Let's Discuss Traction Aids

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Tom Rankin

Tom Rankin

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Ok, before we get a whole lot further into the 'snow' season, (I did not say Winter), let's discuss traction aids.

Snowshoes - A very handy piece of equipment! Bring them at least to the trailhead these days. Consult weather forecasts, rangers, other hikers, comments in the log book, and see if they are needed for your hike. Remember the ADKs have regulations for wearing them, for better or worse.

Crampons - NOT to be worn all day on hard packed trails! They chew up the snow, and contribute to postholing. Useful for hard/steep ice. Expensive, but essential for certain situations. VERY sharp and dangerous if not used properly.

Micro spikes - NOT a substitute for Crampons! NOT recommended for hard/steep ice. Best for low angle ice and extra traction on trails with small amounts of snow.

Stabilicers - See Micro spikes. Mostly the same comments apply. Generally cheaper and heavier. Let your budget decide.

Yak Trax - Best for getting the mail at the end of your short, flat driveway! :eek: :p

I know there are other gadgets out there, but this is the limit of my (mostly Catskill/ADK) experience.
 
In this recent VFTT thread, these "Ice Traction Slip-Ons" got good reviews vs MicroSpikes at a much lower cost.

Personally, I use my snowshoes until crampons are needed and try to avoid, or rarely see, areas where MicroSpikes or these "Ice Traction Slip-Ons" would be appropriate...although I'm sure they exist and I probably just jinxed myself and will be sorry this winter that I don't carry them...:rolleyes:
 
I love my Microspikes and am willing to give my Stabilicers away to a sidewalk walking friend. However, when I was getting some boot advice at EMS on Friday, I noticed a product I hadn't heard about before. http://www.yaktrax.com/xtr. These look very similar to the Microspikes, though the points seem a little less beefy. They feature anti-snow balling plates and where the chains are attached to the rubber have metal grommets. I was told the price is about $10 less than the Microspikes.
 
erugs said:
I love my Microspikes and am willing to give my Stabilicers away to a sidewalk walking friend. However, when I was getting some boot advice at EMS on Friday, I noticed a product I hadn't heard about before. http://www.yaktrax.com/xtr. These look very similar to the Microspikes, though the points seem a little less beefy. They feature anti-snow balling plates and where the chains are attached to the rubber have metal grommets. I was told the price is about $10 less than the Microspikes.
Click to expand...
My comments were directed towards the YakTrax 'Walker' model.
 
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Tom Rankin said:
MY comments were directed towards the YakTrax 'Walker' model.
Click to expand...

I'd agree that those are fairly useless unless on sidewalks, parking lots, etc. But as I had never seen the higher end model, I thought I'd let people know there is an option. :p
 
Chip said:
In this recent VFTT thread, these "Ice Traction Slip-Ons" got good reviews vs MicroSpikes at a much lower cost.

Personally, I use my snowshoes until crampons are needed and try to avoid, or rarely see, areas where MicroSpikes or these "Ice Traction Slip-Ons" would be appropriate...although I'm sure they exist and I probably just jinxed myself and will be sorry this winter that I don't carry them...:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I personally find the light-wgt traction aids very helpfull in many situations. However I'd like to post my opinion about MIL-SPEC slipons ... They are BAD! I read about the Hillsound trail crampons and then came across the knock-off of the Hillsounds called MIL-SPEC's. My natural cheapness got the better of me and bought the MIL-SPEC's. On two ocasions the little soft steel chain-links pulled apart and straps got all screwed up. Fortunately I carry multi-tool with pliers and was able to repair, but links pulling apart should NEVER happen. At least it's never happened to me after many many trail miles with the micro-spikes. I don't know if weak links is problem with the Hillsound product, but one can see cheap copies detract from rep of Hillsound. The MIL-SPEC's have been relegated to the trash barrel.

Here is the real thing from Hillsound. Has anyone tried these? I've seen them for sale at Ragged Mountain.

http://hillsound.com/02product/trampon.php
 
Tom Rankin said:
Ok, before we get a whole lot further into the 'snow' season, (I did not say Winter), let's discuss traction aids.

Snowshoes - A very handy piece of equipment! Bring them at least to the trailhead these days. Consult weather forecasts, rangers, other hikers, comments in the log book, and see if they are needed for your hike. Remember the ADKs have regulations for wearing them, for better or worse.

Crampons - NOT to be worn all day on hard packed trails! They chew up the snow, and contribute to postholing. Useful for hard/steep ice. Expensive, but essential for certain situations. VERY sharp and dangerous if not used properly.

Micro spikes - NOT a substitute for Crampons! NOT recommended for hard/steep ice. Best for low angle ice and extra traction on trails with small amounts of snow.

Stabilicers - See Micro spikes. Mostly the same comments apply. Generally cheaper and heavier. Let your budget decide.

Yak Trax - Best for getting the mail at the end of your short, flat driveway! :eek: :p

I know there are other gadgets out there, but this is the limit of my (mostly Catskill/ADK) experience.
Click to expand...

