Chance of needing microspikes for a March 1 NoBo AT start?

[DownEaster]

Hillsound trail crampons weigh a pound per pair. My guess is if I brought these along on the Appalachian Trail I might have 2-3 days where they could be useful, but I could still get by with just trail shoes. And then after 6 weeks of carrying largely useless weight I'd mail them home.

Am I off base in my thinking?

[egilbe]

It really depends on if you thinksliding downa mountain is worth that pound

[moldy]

It will be mid March when you reach the Smokey’s. I would not carry the extra pound all that distance with a poor chance of needing them.

[Tipi Walter]

I backpacked for 35+ years in the Southeast snow without using spikes or crampons. Of course I fell often and slipped all the time. I was young and could afford to fall often and hard. Now I'm old and feeble and prefer to stay upright, ergo I bring microspikes.

[PatmanTN]

I use Kahtoola microspikes to great effect on ice but I've been eyeing their nano-spikes: only 8 ounces and made for trail runners / low tops. Seems like they would offer less traction but I haven't used them. I've read about Yak Tracks ~ 4 ounces but haven't tried them either. Point being there are some light options out there.

IMO full crampons are overkill for this application.

[HooKooDooKu]

Even when it snows in GSMNP, it usually doesn't hang around very long (just a couple of days).
And if there is anything you're sliding on, it's more likely to be mud, than ice.

Of course you never know what Jack Frost is going to toss at the South East in March.

But if I were me, I'd gamble on the laws of average, NOT pack spikes, and understand that decision means I need to keep a closer eye on the weather forecast, and I might get delayed, perhaps even stuck for a short while, if the law of averages turns against me.

[doheir]

You might try the Stabilicer Hike XP instead. I reserve my Microspikes when there is sufficient snow to cover all rocks to keep the sharp spikes from being worn down. When there’s a mixture of snow, ice, and wet exposed rock, I find the Stabilicers provide good traction, and the metal bolt heads are replaceable if worn down, though I haven’t needed to yet.

[Cheyou]

Hoe much do the xp weigh

[colorado_rob]

We dutifully carried our Microspikes last spring, Springer to Hot springs, March 6th start, never put them on our feet. We did have a bit of snow and ice here and there, but as usual, wound up toughing through the slick spots without the spikes, I get so lazy out there...

It really also depends on your shoe/boot soles, and their grip; I wear hiking shoes that have a deep, grippy tread (Keen somethings, Targhee maybe?). Lots of folks out there use trail runners that do not have a good grip, and microspikes (or whatever) come in very handy.

[Tipi Walter]

We dutifully carried our Microspikes last spring, Springer to Hot springs, March 6th start, never put them on our feet. We did have a bit of snow and ice here and there, but as usual, wound up toughing through the slick spots without the spikes, I get so lazy out there...

It really also depends on your shoe/boot soles, and their grip; I wear hiking shoes that have a deep, grippy tread (Keen somethings, Targhee maybe?). Lots of folks out there use trail runners that do not have a good grip, and microspikes (or whatever) come in very handy.

You remind me of a couple things. Southeast backpackers as a rule do not carry snowshoes, snow shovels or microspikes---and yet these items especially the shovel and spikes---can make winter backpacking so much easier.

Sometimes a Southeast winter backpacker gets hit by a paralyzing winter storm which effects last for a week or more---effects including deep snow, postholing and severe cold (like around 0F). This is most especially true on the ridgetops popular trails follow, like the AT.

For a backpacker who has to (or wants to) pack up every day and strike camp and hike to the next camp and prepare a spot for his tent---all the while in this winter storm or storm remnants---I have found both microspikes and a snow shovel to help immensely with these tasks.

Winter backpacking is tough enough---any item which makes it easier and encourages daily movement, i.e. microspikes---or helps in setting up camp, i.e. a snow shovel---I'm all for carrying.

What I'm talking about is staying out in the storm and hiking/camping every day and not bailing into a town because you may not have these items.

TRIP 172 058-XL.jpg
Last year I pulled a tough snowy trip and dang glad I brought both my microspikes and my snow shovel. (Pic in TN mountains).

[egilbe]

Reminds me I need to dig out my avy shovel.

[colorado_rob]

You remind me of a couple things. Southeast backpackers as a rule do not carry snowshoes, snow shovels or microspikes---and yet these items especially the shovel and spikes---can make winter backpacking so much easier.

Sometimes a Southeast winter backpacker gets hit by a paralyzing winter storm which effects last for a week or more---effects including deep snow, postholing and severe cold (like around 0F). This is most especially true on the ridgetops popular trails follow, like the AT.

For a backpacker who has to (or wants to) pack up every day and strike camp and hike to the next camp and prepare a spot for his tent---all the while in this winter storm or storm remnants---I have found both microspikes and a snow shovel to help immensely with these tasks.

