Axe, Boot and Crampon Advice

Mountaineering Axes  For classic Scottish and Alpine Mountaineering, a good quality traditional axe is ideal.  We cannot recommend enough that you spend a little more money in order to get one with a stronger and better designed pick made for mountaineering rather than just hill walking. It should be somewhere between 55-70cm long depending on how tall you are.  Nowadays our guides all use and recommend DMM axes and hardwear - as it's great kit we know we can rely on.

The DMM Raptor and Cirque models are both ideal axes in this category and the ones we use on the hill day in day out. For a lightweight ski mountaineering axe - check out the Vapour too.

Technical Axes  Reverse curved 'banana pick' tools come into their own at around Scottish IV and are conversely not so good on easier terrain.  Models with curved shafts give better clearance and are less strenuous on really steep ground.  For pure icefall climbing and winter couloirs we currently use the amazing new DMM Rebels which are great tools.

For all rounders that are good for mixed climbing and harder alpinism as well, then we frequently use DMM Flys (pure ice tools can still be used for this type of activity if you fit thicker picks, but will take a battering and the highly sculpted grips make plunging into deep snow more difficult).

Mountaineering Boots  are now rated for their stiffness and the type of activity they were designed for:

• B1=flexible and suitable for trekking and hill walking only. Will take C1 crampons only.

• B2=semi rigid good for classic mountaineering and mid grade mixed climbing, but not for ice + harder mixed climbs.  Will take C1 + C2 crampons.

• B3=fully rigid give much more support for front pointing on steeper terrain.  Can take C1, C2 or C3 crampons.  Less comfortable for walking long distances.

Leather boots are generally more comfortable and breathable, whereas plastic ones are warmer and less affected by water - so which is best depends on what you want to do.  Leather are OK in Scotland so long as you have good gaiters (yeti gaiters ideally) and good for most kinds of alpinism and icefall climbing - but if you want the best of both worlds then go for one of the lates composite boots such as the Vasque Super Alpinista which is both warm, comfortable and water resistant. Because of the volume adjustable tongue, this model fits a wide variety of foot shapes very well.

For colder alpine routes, we recommend plastics or one of the latest composite double boots such as the Vasque Ice 9000 which are very warm, but still great for technical climbing.

For maximum comfort in your boots, invest in a custom moulded footbed (by Comformable) or a pair of Sorbothane Double Strike insoles (the latter give less support, but more cushioning between your foot and the ground - take your pick!)

Crampons  As with boots - crampons are now rated as C1 - flexible, C2 - semi rigid and C3 - rigid models.  It's vital that you get a crampon at least as stiff as your boots as otherwise they may fall off, so you can put any crampon on a fully rigid B3 boot, but only a flexible C1 crampon on a flexible B1 boot etc - it's best to take your boots down the shop.

Go for good quality 12 point mountaineering crampons and get anti ball plates whilst you are at it, as they are such a big safety improvement that we insist you have them anyway.  Good models to look for are the DMM Gladiator & Aiguille.

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Vertical framed steep ice crampons are not so good for general mountaineering but essential if you do lots of  steep ice climbing.  DMM Terminators are the benchmark tools here.  Light ski touring crampons like the Camp XLC 470 are great for ski mountaineering where you carry them most of the time and only ever climb steep snow, but don't use them for anything else as they won't stand up to the abuse.