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The late, Ueli Steck, in the lwt alpine footwear and crampons of his design
"Sometimes they are approach shoes. Sometimes they are runaway shoes?" J. Lind
One of my first real climbing adventures back in the early '70s was walking in for a couple of hours to a moderate technical rock climb. Back then 2 hours from the end of the road seemed like a serious trip. We carried moderate sized packs, dress in wool knickers and heavy leather boots for the bit of steep, hard snow we would traverse along the way.
As the years went by, I made that same trip many, many times from early Spring and lots of slushy snow to the first snowstorms in the Fall. By Fall I wished a couple of times that I was somewhere else as we navigated by memory huge talus fields of slippery granite boulders, wishing I was somewhere else.
40 years pasted in a blink of the eye. Where we had grand adventures all kitted up to tackle any alpine adventure turned in afternoon larks for the walk in. No more heavy leather boots more likely just runners of one sort or another, shorts, a cotton shirt and different levels of success and entertainment. All that eventually lead to a forgotten pair of runners and reluctantly walking in with only a pair of flip flops on my feet. Doable and really not much of a strain much to my surprise. Good for a laugh now!
One trip does stand out in retrospect from the mid to late '70s. As we were slogging up hill and occasionally post holing into my crouch in the wet Spring snowpack, a couple of locals were running out the same trail, lightly clothed and wearing tiny day packs. What really impressed me was one of guys was wear a pair white, with green strips, Adidas Rom. A lwt leather court/running shoe if I remember correctly. They stopped for a moment to chat, and I just had to ask! What is up with "the runners" in all the snow? Turns out he was also kitted up in some of the first Gore-Tex sox. I just had to laugh. I was sure THAT would never work! Little did I know.
Since then, without Gore-Tex sox, I have worn typical runners to 21K feet on Aconcagua with ease in good weather. And may times worn runners to 11K' on Rainier from mid-July to early Sept.
Not far from that "first adventure" hike is another opportunity for a few days out for fun. This one is a day along ridge traverse for most, that can be done either going north or south. Just a bit of technical climbing on the ridge line going either way. But a very fun approach to start either line is up a good bit of 4th class rock of the small granite dome call the "Beehive" for the shape of feature.
The fun starts right at the dome's edge. Enough 4th class rock you sure don't want a misplaced step. And a place a comfortable pair of rock shoes might really be appreciated for the first 15 minutes of so. And again, if you miss the easiest way up the dome a few minutes later.
A few decent climbers have found their trusty "approach shoes" really weren't all that good on this particular "approach". My first trip ended up forever changing the fit of my pair runners. So much slab climbing literally turned he shoe on my foot. They were OK that day out but never the same again. Sticky soles but not enough support on the upper to take that abuse of 1000' of easy 4th class slab climbing most of it splayed out or side hilling. Dually noted for the future.
I don't remember what shoes I used the second time out and going south. But I would have remembered if I had wrecked another pair of shoes.
The 3rd time I went old school, which worked out almost perfectly for the entire day. But as much fun as an old school rock shoe was for the short technical bit of traverse if really wasn't the ideal footwear. A decent running with sticky rubber and good support would be better, I think. Lots of good approach shoes out now that can do 2 of the three. Want to add crampons? Typically, we all came up short until recently. But none of the shoes I've been in have been able to do it all at even a mediocre level. On occasion I imagined such a shoe but never though anyone would market it. I always thought they would be way too specialized to ever make a profit on, even in my wildest imagination.
More to come.......
You know you are on to something fun in a hiking 'boot', when the first time you touch rock, you wonder, "how tight/small can I fit these things and still walk all day in them?!"
