The Makra Pro Low is a beautifully made, traditionally styled, alpine scrambling shoe, and build quality is obvious from the outset. A wide fit, reasonably adjustable fabric eyelet lacing to the toe and, especially, the gaitered tongue conspire to provide lots of comfort straight from the box.
David Lintern’s verdict
As general hillwalking footwear, from woodland trails to mountain talus, the Makra Pro Low performs well – but I found it less well suited to steeper ground where I need to use my hands as well.- Excellent build quality
- Comfort on approach
- Can resole
- Relative lack of grip on technical ground
| Quick specs | |
|---|---|
| Price: £230 Weight: 1036g (pair size 10.5) Materials: suede leather upper, rubber outsole, PU/EVA midsole Features: Goretex liner, Vibram Makra with megagrip, wide last. Sizes: 6-13 Women’s version: Yes www.hanwag.com |
A Gore-Tex liner, deep lugs on the sole and a substantial heel brake mean this does well on steep, wet or grassy approaches. It’s built to manage the kind of terrain we can expect getting to and from scrambling routes. The midsole is stiff and offers lots of lateral support, so I expected it to fair equally well on rock. It does fine on dry, lower angled terrain but the outsole quickly meets its match on greasy, wet rock. The toe is precise enough, but the climbing zone could be bigger. The particular rubber compound used is not quite soft and sticky enough, and the deeper, well-spaced lugs that mean it does so well on vegetated approaches make it far less secure on steep ground. That stiff, chunky midsole is great at edging but means it’s hard to get feedback (through your feet) as to where the best traction is on more marginal holds and ledges.
As general hillwalking footwear, from woodland trails to mountain talus, the Makra Pro Low performs well – the chunky PU rand shrugs off bumps and scrapes easily and there’s plenty of protection from that stiffened midsole – but I found it less well suited to steeper ground where I need to use my hands as well as my feet.
Written and tested by David Lintern.
David walked and scrambled over the autumn and winter in his selection, in and around the Cairngorms, and specifically at his local crag (in between storms and snow), which has both trad and sport climbs of all grades and plenty of vegetated terraces and greasy rock to explore in between.
