 That vlog was over a month ago, me opening up the Solomon S-Lab XA Alpine Trail Running Shoe. I'm so excited to finally use them. Now you're probably wondering like why haven't you used them yet? Well, I bought these on Cyber Monday. Go check that vlog out because I wanted to save money pinching pennies and I just wanted to save money. So I wanted to get them on Cyber Monday, but we have not really had enough snow in Colorado to justify using them because they're definitely a trail shoe, a mountain shoe, a snow specifically designed for mud and snow and sleet and all that good stuff. So I'm at the North 10 mile trailhead just outside of Frisco, Colorado at 9,177 feet above sea level, 9,177 feet above sea level. I think I'm going to try and gain about a thousand feet of vertical. One of my goals is to hit pretty high number of vertical this year, very high number. So I got to get started now on that goal. Let's lace up. So the shoes aren't quite made for pure ice. Just putting that out there. So far good on the snow, not so much on the ice. Just immersed my foot in water for the first time. What got up to my, probably the mid up, my mouth is frozen, hold on. I just immersed my foot in water for the first time in these Solomon alpine shoes and probably went about halfway up the laces, nothing. No water in the foot. I didn't feel a thing. I'll try and film it right now. Oh, but I love them. All right. The Solomon SLAB XA alpine shoes on packed snow, on the trail, on ice, also on the trail, in water, on the trail. Now we're going off trail, powder. I want to see how these shoes do in powder, probably about 18 to 24 inches of powder. I just want to see if they keep the snow out. Come on. All right, let's inspect, see how they did it. Give you my full report once we're back at the car. Get it back. All right. That was amazing. It was amazing, but I'm not going to give you a full review or analysis of these shoes yet. I'm going to drive two more hours to Carbondale, process my thoughts, give you an update, bottom line. Pretty excited. Pretty excited. And my feet are dry. My feet are dry. What a beautiful drive through the mountains. We made it to Carbondale, Colorado. I'm up up in the Rocky Mountains here. I know a lot of you are, you know, maybe have never been to Colorado, but we have a lot of big mountains, 14,000 foot peaks. I did not run a 14er today, but the goal for this shoe is to use it this winter to run up 14ers, the Solomon S Lab XA Alpine shoe. It's kind of a mouthful, but it's a beautiful shoe. And I've got my five points here in this book. I wrote them down to get my thoughts on paper. Here we go. Number one, comfort. Very comfortable. It's like wearing a slipper. I would give it an eight and a half out of 10, eight and a half out of town. Ten for comfort. No, I'm not. I mean, it just, it's really, really a comfortable shoe. Number two, sole and traction. So here on the bottom, see the sole and you can see the traction or the lugs as they're called right here, five, five out of 10. I'm just wondering why Solomon, did you make the speed cross shoe in my right hand here? See those lugs? See how deep they are? How, how much traction you get in the snow and the mud? So this shoe with this upper here is made for mud and snow and ice. Why would the lugs on the bottom not match the upper, the epicness of the upper? So all I'm saying is put these lugs on the speed cross over to this alpine shoe. Does that make sense? All right. That's number two. Sorry. Five out of 10. Five out of 10. Number three, upper and lacing system. Nine and a half out of 10, nine and a half out of 10 for this lacing system. Just amazing. It's just me walking in the creek. I was probably about three or four inches of water and my foot didn't get wet at all, at all. And then of course the classic inside, it's a different lacing system than you're probably used to with other running shoes. You don't tie them. You, you cinch it down. I love it. It's like, it's like you're getting a bear hug. It's like you're getting a bear hug. So, and then the zipping, hold on one second. The zipping here, just the zipping is just, it's just a beautiful thing. So my foot did not get wet, upper nine and a half out of 10. Number four, the ride and the support. I'd give a seven out of 10. Pretty good support, but a little stiff. And I know it's designed to be stiff because it's a mountain shoe, but I, you know, the, the ride could probably be a little smoother. All right. So when I say ride, I mean, how does it feel as you're striking the ground and rolling over the ground? Or in this case today, the snow. So seven out of 10 for ride and support. And number five, the least important, but you know, why not throw it in there? The look, it looks good. I mean, I'd say this blue could be a little darker, but I like the black. It kind of looks like you're a ninja or something. And combined with this cool upper with the zipper, I give the look a seven and a half out of 10. All right. So what is that score? I don't even know. I'll add it up right now. And that's it folks. That's today's story. I hope you enjoyed it. A little mountain adventure. All right. I'm going off to hang out with my brother and his wife up in the mountains. I'm going to put the camera away and just enjoy the beauty of creation. It's amazing. Come back for another VLOG tomorrow.