A light, airy but ultra-durable boot designed for off-the-beaten-path adventures, Meindl’s Alpine 1.5 Light Hiker was built for the warm-weather hunter.
by Jace Bauserman
If you’re a Western wanderer, gear matters. Weight, comfort, and durability are prerequisites for any backcountry sojourn. Of course, your weapon, bow, or rifle, matters. Accuracy is paramount.
Can you compromise on certain gear pieces? Absolutely. Saving pennies on gear is always a good thing. Gear is expensive, and when you can pinch, save, and cut a corner here and there, that’s good. A particular water filter may not have all the bells and whistles, and it may take you a tad longer to filter water, but if it works and you’re coming home from trips and not getting Giardia, why upgrade? I have a two-person backcountry tent I’ve used for five years. It provides plenty of room for me and my gear and keeps the weather out. Since purchasing that tent, the manufacturer has launched lighter models. Those models are, naturally, more expensive. I haven’t upgraded and don’t plan to.
However, some pieces of gear MUST be the very best; gear you can’t afford to pinch and save on. Boots are one of those items. Your feet are your best assets on a backcountry hunt. If you can’t walk, you can’t hunt. I’ve seen tough men limp off the mountain with Coke-can-sized blisters. One of my hunting buddies spent two days in spike camp on an elk hunt because his feet hurt so badly that he couldn’t walk.
Don’t be afraid to spend money on quality boots. When roaming the West, you want your feet comfortable, blister-free, and dry. If it’s cold, you want your feet warm. If you’re chasing bugling bulls in September, you likely want an uninsulated pair of boots that don’t make your feet feel like they’re in a sauna.
Weight is another factor to consider. When I’m running after rutting bulls, I don’t want a pair of clodhoppers. I demand a boot with a light, athletic feel and unwavering support.
Enter Meindl.
In January, I penned a review of Meindl’s Comfort Fit 400s. I wore the boots on a January mountain lion hunt and loved them. Even in frigid temps, because I was moving with the hounds, the 400-gram Primaloft Gold insulation and 100 percent waterproof GORE-TEX liner kept my toes toasty and my feet dry. They were also remarkably comfortable. I couldn’t wait to give their Air Revolution Alpine 1.5 Light Hiker a whirl on a spring hound bear hunt.
CLICK HERE To Read The Meindl Comfort Fit 400 Review
First Impressions: Meindl Alpine 1.5 Light Hiker
Looks don’t matter. However, these black books with orange accents look sharp. The boots stand 7.25 inches tall. This is the perfect height for early-season hunting expeditions when snow isn’t on the ground. The height still provides ankle support, but because the boots don’t crawl too far up the ankle, weight is reduced. The Alpine 1.5 Light Hiker, as their name implies, feel like a feather. A pair weighs 3.46 pounds. That’s 1.73 pounds per boot. Awesome!
The hikers are uninsulated but feature Gore-Tex, so they are, in theory, waterproof. The outsole features the Vibram Cleats Grip, the midsole is EVA, and the upper material is a suede/mesh mixture.
I was also immediately drawn to the tongue. The tongue is a two-piece system comprised of a padded mesh with a Velcro tab that connects to the main tongue. This system adds comfort to the upper ankle while making the boots a breeze to put on. The black/orange laces are 72 inches long, appear durable, and slide easily through the metal loop-style laces. The top laces are metal hook-and-loops, with a gaiter clasp on the outside leather tongue.
Trial By Fire
Hound hunting gets a bad rap. People who have never hunted behind hounds believe you turn them out, they tree a bear or lion, and the hunter goes in and shoots the bear or lion. WRONG! Hunting with hounds is physically intense. Hunters will spend hours, sometimes days, walking and driving, doing everything in their power to find a track or get a strike.
Then, when the race begins, the hunter must try to keep pace with the hounds. I’ve run bears and lions from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and never put one up a tree. Hound hunting is hard. If you think otherwise, I suggest you stop thinking, go do it, and then let me know what you think after your trip. As I write this, there is a gentleman in camp who couldn’t hunt this morning because he couldn’t get his knees to unlock.
Over two days, I’ve walked a GPS-tracked cumulative of 7.23 miles with an average per-day elevation gain of 1,863 feet per day. The Meindl Alpine 1.5 Light Hikers are one of the most comfortable boots I’ve ever worn. They are light and airy, yet they grab rocky slopes and slippery-when-wet beetle-killed dead fall like champs.
Yesterday, May 19, I ran behind a pack of hounds 1,000 feet down a mountainside. The bear wouldn’t tree, and we were trying to creep in on the bear on the ground. It wouldn’t bay, but the dogs slowed the bear enough that we thought we could slip in. We were wrong. When the bear saw us, it bounded back up the hill—the pack of hounds hot on his heels.
Trying to keep pace was a terrible idea, but my buddy and I did it anyway. We jogged/power-hiked 1,000 feet back up the mountain, only to jump back in the Tacoma and shoot down another access road that would put us back in the race.
Today, May 20, I broke through willow brush for a mile. The morning dew coated my boots and pants. Guess what? My legs were wet, but my feet weren’t, even after a mile of trudging through wet willows and calf-high grass.
My lace settings remained tight, and after two days of hard walking, with steep ascents and descents, I have no blisters or hot spots. These boots will be in my early-season arsenal for pronghorn, mule deer, and elk. They will also be excellent for springtime turkeys and, obviously, springtime bears.
Final Thoughts
These boots are a lightweight, waterproof win. The rubber rand meets a stiffer rubber heel guard that comes up diagonally and connects, via an orange strap, to mid-ankle metal hook-and-loop clasps for added support.
Meindl created these A/B Flex-Use-rated boots for extreme adventures in rough terrain. However, they will also serve as all-day hiking boots. The tread is aggressive but not too aggressive, and because the boots are light and airy, you can stay on the go all day.
