[pct-l] crampons?

[Steel-Eye]

Good afternoon, Moondog,

You should watch the various Sierra snow level reports and be guided accordingly.  This year was a very low snow year and the passes were relatively easy to cross.  90% of the people I encountered were wearing sneakers.  The only regular boots that I can remember were on a few south-bound JMT hikers.  I encountered few posthole situations, and that was mostly on the backside, i.e. north side, of several passes.  Boots and crampons really wouldn't be of any help when postholing, except in a few instanced there was some risk of stepping out of a low shoe, at which point I would have had to stop and dig it out.  I didn't see any crampons, and only once did I wish I had mine.  When I do use crampons, I use the instep variety which fit and function well on my sneakers.  Even though the crampons would have been handy, in hindsight, I would not carry then on another passage of the same conditions.  Similarly, I did not carry an ice axe either.  The following link refers to the only time I wished I had had either of them.    http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=188368 

Steel-Eye

   ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: David Stewart 
  To: pct-l at backcountry.net 
  Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 1:11 PM
  Subject: [pct-l] crampons?


  hello all, 

  1) thank you all tons for the great feedback. I wish i could give it back, but being a PCT rookie....

  2) the following question might come off as a lil' bit nuts...

  3) starting on the zero-day kickoff ....will I need crampons in the sierras? I am not going to carry an ice ax, because I have no idea what to do with that, how to self arrest, etc... are crampons needed? it seems extra nuts that i am going to do this trail in new balances...can sneakers handle the high sierra? 

  thank you all again, 

  -moondog


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