What I like about these socks from Helly Hansen is that, as the name suggests, they’re made for activities in alpine environments. They’ll suit anything from mountaineering and winter hillwalking through the skiing on piste or in the backcountry.
When it comes to choosing socks, I normally tend to choose a pair that are made with a good Merino content and blend of other materials. The Merino provides warmth, comfort, sweat wicking and odour management, elastane creates a nice comfortable hold, while synthetics bring durability, a fast drying time and add extra moisture wicking too. With 36% Merino wool, 36% acrylic, 24% Polyamide and 4% elastane, these socks seem to strike all of the right balances to bring both comfort and performance when you’re going at high tempos in cold environments.
These come up right to just below the knee and that brings obvious benefits when it comes to any activities that require ski boots. OK, that high cut will be overkill for three-season hiking, but, as I found out wearing these high up in the Cairngorms in near freezing temperatures, there are obvious benefits to wearing these for winter hiking.
The seams are all low profile and placed carefully so they don’t cause any niggling and, as for the weave, there’s terry looping where you want extra padding and stretchy mesh sections where you want some breathability.
All the right stuff then. Helly Hansen have clearly thought about how they can make this sock as functional as possible.
