Both those shoes are much higher stack and I would not recommend either for technical terrain. MTN Racer 3 *could* be a good option if you can get a good midfoot lockdown, but it lacks in that department in my opinion. But its stack is still fairly high, and you lose a ton of ground feel vs Terraventure. Not sure about the new 4 version. Vista’s stack is much too high to ever be considered suitable for technical terrain. I know of the terrain you are referring to in the NE and I would not recommend either for it, personally.
Topo Terraventure’s are 3mm, MTN Racer’s 5mm. Both are wider than average, though perhaps not quite as wide as some other models or other Altra models. They also have a snugger fit in the midfoot, which I personally like. I’ve found it’s much easier to get a good lockdown fit with Topo while still having plenty of room to move my toes.
I prefer to use my hiking boots for terrain like picture 2 - 5 (in the mountains basically) because I like thicker soles not to feel the rocks, and I wand to protect my ankles ! However, I mainly hike with trail runners for everything else (I use the Topo Athletics Terra Adventure 4). I'm considering testing the Topo Trailventure, they seem to be a hybrid between hiking boots and trail runners, but not currently in the budget as I don't need new shoes.
And yes to hiking poles, they are great for balance as it almost makes you like a 4 legged animal. In my hiking group, I was the only one using poles, my partners are much more fit than I am. However, this year on our annual 100km hike, they all used poles and they told me that they could tell how much it helped them too !
Topo has a tighter/neutral fit it the mid-foot. I have a narrower foot and couldn’t get a good lock down in Altras. Tops are also primarily low drop instead of zero drop which might be an easier transition for you. I really like my Topo Terraventure 4.
Wp shoes are also heavier than the non wp version. For example Topo Terraventure 4, the wp is 12 oz for a M9, the regular, non WP is 10.1 oz for an M9. That's roughly 55 grams difference. That adds up over time, and it has been documented that an increase of 100 grams has a measurable impact on running economy.
See study below:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7538857/
I would stay away from the Pursuit 2's. For me, after about 10 miles my feet just felt pretty beat up, and that was a fairly smooth trail with minimal rocks, and I couldn't really find a good replacement insole with more padding that didn't make the whole shoe feel more ackward for running.
I liked the Terraventures much more for longer stuff.
Ultraventures had the insoles kindof die after about a hundred miles and they just started making this annoying squeek sound with each step. I ended up replacing the insole with gel inserts and turned them into hiking/recovery shoes.
If you like altra, you may want to look at Topo. They have low(5mm or under) drop shoes, and quite a few people have gone that way as their shoes have pretty good durability (I had about 900 miles on my Terraventures when I finally tossed them).
Regarding ankle strength- it comes with time, but I found that doubling up compression socks helped me on shoes that don't have as tight a heel cup. I do carry a wrap just in case, but as I train more it's become less of an issue.
How to find shoes? I read alot of shoe reviews. Below are the three sites I use extensively. On runrepeat and roadtrailrun their reviews will show comparisons so you can look up similar style and read those reviews to see if its a shoe you'd like.
Based on the reviews, I have a list of shoes I want to try, sorted by use/distance, and I keep an eye out for sales.
https://runrepeat.com/catalog/running-shoes
https://believeintherun.com/shoe-reviews/
https://www.roadtrailrun.com/p/blog-page.html?m=1
Top Trail Running Shoes on Reddit
1
Mount to Coast
H1
85% positive of 177 users
Versatile road-to-trail, but struggles on wet, technical downhills.
Distinct_Young_8318
