text: I am not a trail runner, I am an Ultralite Backpacker. About a year ago I was looking for a new hiking boot.and, unable to find anything I really liked, stumbled onto the Loan Peak 2.0 (the previous version of this 2.5 update). I was so impressed with v2.0 as a backpacking shoe that I wrote an extensive view and left it on the Altra website, and wrote something similar for Amazon. In effect, they are the hands down best hiking shoe for maintained trails like the PCT I've ever come across...at least for me. So, I was out on the PCT this season and it seemed like every through hiker I ran across was wearing them. One of them told me they were the &#34;Goto&#34; shoe for the PCT now! So I of course figured that was all because of my reviews...because why not?  Anyway, I just bought this new version 2.5 and have a hike coming up on the JMT in a week, so I'll report back after that if there are any problems, but at first blush these seem like a nice improvement over the 2.0. The toe box has been reduced a little, but hopefully not enough to ruin them. The rest of the show has been snugged up a little around the mid foot, which is a good idea. When I slipped my foot into the shoe, it felt perfect...very much like my well-broken in v2.0.  As was the case with the v2.0, I use the gater catcher on the heel all the time, hiking through sandy trails. There is a kind of lip on the back of the sole that tends to throw sand up onto your calf. Not sure why it is there, but the gaters keep the sand from going into the shoe. The shoes are very light weight, much better than clunky old hiking boots. They dry out very quickly. I soaked my v2.0s a couple of times on the trail, and they were dry in no time. The v2.0 was exceptionally comfortable... like hiking in bedroom slippers. It's the only shoe I didn't feel like taking off at the end of a long hike. The soles are very solid on rock. Theyy grab onto granite as well as my soft-rubber rock climbing shoes. The rock guard in the sole works really well. You can step on pebbles and small rocks and barely feel a thing. The shoes have internal straps near the mid-foot for stability so that you don't slide foward going down hill. I never rammed by toes into the end of the toe-box going downhill. Lateral stability is OK for me. Runners might need more than hikers.  As far as wear and tear -- I probably have four or five hundred backpacking miles on my v2.0s and they aren't dead yet. I keep waiting for them to crap out on me, but they just hang in there.  One downside is the Company itself, which is not good. Their customer support is absolutely horrible. If you end up with a bad pair of shoes, you better hope you ordered them from Amazon because the Altra sure isn't going to help you.  Later - as promised, I am reporting on the JMT trip I used the 2.5 shoes on. Honestly, they are very close to the v2.0. And they are built a little better. however, after 40 miles of hiking, I got s blister. I never came close to a blister in the v2.0, not in hundreds of miles. I recommend flexing your foot forward in these if you buy them to see if there are any creases that press down over the ball of your foot, and how much pressure is there, and take note of that.  Finally, on Thelma side, the v2.5 has a stiffer rock guard, which is a nice addition, but the fabric for the she has been changed to something that appears to be more rugged but is also more porous when it comes to sand. At the end of my day, despite gaters, I was pouring out a good quarter of a cup of sand from each shoe. So there are pluses and minuses to this upgrade.