Boots - Multitasking or specialty
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 7:23 pm
I'm still new to mountian climbing and being in michigan I'll be lucky to climb a peak a year. I've done hood twice and we're planning to hit rainer and something in colorado in the next year or so. I have some aspirations to try denali some day and one thing that scares the hell out of me is - boots. Nothing screws up an entire trip like your feet can. This past year we abandoned a tenative plan to try rainer after my brother's boots tore up his feet on Hood. Any longer of a trip and I would have been there too as I had some pretty serious hot spots as well). So with denali being the eventual goal, is there a boot choice that lends itself to that task, while still being a practical choice on decidedly smaller mountains in the years leading up to it? The advantage is that I get to spend years breaking in and adjusting my boots (intuition liners, etc). But the disadvantage seems to be that something like the spantik would be grossly overkill for everything I'm likely to do in the immediate future and don't want my more realistic endevors to be cursed with sweaty feet.
Here are all my thoughts. Pick and choose what you can help with.
- Spantiks seem to be a boot of choice for denali. But I'm thinking they are just too warm for something like rainer or smaller.
- An overboot/crampon combination appears to be a bad choice for anybody but experts so beefing up a lesser boot isn't much of an option (maybe insulated gaiters).
- Is it reasonable to buy a boot just for denali? I'm guessing lots of people do it but again a blister on day two is a scary idea. I could hike in them in the winter and maybe hit one peak but that would be about the only opportunity to make sure they are fitting correctly.
- If the majority of my climbing will be on peaks that are 14k or less (maybe some state highpoints). what recommendations are there? Could I go completely to the other end of the spectrum and get something that's practical even on the approach. I beleive i used a sportiva glacier (http://www.sportiva.com/products/footwe ... lacier-wlf) the second time on hood and i don't even object (and maybe prefer) strap crampons.
Here are all my thoughts. Pick and choose what you can help with.
- Spantiks seem to be a boot of choice for denali. But I'm thinking they are just too warm for something like rainer or smaller.
- An overboot/crampon combination appears to be a bad choice for anybody but experts so beefing up a lesser boot isn't much of an option (maybe insulated gaiters).
- Is it reasonable to buy a boot just for denali? I'm guessing lots of people do it but again a blister on day two is a scary idea. I could hike in them in the winter and maybe hit one peak but that would be about the only opportunity to make sure they are fitting correctly.
- If the majority of my climbing will be on peaks that are 14k or less (maybe some state highpoints). what recommendations are there? Could I go completely to the other end of the spectrum and get something that's practical even on the approach. I beleive i used a sportiva glacier (http://www.sportiva.com/products/footwe ... lacier-wlf) the second time on hood and i don't even object (and maybe prefer) strap crampons.