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We’ve looked through this guide and still stand by our picks. Snow Boots With Spikes
Our longtime top pick used to be sold under two different names, ICEtrekkers and Yaktrax. Now, you’ll find it called either Yaktrax ICEtrekkers or, simply, Yaktrax.
A staple of slapstick humor, slipping and falling is a lot less funny when it happens to you—and the risk goes up in winter. After testing 14 different traction devices on water-slicked ice, hard-packed snow, and slippery hills on wintry city sidewalks and forested trails, we've identified the Yaktrax ICEtrekkers Diamond Grip cleats as the best for walking on a number of surfaces. You might also find this set sold as simply the Yaktrax Diamond Grip; they’re the same, so pick the one that’s cheaper.
These cleats offer an unusual traction design that can bite into ice and snow, but they still allow you to walk across asphalt without causing a lot of damage to the pavement or the traction device itself.
The 18 stainless steel spikes on the Trail Crampon Ultra pair keep you steady when you have nothing underfoot but loads of snow or pure ice.
The lightweight traction on this pair is provided by 10 small tungsten-carbide spikes that stick into the black ice and mixed snow typically found on winter asphalt.
These cleats offer an unusual traction design that can bite into ice and snow, but they still allow you to walk across asphalt without causing a lot of damage to the pavement or the traction device itself.
Spiked, rotating beads underfoot are what make the Yaktrax ICEtrekkers Diamond Grip cleats the most versatile traction option we found, as they can reasonably navigate a lot of mixed terrain. They meld to ice patches and bite into hard snow, and because the beads rotate, they even shed softer snow before it can build up underfoot. The spikes are not as aggressive as those on a traction device built specifically for hiking in the wilderness, so they’re also easier to use on pavement. That’s really important, because if you live somewhere wintry, taking out the trash on an icy Tuesday night should not be a harrowing experience. Likewise, if you’re fond of going for a walk in the woods in winter, these cleats offer plenty of grip. As with every other model we tried, each Diamond Grip is attached to a rubber harness that slips on over the outside of your shoe, so these cleats will work with any shoe you have, and you can remove them at the door before you enter a house or store.
The 18 stainless steel spikes on the Trail Crampon Ultra pair keep you steady when you have nothing underfoot but loads of snow or pure ice.
For backcountry hikers, the Hillsound Trail Crampon Ultra set offers the biggest and most plentiful spikes underfoot. The spikes are arranged at different angles to provide traction no matter which way your weight is distributed, so you’ll maintain grip walking both up and down hills. Those spikes are attached to six small metal plates, which also create traction. Despite the name, the Trail Crampon Ultra is not a pair of actual crampons, which are rigid devices that mountaineers use to traverse hard or vertical ice. Instead, this Hillsound design is the most hardcore underfoot gripper you can get without going full crampon, attached with a heavy-duty rubber harness that fits over shoes or boots.
The lightweight traction on this pair is provided by 10 small tungsten-carbide spikes that stick into the black ice and mixed snow typically found on winter asphalt.
If your winter activities are strictly limited to city streets, you may need only a lightweight pair of spikes that will keep you steady when the asphalt gets treacherous. Our favorite spikes are the Kahtoola NANOspikes, which offer a lot more grip than a simple metal coil would and also stand up to more wear and tear. Though the 10 spikes underfoot are made from a material much harder than stainless steel, they are short, so when you walk off that ice and onto dry pavement you won’t severely damage the ground or your spikes. Carbide spikes are lighter underfoot than the chains and steel spikes found on backcountry models, so this Kahtoola set is also the pair we recommend for road running in winter, when small patches of ice on the road threaten dire consequences.
Lisa Maloney, who wrote the original version of this guide, has lived through some 30 cold Alaska winters. The past 15 of them have included quite a bit of hiking in snowy and icy conditions, and she has years of firsthand experience with the slipping and sliding (and cussing) that result when traction devices aren’t up to the challenge.
Eve O’Neill, who did the most recent testing for the guide, has been a mountaineer long enough to have experienced the pleasures of multiple demoralizing encounters with ice, including sliding back down a mountain in a graupel-induced sluff, getting lost in a maze of penitentes (spires of snow and ice), and being stopped 100 feet from a multiday summit attempt by a wall of verglas (just as slippery as it sounds).
If temperatures ever dip below freezing where you live, even for just a few nights, you’ve probably had to deal with slipping around on the ice like a cartoon character. But slips and falls are no joke. They’re the leading cause of non-fatal injuries for almost every age group in the United States, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of course, your risk of slipping and falling is much higher when snow or ice covers the ground. A good traction aid can’t eliminate the risk of a slip or fall entirely, but it can do an awful lot to cut down on the risk.
