Adventure Racing Holiday Gifts: Day 3

Posted by Grant on 3. December 2009 20:15

Before moving on to gift suggestion #3, I need to confess that we have a big weekend planned (including a trail run / snowshoe mission up Mt Pilatus near Luzern -- scene of the 2nd stage of Untamed Switzerland 2009 from this past April) and I'm not aiming to post gift ideas over the weekend.  Not too worry, though, as I'll resume this holiday tradition on Monday with gift idea #4.

My gift idea #3 would actually be very handy for the 4 hours of ascent (on and off trail) we're in for on Mt Pilatus tomorrow.  There will be muddy trails around the base, changing to snow and ice, and then eventually snowshoes required for the final hour or so.  My gift suggestion for today is a pair of IceBug shoes; IceBugs have studs on the bottom of the shoe that allow for excellent traction on ice or snow, and these studs retract on softer surfaces so you can run on trails or -gasp- concrete without any problems.  They're made in Sweden, where they know all about icy conditions, and the shoe is really masterful at delivering traction on a variety of surfaces.

Racing in IceBugs will help you keep a grip!

The IceBug design is actually really well-suited for off-trail running and I have a friend who wears these shoes for all his orienteering events, not just while on snow and ice.  I suspect these shoes will be more versatile than you might initially think; you can read some of the design specifics here, to get a better idea for what you're getting into with IceBug.  I know the Lundhags adventure race team wore IceBugs for their treks at the AR World Championships, and the ATP/Salomon team (from Canada & the US) mentioned that they could hear Lundhags approaching in Portugal from quite a distance away, because their shoes were making such a distinctive sound.  The shoes make a clip-clop noise on hard surfaces, so the competition can literally hear you coming.  In defense of ATP/Salmon, having Lundhags overtake them is no cause for shame as Lundhags is a super speedy team who managed 3rd place at the World Championships!



I know some friends who roll their own ice shoes by drilling screws into their shoe bottoms, but that turns your shoes into ice-only footwear and isn't as reliable as a professionally designed product.  Personally, I'm not going to take chances with homemade screws pounding into the soles of my feet.

One big drawback to IceBug is availability right now, and while they're made in Sweden I've had a really tough time finding any here in Switzerland.  These shoes are like a rare species of wildlife, hard to find in an actual store.  I did succeed, eventually, in finding Endless.com to have IceBug inventory and since I'll be in the US over Christmas I'm having some delivered to family in the US (Endless wouldn't ship these internationally).  I picked up the latest Pyro 2 BUGrip model.