Kahtoola Micro Spikes
Timely reminder for me from Geoff at Backpacking in Britain got me ordering the microspikes from Kahtoola. I have been meaning to order these for some weeks now and I nearly bought them back in August when I was in George Fisher in Keswick, but I thought it was too early to buy them. Let the summer end first before you start thinking about the winter I thought !
These will be ideal for icy sections – which to my mind are the most dangerous walking on the hills and for snow as well, but I will have to experiment with these to see what will be the limits of them.
These would have been very useful for me when I tried to get up a path on Pen-y-gent in late November a couple of years back. Sheet ice all the way up and even trying to walk off the path,the grass was covered in ice, where the cold night before had frozen a myriad of streams coming down the hillside. I am amazed that I didn’t break my neck.
The micro spikes linked by chain and weighing 180g each or 360 a pair (medium size) are attached to flexible rubber which stretches easily over boots or trail shoes. They are easy to put on while standing up and need minimal adjustment to fit correctly. I fitted them both to my Scarpa’s and Terrocs as shown below.
Micro spikes on Scapa boots
Underside detail of micro spikes
Micro spikes on Terrocs 345's
Mark's walking blog 
I have a pair of these. They saved my bacon many a time last year on sheet ice inclines and treacherous dog walks! Much better than the ‘spring’ type grips.
Mark – glad to hear it – hopefully I made a wise choice.
Mark
Look good for terrain. The worst thing in winter is the icy and slippery ground!
By the way, how have you liked your Golite Pinnacle so far?
Maria – Golite was good on my most recent trip. Need I few more trips to assess.
Mark
I read your blog and have immediately ordered some of these. I was having kittens walking around Halifax (my home) last winter, it was so treacherous at times – think of the humiliation if you break your neck when hiking in town!!.
Peter, I have read so many good reviews on these, I think this is a very wise buy. Now bring on the snow and ice 🙂
Mark
I’ll definitely look out for those Mark. I have the old Pinnacle and find it’s great.
By the way watch out for GF shop it’s usually dearer than Rathbones. These {may have changed} were the 2 shops in Keswick not giving discount for BMc membership.
You can get 10% at Cotswold and Ultimate, although to be fair Rathbones is sometimes just as cheap .
Greg – looking to go walking at the weekend. Might come in handy in light of the weather forecast.
Mark