UKC

Can anyone give me some advice on suitable footwear as I am off to Italy in 6 weeks to do VF so I would like to get them bought and broken in. I would prefer a boot to a shoe but am confused about lightweight vs. rigid sole and would still like to get some use out of them scrambling in the Lakes afterwards. Anyone got a point of view and a recommended option, so far I am considering Salomon Pro Trek 6 or a Scarpa boot?

In reply to Rae B:

hard to say really i used salamon pro stickeys last year and will do again this year my mate wore aproach shoe/trainers and other mate wore his old walking boots

lot of snow about this year though so maybe something better?

have also heard of people wearing rock boots for the harder VF's but not needed to myself

In reply to NIGBEE:

I'd second the lots of snow bit. If doing something high or early in the season, contemplate a boot that'll take a crampon for a short while.

In reply to Wibble Wibble: thats something that we forgot about and hence had fun trying to get up the glaciers (if you can call them that) during those early morning starts.

In reply to Rae B:

See what you think.

http://www.lasportiva.com/Inglese/Catalogo/MegaDru.htm

http://www.needlesports.com/acatalog/Approach_Shoes.html

http://www.needlesports.com/acatalog/Walking_Boots.html

Have fun, Pete

In reply to Rae B: Wear normal walking boots ..even if there is snow it'll be really soft , esp in 6 weeks time. The only glacier in the dolomites is the marmolada and you can hire flexible crampons near the bottom.

PS you don't need to start that early for via ferratas unless your planning a very long one

In reply to Rae B:

70 year old mate uses a light boot, he goes in September though. Don't forget the zyper or similar

In reply to Rae B:
Whatever you'd normally wear for a day in the hills. Boots, approach shoes, whatever you're most comfortable with.

In reply to Wibble Wibble:

How do you know there's loads of snow? Going quite soon so want to make sure we'll be OK. Bringing an axe, but don't want to faff with crampons.

M

In reply to Mucco:
A mate was out there a week ago, they couldn't do any climbing as there was too much snow (some south faces were clear but that was all). A couple of weeks earlier there was something like 2 or 3 metres of fresh snow. They did manage a couple of VFs though.

In reply to Mucco:

Was in the Brenta a week and a half ago. Patches of snow at 1800m and total cover above 2000m. Non of the ferrata were doable and walking to the huts was heavy going in the snow. Admittedly I don't know about the other areas of the dolomites.

In reply to Wibble Wibble:

Thanks for advice, will bring proper boots + maybe crampons.

M

In reply to Mucco:

The snow was pretty soft, which made it hard going (some people had snow shoes!). You may be able to get by without crampons, but I don't know what it'd be like above 2500m (icy?) If you're off soon I'd definitely go for boots rather than approach shoes.

In reply to Wibble Wibble:

Oh, and have lots of fun, you lucky sods. They are amazing mountains.

In reply to Mucco:

have a look at the webcams on here, lots of snow!!


http://www.dolomiti.org

In reply to Rae B: If your gona take crampons and proper boots aswell as via ferrata boots then get a pair of sportiva trango S cos they'l do both jobs.

In reply to Mark L:

Unfortunately, I don't have a comprehensive wardrobe or a bottomless wallet, so I'll take my normal walking boots and stick a pair of articulated crampons on them.
Quite appropriately, they're made by Dolomite.

M

In reply to Mucco:

Ordinary walking boots are fine, as are strap on crampons. Remember that many via ferratas were put there to get fully equiped squaddies around the mountains. Get some cheap industrial site gloves (a couple of quid from Wickes) - your hands take a much bigger battering than your feet, especially from frayed wires.