Altra Lone Peak 6 Trail Running Shoe Review

Shoes are one of the most important pieces of gear in your hiking / trail running quiver, and without a quality pair you could not only suffer blisters, other uncomfortable ailments, but you could also be putting yourself in serious risk. Low quality shoes often mean you will not have the necessary grip, comfortability, or support. On the other hand, high quality shoes will allow you to increase safety and enjoyability in the outdoors. In this article, we review the Altra Lone Peak 6 for hiking and trail running.

 

Quick Navigation:
About Altra | About The Shoe | Our Review | Summary

 

Our Testing

We put these shoes through the ringer running ~600 miles during summer and fall through the White Mountains in New Hampshire including two ultras (one 50k and one 50mi) and multi day unsupported backpacking trips. We then went above and beyond what the shoes are advertised as performing in, and put 70 miles on the shoes in the Wasatch during 2023’s historic winter.

A little background on our testing: We are trail runners, fisherman, hikers, skiers, bikers, and we take our nutrition, our safety, our comfort, and athletic performance very seriously. Therefore, we make sure we test all the gear we recommend thoroughly.

 

Where To Purchase

Altra Website: Men’s On Altra | Women’s On Altra

REI: Men’s On REI | Women’s On REI

Backcountry: Men’s On Backcountry | Women’s On Backcountry

Your local running store.

 

About Altra

Founded in Utah in 2009, Altra has made a name for themselves as a major innovator in the industry by going back to the basics. Their goal is to create shoes which allow the foot to operate as naturally as possible. Altra utilizes wide lacing, FootShapeTM, zero drop, and wide toe boxes to provide its athletes with the ability to move naturally through any terrain they want to tackle.

Video Link to Founders Story

 

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About The Shoe

The Lone Peak 6 trail shoe is specifically designed for trail running and hiking, and was a winner of 2022 Runners World: Best Trail Shoes. There have been five iterations before the LP 6, and will be ones after (the LP 7 just recently came out), but don’t worry the general construction and specs of the shoe have not and will not change as promised by Altra. Alterations between the versions of the shoes are mainly aesthetic minorly changing the weight, but will never alter the cushion, stack height, or drop.

This shoe has every detail thought out. Drainage, how gaiters are connected, toe protection, grip, and lacing configurations. The more we use the shoe the more we love it. This shoe is great for anything from a few mile walk in the woods to an ultramarathon on highly technical terrain.

 

Specifications

 

Shipping

Shipping is free for this pack from all of the listed retailers we have highlighted in this review.

 

Return & Warranty

Customers can return product within 30 days of their purchase when purchased directly from Altrarunning.com. You can read more about the policy here. Other retailers may differ in policies.

 

Our Review

 

Comfort

This shoe is extremely comfortable. During the summer regardless if it was smooth single track or technical rocky ascents / descents our feet never became to soar or hot. The upper Quick-Dry Air Mesh and drainage allowed feet to breath and stay cool even on 90+ degree Fahrenheit days.

Altra also notes this shoe as medium cushion which is plenty to allow your foot protection from the ground while also allowing you to maintain the feel of the trail. I actually use mine without the insole and still find there is plenty of cushion. I put in several 10+ hour days on the trail during summer, some with a loaded pack, others through trail running and never had an issue.

During winter we have done less testing (only ~70 miles) but have been pleasantly surprised with the performance. Important note here is that a majority of our runs have used Darn Tough Midweight hiking socks with Hot Chilly’s underneath, and micro spikes which. The longest winter trek completed so far is just 2 hours, but our feet remained warm and dry despite post holing (picture shown).

There was one adventure where I ran over a frozen puddle and broke through soaking my feet, and did have cold feet after that. Despite that (which any unwaterproofed shoe would have performed the same) we give this shoe a 5/5 Rating.

 

Grip

It is always hard to trust grip on a new pair of shoes especially if you are in a consequential fall zone, and we were no different to start. We were stoked to find that MaxTracTM provided us with unparalleled grip on the trail, even if our shoes got wet by running through a muddy trail section we could instantly and confidently run up a proceeding rock section.

Check out some of the wet, rocky, and steep trails we tested these on.

5/5

 

Durability

This shoe has held up for us in some of the most technical trail running terrain in the US. I actually have two pairs and one is still in perfect condition (minus some dirt), while the other has one sign of breakage (the left heel has slightly pulled off the sole). Other than this the LP 6 has been bullet proof and a trustworthy shoe to take on your most rugged adventures.

4.5/5

 

Price & Value

Shoes have become more and more expensive over the years with some running shoes costing upwards of $500 a pair. However, the Altra Lone Peak 6 comes in at just $112.00 USD and is made with top of the line product. Altra is likely to keep this shoe affordable because they avoid the use of pointless innovations that don’t reduce injury rate but increase price. Overall, due to quality of material and functionality of the shoe the value for the product is extremely high. You will not only save money by purchasing these shoes, but get back to using your foot how it was initially intended to be used.

5/5

 

Features We Have Not Used

I have not yet used the Gaiter attachments, but have heard through friends the feature performance great.

 

Misc.

Please note that there are other versions of the Lone Peak shoe we have not yet tested, and they include:

• Other iterations of the Lone Peak ie: LP 1 – 5 and LP 7
• LP All-WTHR Low and Low 2
• LP All-WTHR Mid and Mid 2
• LP Hiker and Hiker 2
• LP Alpine

Move Naturally: one of Altra’s values and must be noted as they are going against the grain of other major shoe companies.

• Zero-drop: this is included in all Altra shoes and means that there is no drop from heel to toe which is included to some level in all other running shoes.
• No arch support: a majority of Altra shoes do not have any arch support, but if you prefer to have arch support look into the Paradigm, and the Provision (not tested by us).

It is worth noting that I have very high arches and have had no problem in these shoes that is because the LP 6 (and majority of other Altra shoes) “put your foot in its natural position with the heel level allowing the big toe to extend, which locks the bones of the arch into place and allowing your arch to strengthen and support itself (Altra Q&A on the LP 6)”.

• Wide Toe Box: instead of compressing your toes together Altra’s wide toe box allows your toes to spread which gave me a better feel of the surface I was running on. Note, this can make the shoe feel to large, but we do not recommend sizing down as that will negate the purpose of the wide toe box.

If you are planning to mainly use these for hiking and not trail running please note that there is not ankle support as in regular hiking shoes, but the LP Hiker / Hiker 2 and LP All-WTHR Mid / Mid 2 do. We have not reviewed these.

 

Recommendation And Overall Thoughts

Overall, we want to recommend this shoe to everyone but unfortunately cannot, at least not right away. This is due to the shoe having zero drop with lower cushion. If you are currently running in something like a HOKA Speedgoat, instantly switching to the LP 6, and continuing to run the same mileage, you will likely be at risk of injury (unless you already run with a mid foot strike).

However, if you run with a heel strike and make the switch you will likely be in significant pain. There is a lot more to unpack there, but it is not for this review. If this is you we recommend making the transition slower, keeping your cushioned shoes in the rotation, starting on your LP 6’s with small distances working into longer and longer runs. That being said if you already have good running form then you shouldn’t notice much of a difference except being able to feel the surface you are running on. Given the above we do recommend the shoe as it is a phenomenal low tech yet innovative shoe that allows your foot to operate how it was designed to.

• Great comfort
• Great grip
• Great value