James takes a closer look at the new @Kahtoola MICROspikes Ghost, these take fast and light travel to the next level, with durable, confidence-building footwear traction at a whisper of the weight. Small enough to fit in your pocket, they’re easy to sling into your pack on the off chance you’ll meet treacherous icy patches on your winter walks and runs.
Learn more about these fantastic winter must haves by heading to our website |
🔗https://www.outside.co.uk/kahtoola-microspikes-ghost.html
👍 Like & subscribe for more outdoor gear reviews!
📌 Got questions? Drop them in the comments!
#climbing #gearreview #outdoorgearreview #alpineclimbing
Hi there, I’m James from Outside in
Hathersage and we’ve come out today on the most perfect day to review
the Kahtoola Microspike Ghost. So yeah, look at this. Absolutely stunning. It
was really cold overnight, minus quite a bit. Ice and snow everywhere. And that’s the sort
of day where these things just sell out and go crazy. Black ice. Everyone’s slipping and a
bit scared, but still wants to get out and enjoy the cold weather. So, I better explain what they
are. We’ve been stocking this beauty for years. And this is the Kahtoola Micro Spike. Like I
say, every winter when the black ice comes, we completely sell out of them. And they can go
on trainers, walking boots, mountaineering boots, and they we like to describe it as turn the ice
off. So, essentially, they’re micro crampons that don’t have to go on mountaineering boots.
They can go on everything. Some people leave them on their wellies all year round. And they’re
really good. They can walk around easily and feel comfortable. But the old pair were quite weighty
and it did limit how much you used them. So yeah, what it meant was walkers would use them a lot,
but when you’re mountaineering, you couldn’t really take them as well as your normal Crampon.
And also runners just found it a bit too chunky and too heavy, particularly if you weren’t wearing
it. It had to be in your bag. Kahtoola do make another amazing product called the Exospike that is tiny
little studs. It’s perfect if you’re running on constant ice. Now apparently in places like
Greenland and Iceland where it’s really really icy all the time and you’re running on ice, really popular.
But in the UK, we’ve got more like patches, then you’re back on snow and ice again. They don’t
really work very well. So, bring in the ghost. So, the ghost for me just covers all bases. What we’ve
got here is we’ve still got 12 stainless steel 9 mil spikes. So, that was on my trainers just
now. I’ve had on walking shoes and it does just turn the ice off. This morning it was actually
quite scary testing. We went some quite steep, really slippy ice that you could not walk on
normal. I just cruised up there absolutely no problem. But the main obvious advantage over these
versus the normal micro spikes or other things on the market is the weight. So for a medium, it’s
193 grams for a pair. That’s a 43% weight saving over the old ones and just makes them feel really
nimble and pack really small. Now that’s great on so many levels cuz obviously weight in your rucksacks annoying, but having the old ones on your running shoes just felt too chunky. I mean, we’re
all buying as light a running shoes as we can to feel nice and nimble. and then putting something
on there that makes you feel clumpy and slow just didn’t feel right. Also, the chains across the
bottom are sort of quite noisy and maybe if you were going fast didn’t again feel quite right.
Whereas the Ghost has replaced those chains with a really solid TPU. So, the base of the Ghost is
this, like I say, reinforced TPU, which is really, really strong. Now, people are going to get
worried that this might snap and not work. These beauties come with a 4year warranty,
so you don’t need to be worried about that. TPU stands for thermoplastic polyurethane and
that’s what the matrix is made of. So that doesn’t really have much stretch. It’s very durable and
it’s going to stay in place. But the bonus is it’s very flexible and that works particularly well
on your running shoes. Now the harness structure that actually holds it on your footwear is TPR.
Now that’s thermoplastic rubber. Obviously we want some stretch in that cuz you need to pull it
on over your footwear and clamp it in place. Now, I famously have a bad back and very unflexible
and even I managed to get that on my footwear sat down no problem at all. And it just makes it
really, really accessible. You’re out walking, you might not need them on. You see a patch of
ice, can I be bothered putting them on? Yeah, why not? They’re probably in your back pocket.
You can slip them on in literally seconds, walk along, and then if you want to take them
off again, put them away again. Now, obviously, they do come sized. I’m a UK 11 or a European
46, and I’m in an XL. That seems to work fine. Do check your size before ordering or if you can
come in the shop, bring the foot you already use them with and try them on. What I found really
interesting today is running around in them and walking around in them. Obviously, we’ve got a
bit of mixed terrain going on. For a moment, I was on rock and then I was on frozen mud and then
I was on ice. And actually, I could do all of it absolutely fine. So, you can leave them on for a
bit of a longer walk. And because it’s so durable, you don’t feel like you’re damaging the spikes.
And then when you do get to the frozen stuff, you’re absolutely solid. My old pair of micros
spikes used to live in my van all the time because if you do get caught out, you got to push yourself
out of a ditch or something like that. It’s so reassuring knowing you can get out and you can
just walk around or whatever’s coming. But I think the ghost really opens up lots of other things I
could use them for. Like I’ve already mentioned, I never really ran in the old pair. I absolutely
would in these like just trusting them just now. It was brilliant. There was literally no
disadvantages it felt like. But something I’m really looking forward to is the winter climbers
will understand what I’m talking about here. But you go climbing in the Cairngorms. You walk into the
Northern Quaries and you get there and it’s fine. You have your day climbing in your big Crampons
that are perfect for climbing. But walking in those is horrible. And it’s really, really icy
on the footpath on the way out. And you feel you should leave them on, but as we all know, big,
sharp, really tall Crampons walking is horrible. You feel like you’re going to roll your ankle and
you take them off too early and then inevitably you fall over and wish you’d left them on. So I
think now these are so much lighter. I’ll actually take these with me, leave them in my bag, and slip
them on for the descent and the walk back to the car, and I’ll be so much more confident walking
on that. It probably saved me a lot of time, so you don’t have to be pottering around. Another
little new feature I really like is the fact that the front of this is now red, and that’s where you
put your toe in. The old pair we had, which were either red or black, they were red or black all
around. So, sometimes you didn’t know which was front and back, and in slightly wild weather,
sometimes it’s quite hard to figure out which way around you’re meant to be putting them on. No
problem anymore. So, just a quick word of warning. This is not a climbing Crampon. I’m sure you all
know that, but just covering all bases. It’s not a completely solid thing. It’s just to put on any
piece of footwear to help you walk around when it gets icy and slippy. There’s no point sticking
out the front. You can’t kick into a snow slope, things like that. It just really helps when it’s
snowy and icy out there. So, while I prefer the Ghost, I don’t think it makes the old microspike
completely redundant. While it’s heavier, it still has got the chain on the bottom,
which some people are going to like. And also, even though it’s a bit heavier, it does come
in a little bit cheaper as well. So, if you’re not too worried about weight, maybe consider
these. Come and try them on in the shop. So, inevitably when we get a black ice day, they’re
going to sell out. So, get there quick. If you’re coming to find them in the shop, they’ll be in
the boot room. They won’t be in the rock room cuz they’re not climbing equipment. And if you’re
on the website, just search in Kahtoola or Ghost or just go to the walking section. I’m quite weirdly
excited about using these this winter. So, let’s hope we get more days like this with snow and
ice. Come and try them on and be safe this winter.
