The first significant snow of the season has arrived and thoughts once again turn to traction control. In winter snow and ice we never attempt anything technically difficult, and in recent seasons we have carried - but seldom worn - our Kahtoola aluminium flexible crampons which fit almost any footwear. The aluminiums are a good choice when crampons spend most of their time in the pack and attached only for the occasional section of ice or compacted snow when really required.

The flexies are fairly easy to attach and remove and don’t present any hassle for a significant icy section, nevertheless we often encounter the worst of both worlds: alternating bands of hard snow or icy terrain mixed with bare rock. Walking on bare rock with crampons is excruciating, not to mention the severe wear on the aluminium points, and we usually can’t be arsed to stop and put them on at all, we often slide and muddle our way across the icy bits.

Enter the Kahtoola Microspikes. We have just bought these for this winter, another step down from true crampons. These are small stainless steel spikes mounted on a chain and attached by a simple rubbery stretch harness and are extremely quick to attach and remove. We are hoping these will suffice for most of the snow and ice we encounter and they might actually be used!. The steel teeth are very small and walking should be quite comfortable on the bare hard bits, including icebound valley paths and tracks.

I believe these sold like hot cakes last winter and were seen in large numbers on the hills of England and Wales. There are other simple products designed for everyday use such as icy pavements, but I find it surprising that a product like the Microspikes that bridges the gap between the streets and hills so effectively has taken so long to emerge.

On a related note, I’m on the lookout for non-winter footwear again, by far the most crucial item of kit and more important than everything else put together, a search I dread every time it comes around because all the manufacturer ranges have changed. I often bemoan the demise of the Montrail Stratos, the nearest thing to my perfect backpacking footwear that was discontinued, but in an idle moment I casually Googled them and amazingly turned up a result: an eBay shop in the USA had one pair still in stock and they were my size. The webpage had a list price but invited offers: I made one and it was quickly accepted (I could probably have gone down a lot further, I bet they’ve been lying around in a corner for ages).

They have now arrived, but not before an alarming misreport in the online tracking system that left me speechless in disbelief. The parcel was shipped initially into the US Postal Service and the online tracking worked flawlessly until it arrived in GB Customs, where it stayed for a couple of days until the next entry appeared: it reported a failed delivery attempt. What???. They certainly hadn’t called here. Who were “they” anyway?. I searched the USPS website but could find absolutely nothing to assist foreign addressees, it didn’t even say which British courier would be involved, so I didn’t know who to contact. After much Googling I discovered it was Parcel Force, others have had the same problems.

When I typed the US Parcel Id into the GB Parcel Force tracker (and ticked the box that says ‘Incoming international parcel’), things became clearer: that tracking entry was not a failed delivery attempt at all, it was the parcel arriving at the local depot and its status was ‘Awaiting payment of charges’. Of all the stupid messages a tracker could report… words fail me.