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Trey French is a writer focused on outdoor gear. He has tested thermoses and ice cleats everywhere from hot deserts to frigid mountaintops. Outdoor Snow Grip
We’ve added an upgrade pick, the Black Diamond Distance Spike Traction Device, for trekking long distances and over varied terrain.
We’re continuing to test the updated, 2023–24 version of the Kahtoola NANOspikes, the cleats we recommend for runners.
A staple of slapstick humor, the act of slipping and falling is a lot less funny when it happens to you—and the risk goes up in winter.
After testing 19 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 occasional suburban and city walking. We also have picks for regular use in more serious terrain.
These cleats offer an unusual traction design that can bite into ice and snow, but they still allow you to walk across asphalt without damaging the pavement or the traction device itself. They do struggle with the most polished ice, though.
These lightweight, compact cleats are versatile and stable enough to go from icy trail to rocks to dry asphalt. They cost about twice as much as our top pick, though, and their steel spikes may be too aggressive for around-town use.
These cleats have more spikes than any of our picks, and they’re longer too. They should keep you steady when you have nothing underfoot but loads of snow or pure ice. However, they aren’t suited to pavement or even rounded or uneven rocks.
May be out of stock
The traction on this lightweight pair is provided by 10 small spikes tipped with tungsten carbide. This very hard material digs into the black ice and mixed snow that can make winter asphalt so treacherous. The small spikes aren’t great for more rugged terrain, though.
These cleats offer an unusual traction design that can bite into ice and snow, but they still allow you to walk across asphalt without damaging the pavement or the traction device itself. They do struggle with the most polished ice, though.
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 non-technical 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. (However, if you’re regularly traversing superslick ice, you might consider our upgrade pick.)
As with most models we tried, each Diamond Grip is attached to a rubber harness that slips on over the outside of your shoe, so these cleats should work with any shoe you have, and you can remove them at the door before you enter a house or store.
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 lightweight, compact cleats are versatile and stable enough to go from icy trail to rocks to dry asphalt. They cost about twice as much as our top pick, though, and their steel spikes may be too aggressive for around-town use.
For day hiking, running on trails, and some minor use on asphalt, the Black Diamond Distance Spike Traction Device offers a more stable platform than the Yaktrax ICEtrekkers. The Distance Spike cleats cost more, but they have actual spikes instead of beads, plus a nylon pull tab on each heel that makes putting them on and removing them easier. Their steel spikes strike a balance of grip and stability that works well on mixed terrain, though they’re too much for everyday use on pavement.
What sets the cleats apart the most from the competition is the nylon cloth upper that acts as a cover for the top of your foot. It makes centering the cleat over your shoe easier than when using the full elastomer harness that you see on most cleats—including our top pick, the Yaktrax ICEtrekkers. There is a downside: The nylon doesn’t stretch as much as an elastomer harness would, so it may not fit very bulky boots.
The nylon pull tab is also easier to handle than the elastomer pull tabs common to most ice cleat harnesses—this reduces the chances of a fall simply by encouraging you to use the cleats more often.
These cleats have more spikes than any of our picks, and they’re longer too. They should keep you steady when you have nothing underfoot but loads of snow or pure ice. However, they aren’t suited to pavement or even rounded or uneven rocks.
May be out of stock
For backcountry hikers, the Hillsound Trail Crampon Ultra set offers the biggest and most plentiful spikes underfoot. The 18 stainless steel 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. These are definitely for backcountry use in the winter, when you’re facing deep snow or slick ice, and not for city streets or dry, rocky trails.
The traction on this lightweight pair is provided by 10 small spikes tipped with tungsten carbide. This very hard material digs into the black ice and mixed snow that can make winter asphalt so treacherous. The small spikes aren’t great for more rugged terrain, though.
Tungsten carbide spikes are lighter underfoot than the chains and steel spikes found on ice cleats meant for the backcountry. That’s why we recommend the Kahtoola NANOspikes cleats for safer road running in winter, when small patches of ice threaten dire consequences. Their small carbide spikes offer a lot more grip than the simple metal coil provided by many competitors, and they also stand up to more wear and tear.
