salbrecher Posted October 8, 2003 Posted October 8, 2003 (edited) I've only ice climed a few times but i'm getting pretty stoked about this coming season, living a few hours from the Rockies and all! Lately i've been hanging from the mouldings above my doors and front pointing on the mouldings that run along the floor and it seems to me that climbing in AT boots takes less calf strength than my mountainering boots. Any reasons AT boots would not be as good as mountaineering boots for ice climbing? What boots do you climb in? Edited October 8, 2003 by salbrecher Quote
Dru Posted October 8, 2003 Posted October 8, 2003 salbrecher said: Any reasons AT boots would not be as good a mountaneering boots for ice climbing? Less ankle flexibility and sensitivity is a liability when it comes to usually irregular and bulging water ice, not to mention mixed. Also AT boots dont take techy crampons as well. What boots do you climb in? Freneys if its warm and Koflach Vertical if its cold. Youre gonna be stuck on WI3 max. all year if you wear them AT boots........ Quote
Rodchester Posted October 8, 2003 Posted October 8, 2003 If you need to make moves that require you to twist your ankles (i.e. stepping high, or certain traverse moves requiring yoru ankle to twist) AT boots can be diffcult to climb in. (But not imposssible or any thing). They are usually fine for straight on water ice or alpine ice such as a steep coulior. But get on any mixed ground, or transition from snow onto steeper rock, ouch. Sure it can be done, but it isn't optimal. Good luck.... Quote
Lambone Posted October 8, 2003 Posted October 8, 2003 I agree... Ice climbing in plastic boots, especially ski boots...sucks. Sure it may be more support, which might be nice on a long smooth grade 3 climb. But get into any steep funky stuff and it will be like rock climbing in heavy mountain boots. I use La Sportive S's (the red ones) for roadside day cragging, super liht and supple. And Technica Attitude Plus's on longer colder climbs. Boots make a big difference, the most important thing is that they fit well. Have fun! Quote
boatskiclimbsail Posted October 9, 2003 Posted October 9, 2003 Ive led WI5 in a pair of Garmont GSMs. Make sure they go in walk mode and think about loosening the buckles one or two clicks. They take step in makos just fine. I've climbed in Koflach Degrees and Arctis Expes and the big drawbacks are weight and the stiffness of the liner around the ankles. Hard to do moves where your foot has to move like it's in a rock shoe. They also are much less comfy to hike in if you are aproaching by foot/showshoe but if you have AT boots I am assuming you are skiing in anyhow, lol. I would imagine when you get into boots like the DenaliXT then it would be damn near impossible to climb anything hard at all but some of the softer Lowas and any touring boot should be just fine. When I took beginners out they were able to get up easy to moderate ice in alpine/DH boots, with _no_ flexibility at all, but like it was mentioned earlier, WI3 is about the limit if you can't move your feet. Quote
Montana_Climber Posted October 21, 2003 Posted October 21, 2003 Another consideration is weight. If you put in good liners like the Thermoflex, your leathers and AT boots may be about the same. My leathers run around 5.5 lbs for the pair and my plastic AT's run around 7 lbs for the pair. This makes them BETTER but not the best. WI5 is possible in them but I would assume it's a dead vertical pillar with nice ice where it's more a matter of endurance rather than finesse. Go leather for the technical stuff and if you have a binding like the Silvretta 404 you can use just about any boot. Quote
JoshK Posted October 21, 2003 Posted October 21, 2003 The new AT ski boots I bought last year are 4 1/2 lbs with the intuition liners, which is lighter than my leathers. I am looking forward to trying them on ice. Quote
cracked Posted October 21, 2003 Posted October 21, 2003 JoshK said: The new AT ski boots I bought last year are 4 1/2 lbs with the intuition liners, which is lighter than my leathers. I am looking forward to trying them on ice. Aren't those the mountain boots w/Dynafit attachments? They looks SWEET. Won't ski very well, though.... Quote
JoshK Posted October 21, 2003 Posted October 21, 2003 cracked said: JoshK said: The new AT ski boots I bought last year are 4 1/2 lbs with the intuition liners, which is lighter than my leathers. I am looking forward to trying them on ice. Aren't those the mountain boots w/Dynafit attachments? They looks SWEET. Won't ski very well, though.... Yup, they are the dynafit 4s I think? Basically a scarpa, etc. with dynafit attachments and ski spoilers you can attach. I got them fully expecting them to ski like shit. I basically figured a climbing boot + the ability to ski to approachs would be nice, and remove the need to carry an extra pair of boots. Now, that said, I was actually pleasently suprised at how well they skiied. Sure, they aren't going to be what I would ski powder or anything super steep wiht, but I've skiied the C/D on baker, sitkum on glacier peak and the entire ptarmigan traverse in them. That was all on spring snow for the most part and they rocked on that! As a big bonus, when we hat to climb minus skis, my boots+ski combo weighed about 60% of what my partners did! Quote
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