Winter backpacking is tough enough---any item which makes it easier and encourages daily movement, i.e. microspikes---or helps in setting up camp, i.e. a snow shovel---I'm all for carrying.

What I'm talking about is staying out in the storm and hiking/camping every day and not bailing into a town because you may not have these items.

It's really not that different in the winter CO high country with hikers and backpackers... Most go out of their way to avoid carrying any such gear, though backcountry skiers are much more dilligent, due to Avy dangers of the terrain they partake in. I do always carry such gear and I spend all winter myself doing what you do, but I'm an exception. I participate in a hiking/climbing forum out here, and about 1 in 10 posts ask "can I climb such and such peak without snowshoes?
". People just hate to carry those things.

Still, for a strictly AT hiker starting in early March, with a fairly reliable weather forecast in his/her pocket, and a town always reasonable nearby, it is a reasonable risk to not carry any such gear, IMO.

[Sarcasm the elf]

This just popped up in my facebook feed and seemed worth posting.

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[bamboo bob]

I would use micro-spikes but by the time you get to the Smokies you would not need them very much. Yak tracks are worthless. They are good for walking to the mail box. On a hike they break and offer little help.

[WMR]

Third week in march 2012 we did 3 day hike SoBo from Devil's Fork Gap to Hot Springs. Second day we hiked in snow most of the day, and had a few close calls on narrow trail where hard to know what is trail and what is snow covering nothing. Met many NoBo'rs who were wrung out from GSMNP, having hiked 3 full days in deep snow. One guy had snowshoes and was doing fine, but his buddy who had nothing but his boots in what they called waist-deep snow was ready to quit.

[Another Kevin]

I hear what Tipi Walter is saying that most Southern hikers don't bother, but they fall down a lot, leave postholes for the hiker behind to trip over, and get pinned down in storms.

I live Up North, and for winter trips, I bring snowshoes. And Microspikes. And maybe even ice axe and crampons. (Definitely wanted for Northeast 4000ers in winter!) For the AT south of Vermont, I might bring just Microspikes, since you're never more than a few miles from a road. On the Martin Luther King trip in Harriman, my snowshoes will most likely stay in the car, unless there's already a heavy snowpack or a bad storm impends.

If you have some way of getting the weather forecast, and you're willing to bail out to town for a few days if it's ugly, then maybe you'll be OK barebooted.

I think that not falling is always worth a pound or so, so my spikes come along on practically every trip up here from mid-October to mid-May. (I don't know how much narrower that window is in the South, but I imagine you can go longer without them.) My snowshoes will be along pretty much whenever it's winter by the calendar, unless the snow holds off until really late. One guy I hike with pokes fun at my 'slowshoes', but carrying snowshoes unnecessarily is still less exhausting than postholing in knee-deep snow - I'm slow, but I can keep going when he has to bail.

Also, I gather that trail etiquette is different up here. Leaving postholes for the next hiker to trip over is regarded as extremely rude Up North. It's even unlawful in the Adirondacks - and I know people who've gotten tickets for not having their snowshoes.

[George]

it would be less than 2-3 hours of use - the times when they are most useful will come in increments of a few hundred yards

- to me it would depend on what else you are willing to sacrifice, will you be starting skin out with 35? than maybe

- skin out with 25? than definitely not

[Emerson Bigills]

I carried a pair of Kahtoola micro spikes when I left on Feb 20. I hiked in snow for a week starting in mid-march from I-40 to Erwin. Never used the micro spikes. I should have one morning coming out of Double springs shelter earlier in the smokies. . I did put them on for the last 1.5 miles going up Roan Summit and coming off the summit the next morning. The trail had been snow covered, thawed and refrozen at night a couple days before. It was a very dangerous.

Carrying the micro splikes is like buying insurance. Roll the dice if you like. Slip, fall and break an ankle or leg up high and you will be going home. On the other hand, you may carry the spikes and not need them. You probably would not carry them past Roan Mtn. You decide. Most don't have them. I can tell you they were awesome on the frozen ice coming off of Roan.

[Dogwood]

Stabilicers, Yak Trax w/ over the instep velcro, strap on Ice Claws, or, at the lowest cost, and perhaps wt and inconvenience self tapping stainless hex head screws at the appropriate length for the shoe's soles you will be wearing and the conditions(ie; don't screw in too far through the sole or where you feel the hex screw tips). Too often I note shoe's soles or WPness ruined when hex head screws are improperly used. Get stainless when possile although as self tapping aluminum gutter hex heads have worked for many including myself too.

[Dogwood]

Get a small inexpensive T shaped hex head one piece wrench that sometimes is sold with the screws as a kit or next to the screws at various outfitters some probably available along the way(NeeLS Gap, Gatlinburg, etc)

Tip: if you already have Kahtoola Micro Spikes add an instep velcro strap that the Hills hound have to make them stay on better when side hilling. The Hills hound have a .5 cm longer pts but are like 5-6 oz heavier. Both shouldn't be used all that often given what you said.