Though the 10 spikes 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.
Kahtoola released this new version of the NANOspikes in the fall of 2023; we’re continuing to test it through winter. (You may still be able to find the previous version in stores and online; there were some slight design changes, but it also has tungsten carbide spikes.)
Staff writer Trey French, who did the most recent testing for this guide, has hiked more than 6,000 miles during every season in the eastern woodlands and the high country of the US mountain west. He has run and walked through three high-altitude Colorado winters on trails and roads, and is a backcountry skier who uses pointy footwear in the spring for extra grip on hard snow and ice.
This guide builds on the work done by Eve O’Neill and Lisa Maloney. Eve 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). Lisa, who wrote the original version of this guide, has lived through decades’ worth of cold Alaska winters.
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. As of 2021, they were the leading cause of non-fatal injuries for 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.
We decided to test 19 pairs of ice cleats after sorting through traction devices widely available online and in gear stores, looking for positive user reviews. Here are our testing 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 damaging the pavement or the traction device itself. They do struggle with the most polished ice, though.
The Yaktrax ICEtrekkers Diamond Grip Traction Device is our favorite all-around traction aid for most slippery surfaces, including hard-packed snow and textured ice.
Instead of spikes, they rely on pavement-friendly “traction beads” strung on steel cables. Each of the 30 (or so) traction beads on each cleat 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 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. The rotating beads even shed softer snow before it can build up underfoot.
They’re easy enough to put on and take off. Though the low-profile steel beads work well on a variety of surfaces, we still prefer to remove the ICEtrekkers when going into a store, say. Just grab the pull tab at the back of the harness to remove (or install) it; the pattern of the cleats creates a clear visual cue for which side is the front and which is the back.
One tester used a pair for four cold seasons. Despite being stored in a plastic bag after each use, which we advise against, her cleats have not broken or lost traction. (They did rust some.)
She noted that after around three hours of wearing them with hiking boots, a pressure point over her toes became painful. This could be an issue of compatibility between the shoe upper and the cleat, but Trey also experienced a similar discomfort while wearing them with trail runners. While these cleats are excellent for in-town use, such as for running errands, we’d recommend our upgrade pick for longer outings on more varied terrain.
We’ve seen complaints about the bead cable snapping. We think this may be due to people taking them onto trails and more technical surfaces. We haven’t broken ours, but we’ll continue to monitor the cables during further testing.
Those traction beads are small. 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 consider investing in something more aggressive, such as our also-great pick for runners.
The harness is less elastic than on some models. The rubber harness isn’t quite as stretchy as some we’ve seen on other traction aids, but that also translates to a tough, secure fit, as long as you have the correct size to fit your footwear. Like most of our picks, these come in five sizes.
There’s no storage sack. The ICEtrekkers are the only cleats that didn’t arrive with a storage sack. This may contribute to the affordable price, but some users may want a storage sack in order to contain any grit. (One advantage of not having a storage sack is that you are less likely to leave wet cleats in it long-term, which can cause rust.)
These lightweight, compact cleats are versatile and stable enough to go from icy trail to rocks to dry asphalt. They cost about twice as much as our top pick, though, and their steel spikes may be too aggressive for around-town use.
For venturing out for more miles and onto mixed trail surfaces like snow, ice, dry rocks, and even some minor use on paved surfaces, we recommend the Black Diamond Distance Spike Traction Device.
It balances durability with traction. These cleats are equipped with 14 stainless steel spikes, each one 8 mm (5/16 inch) long—a sweet spot for stability and grip on mixed surfaces. The individual spikes don’t bite as effectively as the longer spikes of our backcountry pick, the Hillsound Trail Crampon Ultra, and the stainless steel won’t be as durable on dry paved surfaces as the tungsten carbide tips on the Kahtoola NANOspikes. Rather, they shine when the off-pavement trail conditions vary, as is common in many hiking and running trail systems.
