UKC

Hi

I’ve been using a Scarpa’s women’s Rebel Lite GTX mountaineering boot, which is a B2. It’s been a pretty good boot. I’ve been using a simple pair of C1/2 crampons as well. These have lasted me through Scottish winter grade II/III, some other winter routes and some very - technically easy - alpine summer climbs e.g. Weissmies.  

In the near future, I would love to progress on to some more technical climbs, and I wondered if anyone had any women’s B3 boot recommendations and any C2/3 crampon recommendations as well. This would be very helpful.

Thanks. 

Personally I think your best bet is to go to good outdoors shop with a wide choice of boots and try some on and see what fit you best. Its easy to fall into the trap of picking a dream boot feature wise but if it doesn't fit its no good! If you find the Scarpa's fit you ok, something like the Scarpa MontBlanc might be fit the bill? Regarding a crampon, for harder mixed stuff I like mono points and anti balling plates pretty essential. This limits you to something like the Petzl lynx's or the G14? But again make sure you can get a good fit on the boot as this is more important on harder ground 

Hope this helps.

Fab, cheers. Thanks for the help!

two thoughts - what size feet - small boots are a lot stiffer than large so you might not need a b3

and, what for? I have some Scarpa rebel ultras and love them.  However I pretty much only use them for steep winter work - they're great for scrambling, but without crampons on I wouldn't expect them to last years

I've been wearing my B2 Scarpa Manta Pro's for winter (heavier weight than the Rebal Lites so a bit more sturdiness kicking into ice) and because I've smallish feet (5) they have the same amount of flex as my boyfriend B3's.

There's not many women's B3's out there but lots of people seem to have B3 Nepals (which as an aside I wonder if might be overkill unless your planning steep ice and mixed - for alpine I stick to my stiff B1's as they are nice and cool).

Edit - just as wbo says above!

Yeah it sounds like the boots the op has are really a b1 boot but they have a b2 fitting (ie you should really use the flex middle bar with them)

If the op already has b1/b2 style boots I'd go for a b3 if she can get some that fit. Most the modern b3s bend a bit anyways so aren't too bad for walking.

Do you find the boots you have bend a lot? (try standing on tip toes)