Deciding on some crampons. Looking for some feedback.

by **Grampahawk** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 6:36 pm

Bootboy wrote:My $.02
I bought a new pair of Grivel airtechs for general mountaineering and love them.( my old ones fell off my pack on Rainier) I got the strap on version simply for versatility. They are lighter and have slightly shorter spikes than say the g12 (overkill for anything less than 50deg.. They are wide and stable and work exceptionally well for what I use them for. In my experience, Grivels hold up very well as they use a heat treated chromoly steel with excellent wear properties. Stainless, I feel, is kind f gimmicky and expensive for the benefits. Rust really isn't an issue with chromoly as long as you take care of them. nothing a little oil and steel wool cant resolve. They will wear longer and require less frequent sharpening.

My vote is Grivel Airtechs also. They've held their edge better than my old Pezls and are easier to get on/off when it's really cold and you don't want to take off gloves.

by **brenta** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 6:36 pm

MoapaPk, I agree. The Grivel anti-balling system is very effective, though if one tries hard enough, one shall find conditions that defeat it.

by **JackCarr** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 7:30 pm

G12's.

by **JonnyAces7** » Sun Oct 11, 2009 12:29 am

Decided on the BD Serac Strap crampons. Demo'd the strap system on the Contacts which helped sell me on BD. Not to mention I found a solid deal on ebay. Glad I waited a bit and did some research on here. Thanks everyone. Cant wait for the snow.

by **Wastral** » Sun Oct 11, 2009 12:53 am

Unless you are climbing on nice hard snow/ice you NEED an anti balling crampon otherwise you will quickly be going head over teakettle down the slope or have your feet slide out from underneath you going to break the luge time record in short order. Otherwise you have to move painstakingly slow trying to knock off the snow on every last step. This is a royal pain on any steep slope! If you have crampons on a 35 degree slope and its soft snow... UM why do you have them on again??????

Brian

JonnyAces7 wrote:Decided on the BD Serac Strap crampons. Demo'd the strap system on the Contacts which helped sell me on BD. Not to mention I found a solid deal on ebay. Glad I waited a bit and did some research on here. Thanks everyone. Cant wait for the snow.

by **MoapaPk** » Sun Oct 11, 2009 1:01 am

Actually, I've found balling to be a problem only when the air T's are above ~-1 C. In corn snow at higher T's, my crampons also don't ball. I suppose it depends a lot on the type of snow, much like wax appropriate for XC skis.

by **Wastral** » Sun Oct 11, 2009 2:38 am

A pinch of salt, and of course... Your miles may Vary.

MoapaPk wrote:Actually, I've found balling to be a problem only when the air T's are above ~-1 C. In corn snow at higher T's, my crampons also don't ball. I suppose it depends a lot on the type of snow, much like wax appropriate for XC skis.

by **Luciano136** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 4:54 pm

I don't have the antibott and it's usually not much of a problem, unless it's pretty warm as suggested above.

by **WouterB** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 5:14 pm

JackCarr wrote:G12's.

+1, with the antibot

Deciding on some crampons. Looking for some feedback.

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