It uses the most comfortable harness. Most of our picks rely on an elastomer (or rubber) toe cover to help keep the cleat on your foot. The Distance Spike instead uses a soft, mildly stretchy nylon/polyester-blend fabric with a rubber overlay—it looks almost like you’re wearing no-show socks in front. (The heel cup is a more typical thermoplastic elastomer.)
This style feels more comfortable on top of your foot, creating no pressure points, especially if you’re wearing running shoes, or anything with a thin upper. It also helps center the cleat on your foot for a more secure fit.
It’s the easiest to put on and remove. The nylon pull tab on the heel of the cleat, paired with the soft fabric toe cap, makes these the easiest cleats to put on and remove out of all of the cleats we tested.
It’s our most packable pick. Removing some rubber also cuts down on the overall volume of the cleats. These came with the highest quality stuff sack out of all of the cleats that we tested, and it doesn’t require any magic to stuff the cleats inside either. (Wrestling with a stuff sack is never fun on a freezing day when your fingers are numb.)
But the cloth isn’t very stretchy. One potential downside of the fabric toe cover is that the overlay part that shapes its edges won’t stretch as much as a thermoplastic elastomer, possibly limiting what type of footwear you can use. The cleats may not fit over the most burly hiking boots, especially if you’re on the cusp of the biggest sizes. However, Trey had no problem fitting a size XL pair over his size-12 Danner Mountain Light boots, and we’ve seen no reviewers complaining about an imprecise fit. Despite offering only four sizes—our other picks all offer five—Black Diamond claims the largest size range. Still, we’d recommend trying them on over your own boots before committing.
These cleats have more spikes than any of our picks, and they’re longer too. They should keep you steady when you have nothing underfoot but loads of snow or pure ice. However, they aren’t suited to pavement or even rounded or uneven rocks.
May be out of stock
When you need serious outdoor traction, the bigger and sturdier the spikes, the better. The Hillsound Trail Crampon Ultra set was tops in our testing for this category. (Despite the name, these cleats can’t be used as mountaineering crampons, which have larger, sharper steel spikes and a rigid frame for the extra stability, leverage, and durability needed to climb, say, Denali or K2.)
These cleats have more spikes—and more aggressive spikes—than others we tested. The 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, each half an inch (13 mm) long, under the forefoot and another six spikes under the heel (three of those are half-inch spikes, and three measure about two-thirds of an inch—or roughly 17 mm—each). The spike plates are arranged in multidirectional clusters that offer traction against sliding in any direction on ice, hard-packed snow, and even some types of mud. They’re secured by steel chains that pass under the midfoot for extra traction and stability.
The thermoplastic elastomer harness is the toughest we tested, yet easy to make fit. First, it’s stretchy enough that our testers were able to pull the Trail Crampon Ultra over their boots and shoes very easily. However, it felt sturdier than the nearest competitor in our stretch tests. This was the most likely model in our tests to provide a perfect, stable fit on a wide range of footwear. Having the Velcro instep strap to further anchor the harness in place was a big help in that.
These cleats aren’t meant for pavement, though. The spikes on these grippers are made of stainless steel, which is a softer metal than the tungsten carbide used in our running pick, the Kahtoola NANOspikes. That means if you spend a lot of time walking on concrete or rocky 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 traction on this lightweight pair is provided by 10 small spikes tipped with tungsten carbide. This very hard material digs into the black ice and mixed snow that can make winter asphalt so treacherous. The small spikes aren’t great for more rugged terrain, though.
For running on icy pavement, we recommend the Kahtoola NANOspikes cleats.
The spikes are the best we tested on slick ice. This design has 10 metal spikes made of tungsten carbide, which is much harder than stainless steel. They 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 steel coil, which is the traction aid used on many other lightweight models such as the Yaktrax Pro Cleats. The spikes are short, though—less than a quarter of an inch (about 5.5 mm)—so when you walk off that ice and onto dry pavement, you don’t damage the ground or your traction device as much. The latest version, released in 2023, has plastic lugs underfoot (along with the tungsten carbide spikes), which are meant to improve traction in softer, snowier surfaces. (We’ll be testing it this winter in such conditions.)
