La Sportiva - Helios SR

Here’s my contribution. I haven’t done controlled tests like you did, but I run a lot of rocky vertical terrain and have put lots of miles in all these shoes. Trying to focus here on wet rock grip from the outsole and ignore other shoe attributes (fit, lock down, flexibility/stiffness, weight, cushion, etc) that also come into play with their overall ability to do the job on wet rock 5: VJ Maxx 1&2 VJ Spark Arcteryx Norvan VT (limited mileage) 4. Arcteryx Norvan SL 1, 2, &3 Salomon s/Lab Sense 7&8 Nnormal Kjeraq 3. La Sportiva Helios SR La Sportiva Vertical K & VK INOV-8 F-Lite 195 2. Whole bunch of older inov-8 x-talon and RocLite models NB minimus Salomon s/lab ultra 3 Salomon s/lab sense 7SG 1. Old Nike Terra kiger Salomon s/lab sense 1, 2, 3 For spiked shoes, I actually think they suffer quite a bit on rock because they don’t stick instantly like pure rubber soles. 4. VJ Devil 4 3. VJ bold race, VJ ice hero, INOV-8 ORoc 280

I just finished a two week hiking trip in Madeira and am pleased to say my la sportiva helios trailrunners still keep up - I also used them in Albania. Lots of scrambling, going through muddy paths, rocky terrain, I thought they would finally crack or split or... but nothing!

I like La Sportiva Helios as a crossover trail/road shoe. It’s the shoe I travel with.

I am partial to La Sportiva. Prodigio is great like someone else mentioned but I think their Helios is great for this (maybe even better on the road part) too! I feel like the Helios may be lighter but I haven’t checked the numbers - just feel that way. I switched to La Sportiva from Salomon a few years ago.

It is impossible for me to choose the best shoe because my choices would be different for different terrain and distance. Perhaps if I could pick a single favorite shoe of all times it would be **La Sportiva Helios** - between different versions I owned 12 or 13 pairs. I liked it because it felt like a continuation of my feet and I could really push it hard on super technical terrain in a broad range of terrains. However It didn't work well on either very rocky terrain or distances above 50k. If I look at my current set of shoes I gravitate to 3 shoes - each of them excels in different categories of terrain and distance - **NNormal Kjerag, La Sportiva Prodigio, and Salomon S/lab Genesis**. I've just ordered La Sportiva Prodigio Pro and based on reviews I think it has a good chance to become one of my top 3 shoes, but we'll see.