UKH

Our mountaineering club has just acquired a whole load of old school leather 3 pin telemark skiing boots. They are old and dusty but high quality full grain leather, with stiff vibram soles. We have a shortage of B1 winter boots for winter walking, and these boots definitely seem stiff enough to take a C1 crampon. So a) would it be worth trying to modify them or would they be useable with crampons as they are, and if so what sort of crampon? b) does anyone have any experience of modifying old school ski boots into winter walking boots, and if so should we just saw the front end off the sole (tricky with the metal three pin attachment) or try to get them resoled at CSR, LSR or similar?

In reply to cacheson:

Telemark boots have to flex under the ball of the foot. You can wear them with crampons but it always feels precarious and not very safe, and you feel the boot bending.

In reply to cacheson:
Often 'normal' crampons will fit 75mm NN quite well, for example Black Diamond toe bail works well and it isn't coming off that duck-bill! However, strap-on fronts usually give you huge amounts of front point, not what you want for a walking crampon. The best combo would be a BD wire toe bail with a strap on rear section. This is very unusual and I don't think anyone makes crampons this way [but I have a custom pair configured like this and it does work]

I have climbed Gd3 winter routes in leather tele boots, but realistically Gd2 is the limit. For walking they will take you anywhere you want to go.

Petzl do a tele toe bail, but it is over £20 if you can source them.

Cutting off the duck bill is possible. I have a pair of Garmont Excusions [plastic] tele boots that I've done this to. However, you are right that the steel insert supporting the 3 pins causes minor problems: the rubber wears very fast at the front after you have cut them down. A full resole is too expensive to contemplate: it may be possible to remove all the steel plate and do a partial resole just at the toe. Or, do as I do and just live with the toe section looking a mess.
That advantage of cutting is that any C1/2 crampon should work.

They will certainly offer a nice alternative to modern lightweight sweat boxes...............

TC