Best Microspikes of 2026

Quick verdict: The device the whole category is measured against, and the one I'd hand somebody who told me to just pick one. Twelve spikes a foot at 0.41 in or 10.4 mm on the current fourth generation, on welded stainless chains under a TPE harness with reinforced TPR eyelets and a toe bail. That length is the all-round hiking rung of the ladder: enough to hold on icy trail and moderate slopes, short enough not to feel absurd on packed snow.

It's the Best Overall pick at Switchback Travel, Best for Hiking at Treeline Review and CleverHiker, and the first thing Section Hiker lists. It's also the most expensive thing here, and the one place it gives ground is retention, since it has no strap.

Quick verdict: The best value on this page and the reason a lot of White Mountains regulars carry Hillsound rather than Kahtoola. Eighteen stainless spikes running 12 to 17 mm, with the three longest on the heel where a descent needs them, on double-link side chains and an elastomer harness with a stainless toe bail. The Velcro forefoot strap is the difference, and it's a straightforward answer to the way traction devices get lost.

Section Hiker says a lot of winter hikers pick the Ultras over MICROspikes for exactly that reason. At 420 g it's heavier than the Kahtoola and the spikes are long enough to feel intrusive on easy ground, so it rewards knowing when to put it on.

Quick verdict: The most aggressive thing on this page and the closest to a real crampon without becoming one. Eleven heat-treated carbon steel spikes at a full 2/3 in or 17 mm, mounted on rigid plates rather than loosely coupled assemblies, with an elastomer harness and a strap. Section Hiker describes it as a cross between the Ultras and the much burlier PROs. The rigid plates are what buy the bite, and they're also the trade: it's the heaviest device here at 462 g and it snowballs more readily than the Ultras.

Carbon steel is tougher than stainless but rusts, so this is the one on the page that most needs drying after use.

Quick verdict: The most versatile device here and the one that suits an American winter better than its ranking suggests, because most winter walking is not continuous ice. Twelve tungsten carbide tips anchored in aluminum on a TPU traction matrix, 7.4 mm from base to tip, on a TPE harness.

Carbide is the whole argument, and CleverHiker's figure for it is roughly a hundred times the wear resistance of steel, so this survives the plowed road, the parking lot and the bare rock between the icy sections that would blunt a steel spike. At 208 g it's also less than half the weight of the Hillsound Trail Crampon. What it won't do is dig into thick ice, and it fights deeply lugged shoes.

Quick verdict: The lightest chained device on the page at 200 g and the running category's current favorite. It takes Best Overall at Treeline Review and tops iRunFar's list. Fourteen heat-treated stainless spikes at 8 mm on nylon webbing with TPR elastomer eyelets, and the part that matters is the hybrid upper: a softshell cap that covers the toe instead of a bare elastomer band across it.

That solves a real problem rather than a marketing one, since a plain harness presses on the toe box of a soft shoe and Section Hiker credits this design with fixing both the friction and the cold toes that come with it. It usually sells well under Black Diamond's own list price.

Quick verdict: The hiking-side sibling of the Distance Spike, and the device CleverHiker calls Best Overall. Same fourteen heat-treated stainless spikes at 8 mm, but on a TPR elastomer and nylon webbing harness with no softshell toe cap, at 220 g. It's a good all-round device that lands in an awkward spot on this particular page. It sits a hair under the EXOspikes, which weigh less and survive pavement, and just under the Distance Spike, which weighs less and solves the toe problem.

Its 4.2 rating is also the lowest here. The list price it discounts from is real, so the discount is too.

Quick verdict: Not a hiking device and not pretending to be. Ten tungsten carbide studs in aluminum on a dual-compound TPU plate, 5.3 mm from base to tip, which is the shortest bite here and deliberately so. This is for iced pavement and road running, where a 10 mm steel spike would be blunt by February and unpleasant underfoot the whole time. Kahtoola redesigned the stud in the 2023 update so it's concave rather than pointed, which the brand says increases the pressure it puts on ice.

Worth knowing before you buy: despite being the least aggressive Kahtoola, it packs bulkier than the MICROspikes, at 52 cubic inches against their 30, because the plates are rigid.

Quick verdict: The cheapest thing here and the most misunderstood, because it has more ratings than anything on this page except the MICROspikes and that has convinced a lot of people it's a hiking device. It isn't. Case-hardened steel alloy beads strung on aircraft steel cable, riveted to a rubber sling. The sling is the problem: Switchback is explicit that Yaktrax uses standard rubber rather than an elastomer, stretchy but less durable, and Trailspace reports the web giving out after a single season of moderate use.

For a driveway, a dog walk or a flat frozen path it's fine, and it won't catch on a doorstep. Take it up a hill and it has nothing to give you.