Ice Axe, Crampon, Snowshoe, etc Primers

Living where I do my basic approach to backpacking is that it's practice for something "more". Because of that I tend to be over-prepared/equipped, but be that as it may I still found myself "needing" an ice axe this past weekend and not knowing what to look for in one. I don't believe that having and knowing how to use the equipment is going to lull me into dangerous/over-my-head activity. I don't want to have to figure out how the stuff works when I actually need it. Since I'm not an expert and gear/technology changes, I've found the following links very helpful for both basic knowledge and specific product recommendations. With all the talk of "Essential Winter Gear" I thought I'd share them.
STANDARD DISCLAIMERS; get instruction, use at your own risk, I have no vested interest, etc.

Choosing an Ice Axe

Crampons

Snowshoes

And this is an excellent checklist with specific product recommendations;

RMI Guides Winter Expedition Seminar equipment list

One tip on crampons: fit them to your boots before you go. If you're like me, you use different boots for different routes -- telemark boots, Koflach doubles, leather boots -- but use one pair of crampons for all. My experience with several incarnations of G12s is that for boot sizes smaller than 10 (i.e the "10"-hole on the crampon spine), it can be hard to adjust them quickly in the field. Solution: once you know what boots you'll wear, adjust the crampons and check their fit onto the boots. Doing this at home is ideal, and the parking lot is OK, but doing it above treeline in high wind chill can be difficult if not impossible. (Doing it in soft snow can be tough too.)

I learned this lesson some winters ago in Acadia. We were taking a semi-technical off-trail route up one of the mountains, and managed to get partway up through increasing ice onto a narrow rock ledge from which we could climb neither up nor down without crampons. The crampons had been left at our ski-boot sizes, which was unworkable for the mountaineering boots we wore. It took 45 cold minutes, pinned down on the ledge, to make the adjustment; some bashing with rocks was required. We learned our lesson.

Note that if you have big feet, adjustment tends to be easy.

Note also that I am considering cutting off the spine tails, since I will likely never have gigantic boots.

edited for clarity

nice links

Over the years I have found by trail and error that these days I always reach for my
- ice axe...my tallest (I use one on every winter type hike).
- crampons...most generic binding that will fit most any foot wear
- snowshoes...I consistently reach for a 9 x 30 " size that again will fit on most any footwear including mukluks

So while I have several types of each item I could make the generalization that the more techniclly, subject specific, the less it gets used by me.
For an example I have step in crampons,...but...they fit only one style of boot.
A couple of years later I change boots for style or season and wouldn't you know it's time for another pair of crampons.
The same for the nice step in snowshoe bindings...I love them, yet they sit at home while I take another pair of snowshoes with a more universal binding arrangement.

So my general "words of wisdom" , if I had any, would be to try and think it through all the seasons that you would be using them, including the "just in case times" you might bring them... and try to purchase with that in mind.
I know a few spring hikes I was wearing heavy plastic boots only because they were the only ones that fit my crampons.

If later a persons interests become more specified and they took up ice climbing, for example, then would be the time to get a specific type of ice axe or crampon designed specifically for that purpose.
Simplified I think it boils down to general gear for general rambling about...
I wish I had some of the $$ I could have saved as I went along.

...good advice from el-bager...must have been one cold lesson.

Sometimes crampon fit is an even more serious matter than mere inconvenience, or discomfort in the cold, as demonstrated by this month's cover story in AMC Outdoors.

I use 2 different crampon sets
G-10's for easy stuff and that end of season mushy stuff where you are smacking rocks.
BD Sabretooths for more serious stuff,better conditions,where I won't mangle the points.

Love the BD's ,except when I kicked one off while going over Ike,wind about 40,temp around 0. Not fun.
And they should come with a patch kit for gaiters and windpants!