Walking poles pointless compared to crampons
February 6, 2010 by Dave Hewitt · 18 Comments
Ben Lomond
The snow has certainly improved in quality, apart from in the north-east where they still seem be getting industrial-scale skiploads of fresh stuff day and night. In the western and central Highlands, the wind has been blowing and the freeze-thaw cycle has been doing its work after that weird festive-season spell when heaps of snow fell and temperatures were Baltic but there was barely a zephyr to nudge it into shape.
It’s a couple of weeks since I’ve been able to get up a sizeable hill, so I’m lacking recent first-hand evidence. But even on my local-Ochil option of Ben Cleuch on Monday, what streaky snow there was had very little give in it. I was wearing Walshes – studded fellrunning shoes that are surprisingly good in skiddy conditions – and these were fine on a 700-metre hill with no more than 30 per cent snow cover.
Had I been on anything higher, however – even a straightforward plod such as Ben Ledi – I would have taken the big boots, the axe and the crampons.
It’s with this in mind that I find myself remounting an old hobbyhorse, to ask – no, to plead – that mainly-summer walkers don’t try to sneak up “proper winter” hills armed with just a pair of trekking poles.
This has become a modern trend, and it would be interesting to hear the reasoning from someone who does it on a regular basis. My own theory is that such people regard poles as “gear” – safety devices, in other words – but in a halfway-house kind of way. Better than taking nothing, but not as committing as the axe-plus-crampons combo.
I don’t dispute that poles have their place on the Scottish hills. They provide weight-bearing support for walkers with dodgy knees or
hips, serve as aid when balancing across burns, and are of use when yomping across undulating snowfields. Where poles are neither use nor ornament is on steep icy ground when good grip is essential. Here they risk luring the walker beyond the point where they would have retreated had they been carrying nothing.
It’s with this in mind that I would ask you to study the photograph above. It was taken on the last day of January by an experienced winter walker, Jim C, who was tempted out by a good weather forecast “when others stayed home to watch Murray get trounced
at the tennis”.
Jim went to Rowardennan and did the standard clockwise circuit: over Ptarmigan and up Ben Lomond by the north-west ridge. The last bit is quite steep and quite narrow, and needs care in winter. It’s pretty straightforward, pleasant even, in crampons, but can be a nightmare without them – and Jim’s photograph shows two men struggling to reach the summit. They had no ironmongery, just a pair of poles each, and were on all-fours at times.
The picture is – to my eyes – alarming. A slip here is going to mean work for the rescue team, and maybe also for the coroner. Thankfully the two men got to the top OK (I hesitate to say that they got up safely), and went down by the easier south ridge.
Don’t get me wrong: I wouldn’t wish to deny them their day’s adventure, and I’m not wanting to control hillgoing competence by any
kind of legislation (and neither is Jim C). We all learn by our mistakes – I’ve made plenty – so long as we survive them relatively
unscathed. That’s the best way to learn. But there must be easier, safer, less mind-shreddingly scary ways than this to learn about appropriate equipment and technique.
It’s impossible to truly tell someone’s mood from a rear-view photograph taken at distance, but neither of these men look happy to
me – and, what’s really worrying, this kind of thing is becoming commonplace.
I’ve seen a poles-person picking their way downhill, cramponless, on ice on this exact same ridge, and another prime location is the “tourist route” up Ben Vorlich near Lochearnhead. In winter this is mostly a plod-cum-slog, but it steepens in its final 100 metres, crossing thin shaley ground that readily ices up. It also has a bad fall-line, off to the side rather than back down the ridge. Go here in
winter and you will likely see pole-wielding walkers looking decidedly worried as they tiptoe up and (even more scarily) down the ridge.
One thing that is happening in both these places is that mainly-summer walkers are giving little or no thought to “aspect”, to which way the hillside faces. In July this scarcely matters, apart from trying to keep out of the worst of any wind. But aspect is central to planning from November to March, as north-facing slopes are always likely to be icier than south-facing ones.
Perceived expense seems to be a factor in some people not carrying crampons, even though a pair costs only as much as two or three tanks of fuel, and considerably less than many cagoules.
The whole issue – like the Scottish upland weather – can be very non-straightforward and subjective. In the past, I’ve found myself
making almost the flipside of this argument, puzzled by people wearing crampons in places where the snow is too soft to merit them.
Generally, though, the point is that any decision to wear or not to wear them is redundant at 900 metres on a windy, icy, alarmingly
exposed ridge if one doesn’t have a pair about one’s person. Better, surely, to spend a bit of money, learn a bit of technique (it’s fairly basic: tread carefully and don’t trip up), whereupon a whole world of sensible choices and safe progress will open out in front of you.
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I saw someone wearing crampons in Morningside, Edinburgh during the Christmas snow fall. Rain had fallen on ice and the pavements were lethal. Ambulance sirens were audible all over the place as wrists and ankles snapped willy-nilly.
As I made my slow way along the road, clutching window sills, railings and signposts, and wondering why the cooncil seemed determined to keep old folk in their houses by making the pavements treacherous, I spotted chap in hiking gear striding happily along the road, crampons biting into the ice nae bother at a’!
I was impressed, and envious. Show-off.
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I must confess to having no time for crampons. They are more trouble than they are worth. I don’t do technical climbing, and after carrying crampons for a few years and never using them (except to rip holes inadvertantly in my jacket or freeze my fingers on a blowy hillside fiddling with the straps) I leave them at home now. Occasionally I’ll find ground slippy, but I can always 1.turn back 2.use my axe (which *is* essential winter equipment) to cut steps.
And yet I seem to be alone. I have them down as overkill, like a GPS or flares or technical axes. There seems to be no need for them in Munrobagging.
