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Columbia Tellurix Titanium OutDry Shoe
Gear Review
My all-time favourite hiking shoe was the Columbia Konos TRS OutDry shoe. It was an incredibly comfortable shoe with great traction and durability. Well, great durability until they ran into my half golden retriever, half chainsaw puppy. Then they went the way of so many shoes and defenceless stuffed animals before them and ended up partially shredded across my front hallway. I was bummed. Where was I going to find a new pair of hiking shoes that fit well, were comfortable, gripped the dirt/ice/gravel like a shoe shaped suction cup and were waterproof to top it all off?
Enter the Tellurix Titanium OutDry Shoe. You know how they say you never get over your first love? Well, they’re wrong. The Tellurix OutDry takes everything I loved about the Konos TRS and either matches or improves on it. Those shoes have taken me on some pretty slippery and wet early season hikes this spring, including along the uphill skating rink that was the Johnston Canyon Trail near Banff this past April. I finished each hike with dry socks, no foot pain and a growing sense that I’d found my next forever shoe (until my chainsaw retriever gets her jaws on them). Here’s why:
Overview
The Tellurix Titanium OutDry Shoe looks like a running shoe, but when you peek under the hood you realize it’s a whole lot more than a regular road runner. These shoes were designed for weekends on the trails, not weekdays on the sidewalks (although they work just fine as walking around shoes). The Tellurix features Columbia’s OutDry waterproofing technology (more on that in a bit) and Omni-Max design system (more on that too). On top of that, they use Vibram Megagrip outsoles that keep you glued to the trail, no matter how slippery the surface you’re navigating. As a bonus, these are comfortable shoes. I’ve hiked quite a few trails in them over the past few weeks and haven’t found any pressure points or spots of discomfort yet. In fact, let’s start there.
Comfort
The Tellurix Titanium are very comfortable shoes. I’m a size 10.5 and my foot is probably a bit wider than average. While the shoes don’t come in a specific “wide” sizing, I found the fit to be true from the heel to the toe box. The Tellurix uses a Techlite+ midsole. Techlite+ midsole is Columbia designed and provides a mid layer of foam between the insole and the outersole. There are multiple variations of the Techlite technology in Columbia’s shoes. Techlite+ is specifically geared towards hiking and trail running and is somewhat lighter than other versions.
Unlike the Konos TRS, the Tellurix doesn’t pair the Techlite+ midsole with a specialized insole. However, that doesn’t seem to be an issue. I’ve found no difference between the Tellurix and the Konos in terms of comfort, and both are at the top of the list compared to other hiking shoes I’ve owned.
Fit & Support
Comfort is great and all, but the world’s most comfortable shoes aren’t going to be much use on the trail if they can’t offer you some support as well. I mentioned at the start that the Tellurix looks like a somewhat buffed up road runner. That means that the shoe ends below your ankle leaving open a higher chance of rolling over on it if you hit the wrong root or patch of ice. The good news is that the parts of the shoe that do cover your foot are quite supportive. The Navic Fit system is designed to secure both your heel and mid foot in place, and it does a good job of this. Lacing up these shoes for the first time felt like I was tying on an old favourite for the thousandth time. My foot felt secure on uneven terrain like roots and rocks. I wore the Tellurix while crossing a set of slippery creek stones and they kept my foot stable despite the odd angles and slick surfaces.
Traction
Here’s where these shoes really proved themselves as far as I was concerned. The Tellurix uses a Vibram Megagrip outsole. Essentially it’s a high performance rubber that is meant to provide superior grip on all kinds of terrain. As I’ve mentioned a couple of times, I wore these shoes on the (rather lovely) trail up the Johnston Canyon in early April. This isn’t the world’s most difficult hike, but at that time of year, with the melt underway but not quite finished, the entire thing was covered in a thin layer of ice. Most people on the trail were wearing spikes on their boots. Except for a brief spot where the trail turned into a skating rink heading towards a waterfall, I didn’t need them. The shoes stayed stuck to the path in every condition and I felt significantly better about my chances of making it home without a broken ankle that I did about the person I passed who was wearing Crocs and doing her best impression of Bambi on a frozen lake.
Waterproofing
The Tellurix use Columbia’s OutDry technology. This is a waterproof membrane that bonds to the outer shell of the shoe. Columbia says that it is “absolutely waterproof” while still giving it a High Breathability rating. I’ve owned other OutDry products from Columbia and found that this claim is actually pretty accurate. My OutDry rain jacket and pants have done a fantastic job of keeping the rain out while letting the heat from my body escape. I will say that with these shoes, that breathability isn’t quite so efficient. I would guess that this is a function of having other materials involved in the design, but I did notice that my feet were on the warmer while moving. This wasn’t the end of the world, I was out in some pretty chilly conditions so the added warmth was actually a bonus, but it might be a different story come mid summer.
As far as the effectiveness of the waterproofing goes, like every other OutDry product I’ve owned, the Tellurix did well. During an early April hike through a maple sugar bush I made a point of stomping through every puddle I could find like an unattended toddler after a thunderstorm. The water stayed on the outside of the shoe (except when I splashed too hard and it got over the ankle). I also did my now standard hose test and left these shoes under the tap for three minutes. The inside was still dry when I shut it off, mirroring the results I got when I did the same test with the Konos.
The Verdict
As I said off the top, I’m a fan of the Tellurix Titanium OutDry Shoe. These are comfortable hiking shoes that were ready for any early spring conditions I threw at them. They provided good fit, good stability and excellent traction. While they are maybe a bit warm if you’re wearing them for extended periods, that’s as much a bug as it is a feature depending on the temperature. I would absolutely use these for shoulder season hiking. Pair them with some decent gaiters and they’d work in the snow if the melt hasn’t quite hit your favourite trail yet. At $200.00 CAD these are pretty reasonably priced, in line with the cost of a pair of good running shoes with quite a few added features. For men they come in three different colour schemes: Supersonic (red), Cloud Grey (white-ish) and Black (uh … black). I went with the Supersonic colour and am low key very excited to have a pair of shoes that matches my newest Columbia rain jacket as well.
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