kaseri wrote:Grivel G12's. Excellent general mountaineering crampons.

I've used those a great deal for my winter mountain walking, (I don't climb). Often walked miles over ice and frozen snow wearing them. If they ever wear out I'll get another pair of the same.

Oh. For use on snow, make sure you get the plastic anti-bott plates. They really work!

+1 for anti-botts

G12 will allow you to climb vertical waterfall ice and long snow and ice routes, I have done WI4s in them. G12 will serve you well for a long long time. G14 is much better for vertical water ice, but still ok for walking. I don't see the point of G10 unless you will only do glacier climbs.

I can't really explain it, but Grivel crampons have much better feel than BDs, maybe the new model of Sabretooth will do a better job. BD's Cyborg was a pain for me for some strange reason.

Make sure your crampons will work with your boots, my friend just found out his new Rambos don't fit Koflach's Expe boots.

I tweaked mine a bit with one of these:



Maybe your friend can try that too.

Any time you bend forged steel it loses some of it's strength, more than likely not enough you would have a problem if your smart about it but one guy I worked with snapped a tooth off after using a vise on his, we were trudging up a hill and he stepped over a log. Tooth was left in the log

Remember that in the 1960s, folks were still climbing Everest in strap-on crampons without front points. When conditions got rough, they cut steps.

OP:
keep sight of what you really need. Our club lends G10s for consolidated snow up to 45 degrees. G12s would be safer, but are also a little bit heavier. You can make up the difference in your choice of boots, and caution.

go for something light weight and steel if you're not getting into vertical ice.

The petzl sarken is a great all around crampon that works well for walking and vertical ice due to its innovative front points and comfortable design.

The more technical crampons (G12, Sabertooth etc) have longer front- and secondary-points that make them slightly harder to walk in, and also increase the weight. If you're not going to be front-pointing much you should look at other models like Petzl Irvis, Grivel G10 or Airtech and BD Serac. I once saw a poster of Ed Viesturs which showed his crampons... I looked at them carefully and they looked like G10s. If it works for Ed Viesturs it should work just fine for you.

I used to have a pair of Grivel Airtechs that worked great for general mountaineering until I started doing more technical climbing.

DudeThatMustHurt wrote:Any time you bend forged steel it loses some of it's strength, more than likely not enough you would have a problem if your smart about it but one guy I worked with snapped a tooth off after using a vise on his, we were trudging up a hill and he stepped over a log. Tooth was left in the log

The front end wasn't fitting perfectly to my boot. I only bended it slightly and I don't think it'll ever pose a problem. In fact, the guy in the shop in The Netherlands (who was an ice climbing champion or something) recommended it to me. He said I should use one of the above things instead of using a hammer as that would let the steel lose it's strength.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I'll probably go for the G12s, if they fit my boot.

WouterB wrote:I tweaked mine a bit with one of these:



Maybe your friend can try that too.

Sometimes that works, especially when you use one of these...

The G12s came in and they barely fit my size 48 scarpas on the longest setting. Hurray.