Any recent updates on Kahtoola Microspikes vs Chainsen Pro or Light?

“I am planning ahead for a JMT walk in July. Snow pack on the trail is currently 210% of average, with more falling! ”

If you are an early riser and an into the evening hiker, crusty snow fields will be an issue. However, my July experience (~12 hours of hiking each day) was one of corn snow and well trodden routes over the passes. Approaching Forrester from the south I needed to be a bit careful in my steps, but never feared for my life. After that, ice or hard pack was never an issue.  So, consider the need to carry that extra pound.

But IF I were to carry something, it would be Kahtoola’s Microspikes. I have enough miles on mine to know they won’t let me down.

I have no feed back for the new product but my micro spikes have worked reliably for years.  You can definitely count on them for the application and they are comfy with either boots or trail runners.

I hiked the JMT in June of 2015. I did lots of research ahead of time and came to the conclusion that Hillsound Trail Crampons looked superior to the Kahtoolah Microspikes because of the Velcro strap over the instep.

I ended up leaving the Hillsounds in the car which was a good bet because I only walked on snow for about 100 yards just before the top of Donahue Pass.

I realize this is not a particularly informed review but I wanted to point out what seems like a smart feature. Many people talk of rolling Microspikes off of their trail runners.

“…Hillsound Trail Crampons looked superior to the Kahtoolah Microspikes because of the Velcro strap over the instep.”

An easy modification to make. (Should I ever need to.)

Thank you Matthew.

I happened to be looking at microspikes on REI the other day and noticed a disturbing trend in the reviews.  Three fairly recent 1-star reviews spoke of breaking the rubber upper while putting them on.  Several mentioned that the ones they bought were a new, updated style with a different country of origin (Thailand rather than Korea).

This is obviously secondhand information, since I have no direct experience about this.  But it’s something you may want to look at.  There are still a lot of great reviews being written too, so it could be user error, but it would seem to at least warrant a close look before relying on them in the backcountry.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts, and especially Dancing Bear for your insight on the potential Microspikes quality issue if manufactured outside of Korea. I read that both the Microspikes and Chainsen spikes are manufactured in Korea (with possible exception of Dancing Bear’s observation), and there was speculation that they were manufactured by the same company (or someone had left Kahtoola and opened their own business producing the Chainsens).

I’ll try to carefully research the design and build of both and make a decision. If anyone else has experience with the Chainsens in the past year, I’d still love to hear it.

I hiked the JMT in June of 2015

2015 was the lowest Sierra snow year in a long, long time. This year could be exactly the opposite. There’s already 14x as much snow as the peak of 2015.

I’ve taken the Chainsen Lights on a few trips now, and so far I can say they work as good as microspikes.  :)

I actually mention the Chainsens, 40 Below overboots, Northern Lites Snoeshoes, and Lawson Ti snow anchors in my upcoming film coming March 1:  Here’s the latest trailer:  https://youtu.be/u0pG2jtePQA

@ezabielski

Yes, I’m quite aware of the fact that I hiked in the driest year on record and that this year is much heavier. I check the snow water content graphs daily. I had done my research and wanted to share a detail I’d learned about the Hillsounds with the huge disclaimer that I left them in the car. ✌?

No worries. I hiked the PCT that year and never even considered microspikes when I was in the Sierras in early June. I am planning to hike it again and it’s going to be way different!

i use the hillsounds quite a bit …

i find they have a bit more traction than the microspikes as well as that velcro strap … the teeth are longer

of course they weight a bit more

mine (about 8 years old now) are made in korea i believe

;)

Thanks for your thoughts @hamsterfish – one of only two reports on the “Lights”. I saw your JMT YouTube video, and look forward to seeing your next one!

I’ve decided to give the Chainsen Pro a try. The extra weight is not significant for my base weight, the design/construction seems to be very similar to Kahtoolas, and I am a little wary of reports that the thinner elastomer harness on the new generation Kahtoolas has been snapping. Also, there is a Sydney distributor for the Chainsens (~40% less expensive than the Microspikes here), and the cost with delivery is only a couple $$$ more than the current Massdrop discount price once USD->AUD currency conversion and shipping is considered.

Murphy’s Law would dictate that storms will now stop rolling through the Sierras, and the snowpack on the trail will melt and be negligible by July – and these will get sent home! Just in case Murphy is sleeping on the job, I should be prepared…

I recently bought the Chainsen Trail for winter running and used them 4 or 5 times. So far, they perform well and also survived short sections of pavement and non-icy forest roads, but obviously I can’t provide any longterm experience.

My Chainsen Pros arrived today. An interesting addition to the pack (esp. with respect to comments by @greg23 and @matthewkphx) – they now come with D-ring Velcro straps in the kit – presumably to cinch up the elastomer harness for a better fit, if needed.

and there was speculation that they were manufactured by the same company (or someone had left Kahtoola and opened their own business producing the Chainsens).

I am fairly certain that Snowline was the manufacturer for Kahtoola until very recently. I was told that Snowline sold the same product as kahtoola in places where kahtoola didn’t. For whatever reason they had a falling out and Snowline decided to just sell their product directly and compete with Kahtoola and whomever their new supplier is. It was implied that Kahtoola had to make some subtle changes to get around Snowline’s patents.

That would explain a lot (especially the similarity between products, and the complaints of inferior elastomer harness on the new generation Microspikes). The harness on the Chainsen Pro’s is pretty beefy – the way the old Microspikes were described; videos of the new Microspikes show notably thinner elastomer. Interesting that the patents belonged to Snowline. Thanks Luke, very enlightening!

As far as I am aware, Snowline is a Korean company (in case anyone was unaware) – they certainly have a sizeable presence here (in Korea), including dedicated shops  (I think one in Dobongsan nearby).

Oh yeah, with an address like 3-8, Yanggyo 6-gil, Oseong-myeon, Pyeongtaek-si, Gyeonggi-do, Korea, I think that’s a definite.

http://snowlinegear.com/

I kinda assumed kahtoola only had the exclusive on North America and snowline sold to the rest of the world, but I really can’t speak for whats available outside of NA. I’m sure someone from Europe could shed some more light on kahtoola’s availability.

Hello.  Does anyone have experience with the Vargo Pocket Cleats?  I’m curious how the Vargo solution compares vs. the others in this thread.

https://www.vargooutdoors.com/titanium-pocket-cleats.html#prod-1

Other threads seem to indicate that they slip and afford too little grip. I searched for Vargo cleats.

at 2.3 ounces each those might be good in a pinch.  Like if you just had to do a short distance.

I can think of a couple trips where I had maybe 100 yards of icy snow that was pretty much impossible so I found another way around or waited for it to warm up