Altra Timp 6 Trail Runner Review

The Altra Timp 6 is a highly cushioned zero-drop trail running shoe with a wide toe box, popular with hikers and backpackers. They have thick soles made with Vibram Megagrip rubber that provide excellent traction on dry and wet surfaces with multi-directional lugs that assist in turning and braking. The uppers are made with a porous nylon mesh with a fine weave for drainage, with printed overlays that help reduce abrasion. They have Altra’s original footshape, which lets your toes splay for enhanced comfort, and an impressive amount of toebox protection to help keep your toenails intact on rocky trails. Like all Atra trail runners, the Timp 6 features a gaiter trap at the heel to secure a gaiter and help prevent trail debris from entering the shoe. The one notable difference over the Timp 5 is a 1mm increase in stack height.

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Specs at a Glance

• Best Use: Trail Running and Hiking
• Trail Runner Shoe Type: Rugged Trails
• Gender: Men’s (Women’s available)
• Cushioning: Maximum
• Waterproof/Breathable: No
• Heel to Toe Drop (mm): 0
• Heel Stack Height (mm): 30
• Forefoot Stack height (mm): 30
• Upper: Nylon Mesh
• Rock Plate: No
• Midsole: Altra EGO MAX foam (ie. foam)
• Outsole: Vibram Megagrip
• Vegan: Yes
• Wide Sizes Available?: No
• Weight: 1 lb 5.4 oz / pair (men’s size 10.5 US)
• Sizing: I found them true to size, although a touch narrow in the heel

The Altra Timp 6 is a heavily cushioned trail runner that provides noticeably more comfort and shock absorption than the zero-drop Altra Lone Peak Trail Runner, which is also popular with hikers and backpackers.

Trail Feel

The Timp’s signature feature is an oversized toe box, which lets your toes splay out as if you were walking barefoot. This is very different from many trail runners, which still have narrow toe boxes that restrict toe movement, although many brands have expanded their toe boxes in recent years to compete with Altra and respond to user preferences.

The Timp is a zero-drop trail runner, meaning the heel and toes are at equal distance from the ground. This allows for a more stable foot strike and a more natural, efficient stride, with impacts spread across the entire foot.

One of my favorite features of Altra Running shoes is the gaiter trap, located on the back of the heel. It’s a piece of Velcro that makes it very simple to wear a Dirty Girl Gaiter, which attaches to Velcro at the back of the heel. A gaiter trap like this is a necessity if your shoe’s outsoles are flat and lack a heel arch, as with the Timp. I find it mind-boggling that other brands don’t offer the same functionality in their trail runners, given how prevalent gaiter use is.

Stability

The Timp 5 is a stable trail runner, in part, because it’s a zero-drop shoe where your forefoot and heel are at the same height. With its 30 mm stack height and flat outsole, it’s less prone to ankle rolling because you’re pretty close to the ground. That and the enhanced proprioception you get from walking with spayed toes make it much easier to sense and adapt to changing trail conditions and terrain.

Protection

As a trail runner, it is important to have a shoe that protects the bottoms of your feet. You also want a breathable upper that lets your feet breathe while keeping out mud, sand, and grit that can wreak havoc on your socks.

The Timp 6 does both. The thick cushioning in the Timp sole provides great shock absorption without being sloppy, particularly for hiking, even though the shoes do not have a rock plate. This added shock absorption is particularly important if you use the Timps for road walking or running, as well as for hiking off pavement or trail running. There’s also substantial toe protection up front, provided by the cushion, overlays that protect the toe box from abrasion, and a front toe kick.

The finely pored breathable mesh of the upper does a good job of preventing coarse sand and grit from entering the shoe. This is a big deal since many trail runners with large-pored mesh uppers fail miserably on this dimension, especially in sandy desert terrain or when fording streams. The mesh also drains well and dries quickly, particularly at the front of the shoe where there’s less padding in the uppers. The heels, in contrast, take much longer to dry because the padding is so much thicker in the heel cup.

Vibram Megagrip Sole and Lugs

The Vibram Megagrip Outsole provides great traction on dry and wet surfaces and features grooved channels to channel water away. The lugs aren’t very large, but the rubber is soft like a climbing shoe and gives good purchase on hard, irregular surfaces like rock. I’ve been wearing the Timps for the past 2 weeks, so it’s too early to tell how long the soles will last, but I suspect they’ll wear out around the 300-400 mile mark, much like the Hoka Speedgoat, which uses the same Vibram outsole material. But the midsole cushioning on trail runners usually wears out first, not the lugs.

Recommendation

Altra’s Timp 6 Trail Runners are a great choice if you want a zero-drop trail runner with maximum cushion for hiking and backpacking. They have a large toe box that lets your toes splay out and relax with aggressive lugs underfoot that are positioned and oriented to provide enhanced traction and braking. The gaiter trap is a great convenience if you use gaiters with a velcro patch in the back. The shoes drain well but prevent sand and grit from entering, where they can chew up your socks, especially if you do a lot of stream crossings without taking off you rshoes.

How does the Timp 6 compare to the Altra Lone Peak? The Timp 6 is a lot more shoe: more cushion, more traction, more protection, making them much better for hiking and backpacking (walking) than the Lone Peak, particularly if you need to walk on roads or pavement, as well as on trails.  I’ve also found that the Timp 6 is a bit narrower in the middle and at the heel, and therefore fits less sloppily than the Lone Peak. Try both and decide for yourself.