Páramo vs Scarpa Round 1

Among the masses of walking and climbing gear I seem to posses these days, two items which have had issues recently are my walking boots and my waterproof trousers.

I’ve had to return both items twice in the last year, and it’s interesting to compare the two companies. This post details the first return.

Two and a half years ago, I bought a pair of Scarpa ZG65s from Cotswold Outdoor, shortly before I walked the South Downs Way. Rated B0, these are definitely walking boots, as opposed to mountain boots, but they’ve served me well and are a good fit.

Around Christmas 08, I bought a pair of Páramo Cascada trousers from The Mountain Factor in Ambleside. My waterproof trousers at the time were a pair of Marmot lightweight own-brand-material overtrousers. The Marmot trousers were great, except for the way they leak through the pocket zips; not much use! At the time, I was looking for a new waterproof coat also, and was umming and ahhing about Páramo vs soft shell/hard shell combination. I figured I’d try the trousers and if they were a revelation I’d go for the coat too.

Early in the year, I started to accept that I needed to replace the boots. I’d had them about 2 years, and they were starting to leak. I grabbed some Nikwax reproofer and did my best, but the boots still leaked. 2 years is also not a bad innings for a pair of boots, so I could accept having to fork for a new pair. Of course, these days when you pay >£100 for a pair of boots, you see all the guarantees from Gore-Tex and Scarpa, and don’t really think much of it. In this instance, I figured I might as well try my luck with Scarpa and see if I couldn’t blag a repair.

Scarpa, like many outdoors companies, don’t sell their own stuff directly on the UK market, it goes via an intermediary company, The Mountain Boot Company, who also import Grivel and Deuter, amongst others. So I pinged them a hopeful email, and sure enough I got a reply. It was a slightly non-committal response…

Thank you for contacting us regarding your ZG65 boots, there is a 2 year warranty on the boots but we take everything on an individual basis. Your best course of action would be to return the boots to us at the below address for further investigation.

… but given that the alternative was to throw them out, it seemed like a good gamble. A few quid’s worth of postage later, and a shiny new pair of boots arrive. Go Mountain Boot Company!!

The thing about waterproofs is, you don’t really know if they work until it rains. In a very strange turn of events, it took about 6 or 7 months for my to actually be wearing my “new” Páramo trousers in the rain. The first time was during a trip to the Lakes, and a stroll up Helvellyn. It rained, but it wasn’t the most torrential storm I’ve ever been out in. The trousers, however, didn’t fare so well, with trails of water running down my left leg from my knee. Given I live in Winchester, about 300 miles from Ambleside, it was quite handy that I was in the Lakes, as it meant I could take them straight back to the shop. Issue 1: the shop was happy to send them back to Páramo, but Páramo wont touch “dirty” garments without charging you £20 (or some such). Bugger. As it was my last day in the Lakes, I left them with the friend upon whose hospitality I had already been impinging to sling them in the wash and then take them back to the shop.

Time went by (about 2 and a half weeks) without reply, and I got bored of waiting. I contacted Páramo, who (via The Mountain Factor) informed me that they were very backed up at the moment, but would have my trousers back to me soon. Eventually I did get them back, and at no cost to me (as I happened to be in Ambleside, so didn’t have to post them).

At the end of round 1, Scarpa was definitely in the lead. Though it cost to send the boots back, I only avoided this with the the trousers through coincidence. Where Páramo faffed for weeks on end, The Mountain Boot Company just slung a new pair in the post. Whilst it might be the less environmentally friendly of the two approaches, I know which one made me a more appreciative customer.