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I have searched most of the Gannett forums and didn't see any discussion on crampons vs. microspikes (Kahtoola.) So, at the risk of sounding like an idiot, I am going to post this ...

My husband and I are climbing Gannett the first week of July. I have good mountaineering boots that are crampon-compatible and, although cumbersome, I will hike in them for the approach and carry the crampons. My husband sold similar boots last year (OOPS) so now only has the choice between heavy duty mountaineering boots that he will have to carry in with his crampons and wear approach shoes or just wearing the approach shoes for the entire trip and use microspikes because his other crampons won't work. We don't want to have to buy yet another pair of crampon-compatible mountaineering boots for this climb so my question is, "How feasible will it be for him to climb with microspikes vs. crampons."

And yes, I understand that his decision depends on his skill, comfort w/less purchase, snowpack, etc. Just looking to see if anyone out there has done the climb fairly early in the season w/microspikes and ... would you do it again? Trying to keep the pack weight reasonable ...

Thanks,
Alison

Many approach shoes are strap on crampon compatible. I take it you have semi auto crampons?

Why not go with strap on aluminum crampons? While I wouldn't climb WI4 in them, they put in quite a show on steep snowy terrain. They only weight around 4-5 oz more than microspikes depending on which ones you get. I removed the antibot plates on my Camp pons and have so far had good luck with the snow not sticking (somehow they do better without bot plates than some pons with bot plates).

He has Petzyl Charlet Moser that won't work w/his approach boots or the other option is the Kahtoola microspikes - we were trying to avoid having to buy anything else as our climbing closet overfloweth!