Gear for slush-over-ice
I hike in all seasons and weathers. I love the old adage there is no bad weather only bad gear. My Kahtoola microspikes are excellent when there is hard ice on the trail. Turns a sheet of ice into a sidewalk.
But terrible things happen in slushy conditions. Then the wet snow sticks to the bottom, accumulating to about six inches, and then it's like walking on bowling balls. The stuff knocks off pretty easily but rough terrain can be ankle-busting.
I just aborted a hike when I got to a steep section with about a foot of packed ice under an inch of wet slush. It was too slippery for hiking boots, and too slushy for microspikes. As the snow melts here in New Hampshire, particularly on the trails up in the White Mountains, there are a few months with conditions like this, melting stuff on top of a winter's accumulated pack. What's the right gear for that?
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1 answer
Snow shoes.
Not just any snow shoes, but those with metal edges and crampon-like teeth below the foot. They increase your traction on slush a lot and if you encounter ice on the top or get deep enough for ice contact, the metal will provide you with traction. This traction on ice is obviously very limited by the non-ideal force transfer from your feet to the snow-shoes, but for limited steepness it works. For steeper slopes with ice, there is no alternative to crampons (with antibott (plastic at the bottom to make snow fall off)). I deep slush it is very strenuous to walk with snow-shoes, but the same is true with hiking boots - so I assume you are used to that.
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