by Longlallies » Mon Mar 03, 2014 10:41 am
You could probably get away with Grivel Monta Rosa's or something like that on your Altbergs, so long as you don't do anything too steep and icy which would require lots of front pointing or would stress the bindings too much. I use Scarpa Mantas and G12s with the rear bale which is a really solid and versatile set up for walking and climbing. A friend of mine climbed Dorsal Arete in lean conditions in salomon trail running shoes and monta rosas. Whilst scoring high in the sketch scale, it just about worked and so I would suggest that your boots + flexy walking crampons would be fine for much winter walking.
There are methods for climbing steep icy slopes fairly safely with just an axe by cutting side steps or pigeon style steps, but this is slow and obviously nowhere near as safe as crampons. An axe is absolutely essential for anything wintery though, more so than crampons IMO. The axe I use is a DMM Cirque which is a great bit of kit, the curve is particularly handy when you come across something pretty steep and have to hold the axe high on the shaft just below the pick to help you over something, but really any walking axe will do so long as it's long enough for you to cut steps without crouching to reach the ground.
