Running in Snow with Hillsound Trail Crampons

The Hillsound Trail crampons are designed for trail running and hiking so they are perfect for our fell run in the north lakes today, as we'll be running on forest tracks.

I fit them over my trainers by putting my toe in first and ensuring the base plate is sitting square under the ball of my foot, pull the rubber-tab up and around my heel and adjust the chains and rubber with my hands to ensure they are lying flat, snug and in the right place under the sole and under my heel.

My shoe sizes is 7.5 so I tried both the medium and large Hillsound, the medium were very snug over my trainers and I could have gone for a medium to use for trial running. The large I thought would also fit better over my walking boots, which are obviously chunkier than trainers and the base plates lie in a better position on the sole with the large.

It’s worth thinking about the type of footwear you'll be wearing them with most often when choosing your Hillsound Crampons.

We are off up-hill, no messing, along the forest tracks, there’s a few children struggling on the slippery snow pulling their sledges up the track, the pine trees are heavy with snow it’s just like being in a Christmas card for a while.

Running with Hillsound crampons 1 hillsound_trail_crampon

The Traction provided by the Hillsound crampons is very positive, just as you would expect, they are easy to run with as they are very flexible.

The snow covered forests tracks and these microspike type trail crampons are meant for each other.

running in hillsound crampons 3

We break-out through the forest onto the open fell and the snow gets deeper, we simply take our trail crampons off and put them in my rucksack. Its easy undulating running and my trail trainers are not slipping in the deep snow.

Dropping down off Whinlatter Fell summit things start to get a bit skiddy so it's back on with the Hillsounds Crampons, they only take a few seconds.

running in hillsound crampons 4

After clambering through what appears to be a grave yard of sticks, bit tricky with crampons on, we are soon down in the valley and pick up the forest track which skirts our next summit.

We break off the track and remove our crampons as we head up the deep snow to the summit of Lords Seat. It’s tough going as my legs keep randomly disappearing into deep pockets of snow.

running in hillsound crampons 5

A short stop at the summit and we head back down towards the forest, at the trees we put our Hillsound spikes back on, soon we'll hit the forest track and we'll need them.

It’s a fairly steep switch-back descent through the forest and we drop right back into the car park just as the lights is fading.

running in hillsound trail crampons whinlatter