Removable traction aids are meant to slip on and off your shoes as needed. They all have some sort of flexible harness that stretches to fit over your shoe and then contracts to hold the actual traction devices, which may be steel or aluminum spikes, coils, or chains, in place on the underside of your shoe.
After sorting through the traction devices widely available online and in gear stores, we came up with a list of 14 grippers to test, taking into account customer and editorial reviews. We then evaluated each ice cleat on several criteria:
These cleats offer an unusual traction design that can bite into ice and snow, but they still allow you to walk across asphalt without causing a lot of damage to the pavement or the traction device itself.
The Yaktrax ICEtrekkers Diamond Grip is our favorite all-around traction aid. The welded, low-profile, steel chains are covered with spiked “traction beads” that provide great grip on most slippery surfaces, including hard-packed snow and slightly textured ice. The rubberized harness that holds them in place is tough and durable but still easy to put on and take off.
Each of the traction beads has six angled points so that no matter how they’re oriented, you always have dozens of “toothed” surfaces pointing down at the ground. For almost any conceivable city use, including on smooth, level ice or on inclined ice that has some texture, the Diamond Grip cleats offer a great balance of traction, durability, and support for civilized behavior.
The only issue is that those angled points aren’t very big, so if conditions get really extreme—say, smooth, “plastic” ice with a slick of water on top—you should invest in more aggressive ice grippers.
It’s hard to beat the Diamond Grip pair for all-around performance on almost any footwear. The harness isn’t quite as stretchy as what you’ll find on other traction aids, but that translates to a tough, secure fit, as long as you have the correct size to fit your footwear.
The 18 stainless steel spikes on the Trail Crampon Ultra pair keep you steady when you have nothing underfoot but loads of snow or pure ice.
When you need serious outdoor traction, the bigger and sturdier the spikes, the better. The Hillsound Trail Crampon Ultra set is tops in this category because it has the most numerous and aggressive spikes underfoot (18) arranged in a multidirectional pattern that offers traction against sliding in any direction on ice, hard-packed snow, and even some types of mud. The Trail Crampon Ultra’s shoe harness is also the toughest we tested, and it comes with a hook-and-loop instep strap to help fit the spikes snugly to your foot.
The half-inch steel spikes are the most important part of this pair’s appeal—especially in situations where a slip or fall could potentially send you sliding right off a mountain or cliff. The design has 12 spikes under the forefoot and six under the heel, arranged in multidirectional clusters and secured by steel chains that pass under the midfoot for extra traction and stability.
The harness is another high point, for three reasons. First, it’s stretchy enough to pull over most boots or shoes very easily. Second, it felt sturdier than the nearest competitor in our stretch tests. And third, the Trail Crampon Ultra was the most likely model in our test to provide a perfect, stable fit on a wide range of boots and shoes. Having the hook-and-loop instep strap to further anchor the harness in place is a big help, too.
Although the Trail Crampon Ultra set doesn’t receive as much attention as its direct competitor, the Kahtoola MICROspikes pair, it has drawn some notable mentions over the past few years. This model’s mild-mannered cousin, the Hillsound Trail Crampon (no “Ultra”), is also a top-ranked seller on REI.com.
Despite the name, the Trail Crampon Ultra pair doesn’t take the place of actual crampons, which have larger, sharper steep spikes and a rigid frame for extra stability, leverage, and durability. The spikes on these grippers are made of stainless steel, which is a softer metal than the tungsten-carbide spikes found on our lightweight running model, the Kahtoola NANOspikes. That means if you spend a lot of time walking on concrete or mixed terrain, the spikes on this Hillsound pair will wear down quickly. But if you use them as intended, on ice and snow, you should have no issues with that kind of aggressive wear and tear.
The lightweight traction on this pair is provided by 10 small tungsten-carbide spikes that stick into the black ice and mixed snow typically found on winter asphalt.
For walking on icy pavement, we recommend the Kahtoola NANOspikes pair. This design has 10 metal spikes made of tungsten carbide—which is much harder than stainless steel—that bite into thin sheets of ice and those blotches of crunchy snow that just won’t melt. They also offer a lot more grip than a coil, which is the traction aid used on many other lightweight models, including our top pick, the Yaktrax ICEbreakers Diamond Grip set. The 10 spikes underfoot are short, though, so when you walk off that ice and onto dry pavement, you don’t do as much damage to the ground or to your traction device.
