My favourite boot wax

I know rubbish blip but a little bit relevant today.
A while back now I bought a very expensive pair of Scarpa hill bots at a local shop, I won’t say which one but it has Nevis in the name. Despite the goretex label they failed to keep water out after a few months use. I mentioned this to the guy in the shop next time I was in (I didn’t have the boots with me) but he just stared back at me with a blank expression. I persevered for another couple of weeks applying ample treatments of Nikwax aqueous solution, the product recommended by the shop, but the situation was getting ridiculous and I actually phoned the shop from the hillside where I was standing with my soaked cold feet. The lady suggested I come in with them. Apparently the guy I had first spoken to was actually her boss and she was surprised at his lack of direction. I took recourse to an older pair while they were sent off for “repair”.
I was duly advised they were back and available for collection. It was definitely the same boots back but absolutely “clorted” in this silicon wax. The remedy was not to replace or repair them but to apply liberal coatings of this product on a regular basis. On first work day back on the hill they did indeed keep my feet dry until the abrasive action of heather and grass removed the coating again. The repair had actually included a free tube of the stuff to get me going.
My personal conclusion from this is that the goretex guarantee is meaningless so far as footwear goes and you are better off assuming that they leak from day one and rely on the wax. The crazy thing is that not one of the shops in Fort William sell the Scarpa silicon wax despite stocking that brand of boots and direct the customer to the Nikwax products instead. While they make very good clothing reproofing products I have found their boots stuff a huge disappointment.
The boots in question Scarpa ZG10s are no longer made and I went on to buy another two pairs after that. They are tremendously supportive and grippy on the hill but I never bought them with any expectation of dry feet long term. I have three pairs in various stages of “worn outedness” and even the ones that I regard as my good pair are nearly worn out. The ones with the least tred depth I reserve for unchallenging forest tracks but they all rely on this product to remain serviceable.
I finished my last tube and scoured the web sites to get some more and I had to buy seven tubes to get the postage free.
It was so wet at Leanachan it would have been ridiculous trying to get a photo in the driving rain. Much of the route was through mud and deep puddles but with my old boots freshly coated in the wax my feet were … I can’t lie still a bit damp.