UKH

Bugaboos, would approach shoes and flexible crampons be okay?

Wondering if I need to lug my B1's there or if I'd be okay with my Scarpa Mescalito's and Petzl Irvis Hybrid Crampons. Aim is the Beckey Chouinard etc. 

Is it a combination you've tried before? At first glance I'd be surprised if you could fit the Irvis Hybrid to a pair of Mescalitos - they need a heel welt, don't they?

With a flex front and back. 

In short yes. Most folk seem to wear a combo of approach shoes and strap-on bendy crampons. I took kahtoola aly poons and some light gtex walking boots. In retrospect these were overkill as most were using trainers, waterproofed with plastic bags held on with crampon straps. There weren't really any crevasses apparent on the glacier crossings, just a couple of bergschrunds to contend with. The main one is on the Snowpatch-Bugaboo col which gives access to the Howsers, Pigeon, the back of Snowpatch and the descent from the Bugaboo spire traverse and seems to get worse as the season goes on.

I managed with approach shoes a Kahtoola crampons (didn't go to Howser Tower) and got everywhere I wanted, however, the Bugaboo Snowpatch col was getting more and more bare even in the 10 days we were and there would have been a bit sketchy soon after (there was talk of putting some cables/via ferrata up the rocks on the side but presumably that came to nothing)

I think for the Beckey-Chouinard approach and descent, you will be grateful for the extra weight of some stiff summer boots and decent crampons. We tried the approach shoe approach (!) one day when we there a couple of years ago - after that one day they stayed in the tent. Descending the Bugaboo-Snowpatch col (and the col to the start of the Howser Towers) would be fairly sketchy (you may be really confident on snow/ice though).

Another factor is that approach shoes will get soaked - do you really want to do the Beckey-Chouniard with cold wet feet?