Personal Biographical Information:
Name: James E. Triplett
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Height: 6' 2" (188 cm)
Weight: 199 lb (90.3 kg)
Foot size: 12 (US)
Email address: james_triplett@hotmail.com
City, state: Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Backpacking Background:
I am an experienced hiker, backpacker, and camper, and am gaining more experience with winter camping every year. I hike every day, and backpack when possible, which leads to many weekends backpacking and camping each year. I try and take at least one annual week-long backpacking trip in addition to many one to three-night weekend trips. My style can best be described as lightweight, but not at the cost of giving up too much comfort. I generally sleep in a tent, and seem to be collecting quite a few of them to choose from.

Manufacturer Information:
Manufacturer: Yaktrax
Location: Yaktrax, Inc. is located in the State of Washington in the United States of America
Telephone: 1-866-YAKTRAX
URL: www.yaktrax.com

Product information:
Year of Manufacture: 2006
Date Item Received: February 21, 2006
Product Name: YAKTRAX PRO
Model Number: PB-L (for size large)
Size: Large
Color: Black (only color available)
MSRP: $27.95 US

Listed Weight	5.1 - 5.5 oz (145 - 156 g) per pair
Actual Weight (size large)	5.4 oz (153 g) per pair
Actual Weight without Performance Strap	4.6 oz (130 g) per pair
Actual Weight Performance Strap only	0.8 oz (23 g) per pair

Specs and Features:
From the Yaktrax website, and the product literature which came with the Yaktrax

Easy On/Off
Walk Naturally
Spikeless/Ultralight
Helps Reduce Falls & Injuries
Removable Performance Strap
Natural Rubber Blend
Abrasion Resistant Steel Coils
Good down to -41 F (-41 C)

Report

Testing Opportunities and Conditions:
With very little snow available for testing prior to the field report on the Yaktrax Pro traction devices, I was thrilled when shortly after posting that report we had a nice 4 inch (10 cm) snowfall. I was out in the snow wearing the Yaktrax immediately. A few days later we got another 3 inches (7.6 cm), and through the end of February we had accumulated over a foot (30 cm) of snowfall. Excellent! I began using the Yaktrax daily for morning two to four mile (3 to 6.5 km) hikes, and managed to also get in three all-day hikes, all in Eastern Iowa. Not only did we get snow, but the precipitation and changes in temperature afforded me almost every available snowy, icy, slushy, surface condition imaginable.

After there was considerable snow on the ground, and temperatures had dropped below 0 F (-18 C) every day for over 10 days, there was a thawing period where the snow melted and compressed and then re-froze. This resulted in snow with a crunchy top layer. After that it warmed and re-froze again, to the point where many areas were basically ice covered. Then we got some freezing rain, sleet, and ultimately more snow, spread out nicely so that I have been able to wear the Yaktrax on fluffy snow, crust covered snow, compacted snow, slush, frozen slush, 32 F (0 C) ice, -10 F (-23 C) ice, and everything imaginable in between. I have also submerged the Yaktrax in water along the edges of an almost frozen Indian Creek... or rather, I should say, Indian Creek which was almost frozen hard enough to support my weight!

Using the Yaktrax on Snow and Ice:
The Yaktrax Pro's, in a nutshell, work amazingly well on all sorts of frozen surfaces. I first used the Yaktrax on some hikes through 4 inch (10 cm) snow. But I didn't feel like this was really a good test for the traction devices as the traction without them was reasonable. Soon the trails became packed and the Yaktrax were indeed a very noticeable improvement over my normal boots and shoes. As I observed in my field report, hiking the same portion of trail with and without the Yaktrax easily demonstrated significant improvement in traction, and significant reduction in the effort necessary to move down the trail. It has been my experience that the harder and more ice-like the trail becomes, the bigger the advantage of using the Yaktrax. With the melting and re-freezing of the snow along the hills in the local woods, without the Yaktrax I would have to go off trail and find some snow (sometimes deep snow) in order to have enough traction to get up the hill. With the Yaktrax I walk right up. I have slipped only a couple of times while wearing the Yaktrax. One condition for slipping is when going down-hill in deep fluffy snow where the snow kind of avalanches and I kind of surf down the hill with the moving snow. The other condition where I have slipped is similar, and that is going downhill on an icy trail when a chunk of ice or patch of snow comes between the Yaktrax and the trail and prevents the coils of the Yaktrax from being able to reach (and dig into) the surface. But I don't wish to give the wrong impression. Slipping with the Yaktrax on has been very rare, and the few times it has happened I have only slipped for a few inches (less than 20 cm).

Shortly into this prolonged use of these delightful traction devices, I experimented with leaving the "performance strap" off. The reason was pretty simple, and that is that it is a pain to put on the Yaktrax while in the woods approaching an icy stretch of trail and the performance strap adds to the difficulty of trying to balance and install the Yaktrax. To my delight, I didn't notice any loss of performance without using the performance strap, especially on my trail shoes. With the shoes the Yaktrax slip on nice and secure with the top perimeter securely up onto the uppers of the shoes. With two different pairs of hiking boots, I didn't get the same sense of security as the Yaktrax were held against the vertical sides of the boots and did not extend up high enough to be on the area where the boots taper inward. But the grip at the toe and heel was decent, and sides sufficient to keep the Yaktrax in place for many miles of hiking. They have never budged from their proper location with or without the performance strap.

Yaktrax Durability:
I must regretfully report that exactly one year and five days after receiving the Yaktrax Pros, one of them un-reparably broke. I was on a day-hike with my son, Drake, and we were on the final 3/4 mile (1.2 km) decent through the woods to a stream crossing which was our goal. The area was wooded, the decline was not dramatically steep, and we were off of any trail. We were crisscrossing our way through the powdery snow when Drake pointed out that my Yaktrax looked funny. Sure enough, the rubber on one side of the toe of my boot was curled back toward the laces, and the wire coil which had once been visible had retreated down beyond view, under my boot. You can kind of see the failed location (indicated by the red arrows) in the pictures below.

Severed Yaktrax Webbing

I don't believe the hike we were on was the cause of the failure as we weren't doing anything overly strenuous. I suspect that the failure was the result of prolonged usage where the toe area had seen more stress than on other parts of the Yaktrax. I pulled on the rubber and more or less got the thing repositioned to where it was secure, and we continued our journey down to the stream, across the stream, and eventually back home. My follow up examination of the failure showed that there was a clean severing of the rubber precisely at the end of the last metal coil near the toe. With some experimentation I reached the conclusion that the device could no longer be worn with my boots as the rubber stretches too far to allow for the Yaktrax to remain even close to the proper position. I did however find that my smaller shoes stretched the rubber less and have had moderate success using the Yaktrax on those shoes since the failure. It isn't the same though. I feel the need to be cautious and am constantly looking down to make sure they are in place.

Yaktrax Pro Final Image

Summary:
Over all, the Yaktrax Pros rock! I can't express in words the difference in my attitude when approaching a snow or ice covered incline knowing that I had the Yaktrax to provide the needed traction. I am able to set out onto the most slippery conditions imaginable with literally zero doubt that I will be able to hike to my destination without loosing traction. They really are that good! So imagine my disappointment when one of the Yaktrax had a permanent failure. That is the only negative I have to report. As good as they are, my set of Yaktrax Pros only lasted a year.

Respectfully submitted,

-James T.

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Read more gear reviews by James E. Triplett

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