Thunder Dan
New member
Around this time of the year, the lower parts of many trails are mostly, but not fully melted out. It would be nice if the snow and ice stopped at exactly one place and then I would take my crampons off at that spot. Unfortunately, it does not work that way. Trails often have snowy, icy areas below areas that are bare rock.
So my question is: how do you balance out the need for stablity with the need to protect your crampons by not using them on too many rocks? How many contiuous feet on rock justifies removing the crampons in order to protect them even though you will likely have to then take the time to be putting them on and off several times on the descent?
So my question is: how do you balance out the need for stablity with the need to protect your crampons by not using them on too many rocks? How many contiuous feet on rock justifies removing the crampons in order to protect them even though you will likely have to then take the time to be putting them on and off several times on the descent?