into your achilles.
If you want comfort instead of performance, then this is not the shoe for you.
But if you want to throw yourself downhill with abandon, charge across streams and leap through bogs, then there is no better shoe. This is it. The Walsh PB extreme ultra is the Ultimate.