Watch weather and trail condition reports, especially for NE as we don't have the same snowshoe regulations as they do in ADK's. (do they have same rules in Catskills? hoping to get there in a few weeks, I will have them)

Can't really say I've seen much damage to hard packed trails due to crampons or spikes in NH. The the busiest, F-Ridge, Crawford Path, trails to the open winter huts, trails are well packed capable of hold well over 250 pounds in bare boots. On the steeper parts, those who were spikes up, often take them off & glissade down, packing down anything they might have loosened on the way up.

In NH, micros will get you up most of the standard winter routes. (maybe not Owl's Head Slide, Winter Lion's Head, Ammo - Flume Huntington's 6H, North Slide, KR are not standard winter routes) ADK are steeper, Algonquin, Gothics are two that come tp mind that I'd want full crampons for.

I agree, the low level yak's may not stand up to my 70+ foot commute to the mail box more than a few times.
 
In order of usefulness I have found that in calendar winter in the Whites (outside shoulder season) I have used

snowshoes (MSR Denali Ascents) on 90%+
Katoola Microspikes on <25%
crampons (Grivel G10s) on < 10%

of my winter hikes. Last winter I used snowshoes on all but two hikes and I used crampons exactly zero times (including East Osceola from Greeley Pond - Denalis did fine that day.) Having lived in New England my entire life, I would say that all 3 winter hiking seasons have been on the snowy side of average.

Others will have differing opinions of course.

Tim
 
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A few other comments have come to mind.

Do NOT glissade with crampons on! This is a recipe for an ankle sprain/break.

If you don't own this gear, you can still rent it. NY: EMS or Mountaineer. (New England: Someone help me out)

My usage is similar to Tim's, but this is not to say that you should never bring crampons. "To every thing, turn, turn, turn, there is a season ..."
 
Mike P. said:
do they have same rules in Catskills? hoping to get there in a few weeks, I will have them
Click to expand...
We do not have the same rule, but I would urge you to bring all the appropriate gear. I've seen way too many times when there is no snow at the bottom of the mountain, and tons up high, and people flounder (Hi, Jay! :) ) around, post hole, and give up and turn around, cold, wet and miserable. The Catskills may seem like tame little kitties, but we had 10' of snow of the ground last year for a while, and more or less nothing 30 miles away. There was a weather related fatality last winter in the Blackhead range.

That being said, let me know when you're coming!
 
I just picked up a pair of the Mil-Spec trampons and used them a little this past weekend. They performed well, both on water ice and dry-tooling. But, my use of them was limited and I can't yet speak to the durability. What I will say is that they look exactly like the gray version shown on the Hillsound website, down to the smallest detail. I would be very surprised if they were not made in the same factory.

I was impressed by their aggressiveness and would think that they would be fine to get up the Ammo trail and any other icy trail that doesn't require front-pointing.
 
I used the mil-specs last year and was very pleased with them. I checked the links each time before heading out (just like checking the screws on the stabilicers), and found only one link that was gapping a little, easliy fixed.
 
bikehikeskifish said:
snowshoes (MSR Denali Ascents) on 90%+
Katoola Microspikes on <25%
crampons (Grivel G10s) on < 10%
Click to expand...
This is, of course, highly dependent on what kind of trips you like to do. More above timberline and steeper routes (eg Great Gully) would tend to require more crampon use.

Also some years have little snow leaving lots of icy trails (or you get rain followed by cold cycles) and some other years have a lot of snow.

And the same trail can change radically: I have hiked Chocorua when you needed crampons just to get out of the parking lot* (and every step of the way up); at other times snowshoes could be required for virtually the entire way.

* A rainstorm/melt had flooded the parking lot which then froze into a skating rink... This also made the trail very icy/frozen snow.

Doug
 
TEO said:
...They performed well, both on water ice and dry-tooling.
Click to expand...

This interests me. By "dry-tooling" do you mean vertical climbing with your ice gear? I don't think I'd trust Mil-Specs or Microspikes for that. Or do you mean they stood up to some non-ice rock hopping ? thanks.
 
Chip said:
This interests me. By "dry-tooling" do you mean vertical climbing with your ice gear? I don't think I'd trust Mil-Specs or Microspikes for that. Or do you mean they stood up to some non-ice rock hopping ? thanks.
Click to expand...

Here I am, er, dry-tooling in the Mahoosucs:

IMG_1629.jpg


I would definitely not recommend Mil-specs, Hillsounds, or Microspikes for true technical dry-tooling.
 
sardog1 said:
Mais bien sûr, monsieur. True French technique for the truly daring. Teaches you to keep that foot really, really flat . . . ;)
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking when I used them for the first time--if your French technique was good, you could use them in a lot of places, as long as you felt the attachment system was secure and trustworthy enough.
 
Chip said:
This interests me. By "dry-tooling" do you mean vertical climbing with your ice gear? I don't think I'd trust Mil-Specs or Microspikes for that. Or do you mean they stood up to some non-ice rock hopping ? thanks.
Click to expand...
I've always had the impression that dry tooling was using the pick or adz of one's ice axe to wedge into cracks or hook holds (usually above one's head).

Rock climbing with crampons on is just normal mixed climbing*...

* Mixed climbing is climbing on a mixture of rock and ice. One foot and hand can be on ice, the other foot and hand can be on rock.

Doug
 
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