EISPIRATEN

It looks like I have to bite the bullet and buy some crampons. I grew up backcountry skiing in the Sierra where I never felt the need- but clearly down here it's a different ball game.

I don't feel any need for front pointing up waterfall ice. I want something that will work for icy snow and peak bagging. I want to be able to wear anything from stiff trail runners to plastic AT boots. I don't want to spend too much.

My short list is:
-Black Diamond Contact Strap Crampons- Last year's Cro-Mo powder coated models for $100 or this year's stainless for $130. Plastic anti-balling thingies
-CAMP USA Stalker Crampons for $80- Cro-Mo, no coating. Plastic anti-balling thingies.
-Kahtoola KTS steel crampons- $150.

I'm leaning towards the Camps mostly because they're cheap online. The second choice is wait for the REI dividend sale and use the 20% off coupon for the BD stainless model.

Comments?

Jim,

It's best to stick with the 12 point steel crampons for general mountaineering.

Fit is critical especially for smaller boots -- I went through couple of them for my girlfriend before I found what worked.

My advice would be to bite the bullet and to pay the full REI price by ordering online from them and shipping to your local store (it's free shipping), then when they arrive taking your boots there and trying all of your choices in store, keep what you like and return what you don't -- you get credit right there on the spot.

And if by chance the crampons don't work out for you after the first use REI is great and will take them back. Backcountry.com will also do that they have 100% satisfaction going as well so you can return stuff that didn't work to them but the return process/credit is a little longer -- not a big deal if you can swing it and their Customer Service is amazing.

In the end I went with Grivel G12 (newmatic) for my boots and Black Diamond Sabertooh (CLIP) for my girlfriend.

Note about G12's -- they do not fit smaller size boots without modification to the link-bar (it has to be cut down). Sabertooh's will fit a smaller boot without cutting the bar down. Both are superb crampons and will take you pretty much anywhere you want to go.

-HTH

I'd go with the BD Stainless Steel Contact Strap crampons.

TacoDelRio wrote:I'd go with the BD Stainless Steel Contact Strap crampons.

Thanks. REI has them in stock locally and I'll take some boots down to try them on. Like I said, ideally the same pair will work on a variety of footwear.

That's the way to go if you need versatility.

If you have bigass feet like myself, get the long bars. I think the cutoff is anything above size 13.

I have the regular Contacts, and I'd love them even more in stainless. They're plenty for anything in the SG's.

bertfivesix wrote:I have the regular Contacts, and I'd love them even more in stainless. They're plenty for anything in the SG's.

Uhhhhh....

Anything MOST people would do.

bertfivesix wrote:I have the regular Contacts, and I'd love them even more in stainless. They're plenty for anything in the SG's.

Just a note: stainless is useful if you have a real problem with rust, but it is usually not as tough as plain carbon steel. So you will be sharpening your points more often with stainless.

My Contacts rust like they're menstruating.

I got the Stainless Contacts. Very light (28 ounces including anti-botts), go on easily, stayed on.

They seemed to do the job. I walked up to the ski hut in Baldy Bowl and back without tripping, slipping, tearing my pants or impaling my feet.

I would like to use them with a variety of footwear including trail runners and Neos overboots. Unfortunately they seem a little stiff for the runners and a little short for the overboots. Today I called Black Diamond and after discussion ordered a pair of the extra long, extra flexible two-ply center bars.