This model is also what we recommend for a runner who doesn’t quit when things get cold. You can run in our top pick, and a trail runner may want the additional grip of a more aggressive traction aid, but if you’re just going out on the road and would prefer to wear the same shoes you always run in, these spikes are lighter underfoot than the chains and steel spikes found on backcountry traction devices.
One point to consider: Lighter, less aggressive traction devices such as these have lighter, less robust rubber harnesses, as well. We could see a scenario in which heavy use might begin to wear at the contact points where the upper rubber section is attached. That said, we haven’t had any problems with ours yet.
If the Hillsound Trail Crampon Ultras are out of stock: Consider Kahtoola’s MICROspikes, which have reached near cult status in Alaska thanks to their combination of large spikes connected by sturdy chains and a very lightweight, stretchy harness. We would feel secure hiking in them anywhere, and they came in second to the Hillsounds set only by a hair. However, the MICROspikes have fewer actual spikes (12 total, compared with the Hillsound set’s 18), and the spikes aren’t arranged in aggressive, multidirectional clusters. The spikes are also advertised as being three-quarters of an inch long, but according to our ruler, they are just under a half-inch long.
If you’re a trail runner: Try the Kahtoola EXOspikes, which have longer carbide spikes than our top pick and two more of them, so they’re good for rougher terrain. However, they’re also an ounce heavier that the company’s NANOspikes, which we recommend above for runners who stick to pavement.
In circles where underfoot traction devices are used all the time, you’ll find a lot of folks who have a particular dedication to their personal favorites. On top of that, different usage scenarios, weather conditions, and even the needs of smaller kids—who may want something with more aggressive grips, since they may have a hard time pressing mild spikes into the ground—mean that many of the competing models we refer to below might still merit your serious consideration.
Due North puts out several models of traction aids that are very similar, including the All Purpose model, the Everyday G3 pair, and the Everyday Pro set. They each have fewer spikes than the Kahtoola models, and their tendency to break when we were walking on hard, bare surfaces kept these ice cleats from placing higher in our rankings.
We know the STABILicers walking cleat has several thousand positive reviews on Amazon at this writing, but in our tests we slipped and fell several times in this pair. Though this design has a ton of spikes (24), they’re clustered close together, lifting you off the ice rather than stabilizing you on it. The spikes are also rounded and don’t have nearly the bite of a carbide tip.
The Hillsound FreeSteps6 set is a great traction device, and we think you’d be happy if you were to purchase this model. The spikes are slightly shorter than those on our backcountry pick, the Hillsound Trail Crampon Ultra set. But because this design doesn’t offer a lot of cross-over ability to walk on pavement (just like our backcountry pick), we think it makes more sense to buy the model that will give you the most traction in the terrain it was made for. The same goes for the Hillsound Trail Crampon (no “Ultra”), yet another nearly identical device for backcountry travel.
The Yaktrax Pro traction aid uses steel coils wrapped around the part of the rubber harness that sits underneath the sole of your foot. We found that these cleats worked well on semi-hard snow and on soft or rough ice. However, they still slipped easily on hard ice with even the slightest hint of an incline or decline.
The STABILicers Hike XP, which uses nine hardened screws on the bottom of the cleat for traction (five under the forefoot, four under the heel), along with fairly aggressive chevron treads running down the length of the midfoot, is still available online at some retailers, but Stabil has discontinued it. In our tests, it offered great traction on hard snow and textured ice, but it also had a tendency to slip a little before gripping on sheer ice. We’ll be looking at Stabil’s newer offerings soon.
Ice grippers don’t need much care and upkeep, but if you live in an area where road salt or chemicals are used for de-icing, be sure to rinse your cleats off and pat them dry after every use. Failing to do so may void the warranty.
Keep an eye on the two places in which ice grippers can fail. The first is the actual spikes or studs; they can become blunt as you walk over patches of bare ground or pavement, and they can also break, fall out of the ice gripper, or both, depending on its construction.
The other potential weak point for any ice gripper is the stretchy harness that holds the spikes onto your foot. Although it’s rare, these harnesses can and do break, especially if you’ve been using ice grippers that are sized too small for your shoes or boots, so it’s a good idea to periodically check the harnesses over for rips, tears, and other visible wear. If you see any, it’s time to either return the ice grippers for warranty service or replace them.
This article was edited by Ria Misra and Christine Ryan.
Injury Prevention & Control: WISQARS Injury Data, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Eve O'Neill is a former senior staff writer reporting on travel and outdoors at Wirecutter. She can remember the titles on her childhood bookshelf that set her in this direction: Into Thin Air, On The Road, The Call of the Wild. She has always been drawn to ideas about how to relate to, and play in, the wilderness.
by Eve O'Neill
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