Best Traction On Wet & Muddy Surfaces

Just look at how beastly the tread on the Salomon Speedcross 6 is. This is a trail runner that was designed specifically for running in muddy, wet, slippery conditions, which comes up quite a lot in hiking.

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• Price: $140
• M’s Weight: 10.5 oz | W’s Weight: 9.1 oz
• Heel-Forefoot-Drop: M’s 32-22-10 | W’s 32-22-10
• Lugs: 5 mm | Rockplate: No
• Width: Slightly narrow | Overall Fit: Small
• Wide Sizes Available: Yes
• On Trail/Off trail? Prefers off trail.
• Pros: Incredible traction on wet muddy surfaces.
• Cons: Inefficient for use on everyday trails.

Features

This is the hiking shoe we would want on a trip in early summer where you have to hike across snowfields that are creating mud patches. It’s also great on loose gravely dry dirt, snow, ice, and even rocks. Great for rainy conditions too!

Salomon Speedcross 6 is a slim, narrow, glove-like trail runner that is meant to increase precision, at which it is very successful. It tends to fit pretty small and slim, but it comes in a wide version so choose your poison.

It’s a fully built trail shoe, with a 32mm heel stack, and a traditional 10mm drop to the 22mm forefoot height. Compared to the 5, it’s lighter weight trail running shoe, though still on the heavier end overall.

Looking at this pair of hiking shoes, you’ll notice the outer fabric is smooth and less-mesh-like than most others. This is part of the mud-resistant design. The flat face is kind of like the trail running shoe version of a soft shell – it’s not water/mud proof, but better at warding it off.

However, it does not breath quite as well as mesh-ier fabrics, but that’s not one would pick these hiking shoes.

Verdict

It’s important to note that this trail running shoe are not a daily driver for most hikers, unless they hike exclusively in wet mud. While the tread is excellent, it’s usually going to be overkill, and does not offer the best energy return for your typical dry dirt and rock trail, even loose ones.

We recommend adding this pair to your quiver for use in spring and fall, but using something more efficient on a hike-to-hike basis. That said, we think this is a very practical hiking shoe for a specific purpose, and a great trail runner to have access to.

Read about more great trail runners for hiking in our guide to the best hiking shoes of the year.