To climb in the Wrangel/St.Elias here in Alaska, you need different boots to ski tour in, put on crampons, then have a decent klettershoe for bare rock and glaze ice. I tele well, alpine extreemly well(Thompson pass), glacier travel ok, rock climb lead a solid 5.8, and some 5.9-10s. My ice climbing is lousy but improving. Here's the rub. I know a mondo tele boot could be made with a vibram sole, decent toe and heel welts to take crampons and a binding like the silveretta 404 to alpine and marginal tele ski. The upper articulated plastic shell could be made stiff enough with a heel lock to hold it in alpine mode. The upper belt could also have micro adjustment to make a little lateral give possible for traversing with crampons. Of course the crampons would have to ridged because the toe portion of the boot needs to flex(strap ons). But maybe not if the silveretta binding would allow you to truly unhinge the back and tele flatfooted. If this boot had a super insulated inner lining camp boot with straps it could even work like a marginal pc boot for tec. rock stuff. AM I CRAZY? any ideas or anyone with some connections with a company? Can you imagine one boot and accessories being able to do it all? Tele-vate up, drop down the binding crampon for icy moderate inclines, switch to rigid crampons in the berkshrunds and ice chutes, pull them off and have a good expedition boot, then come back down the chutes extreeme skiing with a safety binding just in case, then tour out in classical x-country fashion. Just what I need to do devils thumb outside of Petersburg AK. Peace, Mr. White

-- Bruce White (mrbwhite@hotmail.com), December 25, 1997

Answers

Try any of the Terminator series from Scarpa(Terminator, T2, T3 - I imaginve the T3 would be best). They are plastic tele boots, probably the best made, and the T3 is low enough to walk in fairly comfortably. I've seen tons of people ice climbing in these boots, and they seem to work very well. These boots are also the absolutely finest quality imaginable. I recently used a pair of Scarpa Invernos(plastic double boot) for a month of mountaineering in Alaska, and they emerged looking absolutely like new. As for technical rock climbing, you're probably out of luck and need some rock shoes, especially if you're looking at 5.9-10. The Scarpa denali is also an excellent boot if you're looking for something DIN compatable for alpice/randonee skiing, and also works well for ice climbing(it of course has a fully rigid sole). All these boots are quite pricey, but will last longer than your feet and never disappoint you. Good luck!

-- Steve Waydo (waydo@u.washington.edu), January 09, 1998.