What would be useful, yet has been unavailable for years, is hobnailed boots. Unlike crampons, these can be used on mixed terrain. If they were on sale today, nobody would give a second thought to those Alpine affectations, crampons.
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http://www.williamlennon.co.uk/footwear/78N-hob-nailed-boots.html?gclid=CJuV0c7v3Z8CFUsA4wodcE-SGg
Apparently these are traditional hob nailed boots…
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I wouldn’t go walking in those!
These were more what I had in mind:
http://i345.photobucket.com/albums/p372/mattimoreharness/GJa.jpg
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I’ve just read Craig W’s comment and he’s right – but only if you are prepared to turn back when it gets too icy or steep, or you don’t suddenly realise that you are on difficult ground and there’s no easy escape route, or when the soft snow turns hard and you can’t get enough purchase with your ice axe, or, well, probably quite a few other situations. And you certainly don’t need them only for ‘technical climbing’.
Crampons are fairly light, easy to fix to your sac, and the step-ins take a minute to put on. Personally I think they are essential when Munro-bagging in winter and I am much happier to take them with me and not use them than leave them and find that I can’t get up the hill without them. They also get you up some hills more quickly when the conditions are right. I write as someone who fell a hundred feet and could have died because I hadn’t put crampons on.
Advice that crampons are not needed when Munro-bagging in winter is dangerous.
However, hob-nailed boots – why not…..?
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That’s a matter of opinon (in my opinion…;)
Fair enough, if you’re traversing Liathach in winter, take crampons (and a rope, gear, a second axe and buddy who knows what they are doing) but being a feartie, that’s not the kind of thing I do. The number of times I’ve wished I had crampons can be counted on one hand.
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If the number of times you’ve wished you had crampons can be counted on one *finger* then you should buy crampons.
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What about using poles and crampons? I’ve seen people tramping up Mt Everest with trecking poles so it’s not that uncommon.
The most important equipment is the ice axe. And the knowledge of how to use it. there have been a lot of accidents caused by people tripping over their own crampons or stabbing themselves in the leg with the front points.
Crampons are more bother than they are worth. Unless you are ice climbing.
If you can’t cut steps with an axe then the crampons are not going to do you any good. If you are walking up a snow covered hill then you should have skis or snowshoes. You fall over less, travel faster and use less energy.
And the snowshoes come with metal studs that grip on anything short of solid ice. Great fun to use.
Yue can wear athletic spikes for those days when the pavements are iced over. You’ll risk frostbitten toes but save the broken bones.
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Ah! Real segs!
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Good article and well written. While it is the case that most people who walk regularly in winter will keep their crampons in their bag more often than not, they are still an essential item to own and carry when conditions dictate that they might be needed. Poles are great, but aren’t a replacement for an ice axe where the snow conditions are such that a slip would lead to an uncontrollable fall. And an ice axe is great, but wearing crampons to prevent a slip is better than simply being able to arrest a fall – and cutting steps over more than a very short sections is a poor use of your time when you could walk in crampons.
Sure, in the early soft snows, during late thaw, or when you are trudging over gentle slopes of the east you might choose to leave then at home, but at other times you’d be a fool not to take them. And don’t be shy about using them at low altitude as well if conditions call for them – such as the Nevis Gorge or Lost Valley paths which can be (literally) lethal when iced over.
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I’ve read that things called Kahtoola Microspikes can be a better solution in certain conditions than crampons. Having slipped on ice and shattered a hip in the past I may give them a try.
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As Rab C Nesbit once said: All this New Man malarky is one thing, but this men using crampons thing is taking it all a bit too far.
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With regard to the walking poles/crampons debate, I saw something new and apparently strange on the mamore ridge a couple of weeks ago. A group of five or six people gingerly descending a steep icy/alternately rather slabby slope on the ridge. They were all wearing crampons and carrying an ice axe in one hand and a walking pole in the other. Is there some new conventional wisdom that this is a good idea ? I would have thought that if someone slipped they were likely to go flying down the slope with the walking pole flapping about their heads or between their legs. Of course I might be missing the point.
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I have a strong suspicion that I am the third individual in the photograph. I was wearing crampons. I could not imagine approaching the final ascent to the summit without them. I spoke (without any implied criticism, we all make our own choices) to the other two climbers who indicated that they would have been better off with crampons. In fact, they indicated that when they realised this they were committed and it was easier to keep going up rather than retreat.
Totally agree with Dave Hewitt. Going without crampons (and axe)in winter is just too limiting and has the potential for spoiling the day.
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The thing that’s missing from most of the comments is the shear pleasure of cramponing up and walking up a nice long stretch of firm snow. It has to be one of the best experiences when hillwalking and those who don’t or won’t use crampons are really missing out. There’s plenty of slopes which are just boring grass in the summer, unpleasant even if wet, which are transformed under firm winter conditions and a set of crampons on your feet. Indeed the slope up Ben Vorlich mentioned by Dave is positively at it’s best and most enjoyable under precisely the sort of conditions which make it most dangerous to those without crampons – and with the ironwork firmly on your feet it’s no more dangerous than in summer.
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Absolutely. Quite often when people say they don’t fancy using crampons it’s due to worry about getting into over-technical terrain, and they seem fearful of it. My response tends to be not just that it’s safer in crampons, but also that it’s great fun. They’re a brilliant invention. As you say, quite mundane summer slopes can give ideal easy cramponing. I could give lots of examples, but two places that spring to mind are the north-west ridge of Ben Challum, where the upper part banks off to a very pleasant angle that can give lovely cramponing and lands you right at the summit (from where the normal way down gives an easy way of completing a loop). And the upper Stank slopes of Ben Ledi can serve up acres of easy glassy snow, pick-your-line territory, a pleasure to walk on in crampons.
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