They’re light enough for running. 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 sticking to paved surfaces and would prefer to wear the same shoes you always run in, these spikes are lighter than the chains and steel spikes found on backcountry traction devices.
They have a less robust harness than our other picks. This isn’t unusual for lighter, less aggressive traction devices such as these. We could see a scenario, though, in which heavy use might begin to wear at the contact points where the upper thermoplastic elastomer section is attached. Also, in the latest version of these cleats, Kahtoola swapped small chain links in the rubber harness for lower-profile rivets that pivot, letting the harness move with you. Again, we’ll be testing this version all winter, to see how it fares.
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 a marginal second to the Hillsounds. 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.
If you prefer running on trails to running on pavement, even in winter: Try the Kahtoola EXOspikes, which have longer carbide spikes than our top pick and two more of them, so they’re good for rougher, but not the most technical, terrain. However, they’re also an ounce heavier than the company’s NANOspikes, which we recommend above for runners who stick to pavement.
This is not a comprehensive list of everything we tested in previous iterations of this guide, just what’s still available.
In circles where underfoot traction devices are used all the time, you’ll find a lot of folks who have a 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 grip, since they could 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 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. The spikes on these, which protrude from the harness like a thin nail, had a tendency to break when we were walking on hard, bare surfaces.
The STABILicers walking cleat has several thousand positive reviews on Amazon at this writing, but in our tests we slipped and fell several times. Though this design has a ton of spikes (24 on each cleat), 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 or a sharp steel spike.
The Hillsound FreeSteps6’s spikes are slightly shorter than those on our backcountry pick, the Hillsound Trail Crampon Ultra set. But because this design doesn’t offer more cross-over ability to walk on pavement, 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 Black Diamond Access cleats are the same as the Black Diamond Distance Spike cleats, apart from having a more traditional full-elastomer harness rather than a cloth upper. The Access style performs much like the Distance Spike but without the comfortable fit of the cloth.
Like our backcountry pick, the Hillsound Trail Crampon Ultra, the Unigear Snowgrip Crampon is not a true mountaineering crampon. It also has a similar harness, Velcro strap over the midfoot for extra security, and stainless steel spikes. In this case, there are 13 stainless steel spikes, five fewer than on the Hillsound, and each measures half an inch. The Hillsound harness felt appropriately stretchy, whereas the Snowgrip’s was almost too stretchy to inspire confidence while wearing a heavy pack or traversing steeper terrain.
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 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. 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.
The inexpensive Frabill Ice Creeper cleats have 10 tungsten-carbide spikes for traction on paved surfaces and ice fishing. We were able to feel some plastic pieces under our foot when wearing them with trail runners on flat hard surfaces. We also prefer more heel grip than the Ice Creepers provide, but for the price, they might be worth checking out for infrequent use.
The Icetrax V5 Tungsten Ice Cleats feature nine replaceable tungsten carbide spikes fit for walking on hard icy surfaces. Icetrax includes a simple tool for changing the cleats, and we were able to remove and install all nine cleats on one of the two in four minutes. Though the grip is excellent, we experienced excessive pronation while wearing them due to what seems to be a combination of the spike placement and the hyper-elastic harness. We weren’t comfortable wearing these for long periods.
We’re continuing to test the updated Katoohla NANOspikes during the 2023 fall and winter seasons.
Traction devices 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 the construction.
The other potential weak point for any ice cleat 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 examine the harnesses 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.
Trey French is a staff writer at Wirecutter covering outdoors gear. A trail runner, backcountry skier, and long-distance backpacker, he has reviewed gear for Treeline Review and advised wilderness travelers on lightweight backcountry equipment at Katabatic Gear. He resides in California’s Eastern Sierra, where scenic desktop backgrounds are born.
by Trey French and Eve O'Neill
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