Product Review: YakTrax Pro

Product: Yak Trax Pro
Price: €29,90
Pros: Light, fit most shoes (including hiking boots), no spikes but good grip so work across patches of tarmac/rocks.
Cons: A little pricey for what they are, can be a bit awkward to fit

The end of November saw the first heavy snowfall of the winter, with around 70cm of snow falling in 24 hours. With temperatures of -15C it wasn’t going to disappear anytime soon so I decided to try out some YakTrax, one of the many traction devices for feet, available for runners.

 

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My wife has been running in these for a couple of winters and I’d always not bothered – generally when it snows it is deep enough to cause some give and give me traction, but the approach roads to the trails can be treacherous, especially just after the snow plough has pased over and we’ve had a bit of thaw/refreeze action.

I’ve been quite impressed so far though – they don’t seem to help much in deep snow, but the give me confidence on sheet ice, especially on the hills and they don’t interfere with my running action too much. Unlike what I’ve heard about spikes, there’s enough give with every stride to not hammer your quads too much, and they handle running across rocky patches or areas of road where there’s no ice.

The only time I had some problems was one session in quite deep, wet snow and they kept sliding off which was really annoying. However that was one run out of maybe 20 so far this winter so it may have just been down to me not fitting them properly.

All in all they’re a good purchase, much cheaper than dedicated shoes with spikes (eg. Salomon Snowcross) and have the added benefit that they will fit your existing trail shoes. They can also be used on hiking boots if you get a large enough size.

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