Black Diamond ABS - Sabretooth Antibot - 2007 BCS

If you have pre 2004 Sabertooth spikes these won't fit. Build your own or buy new; Black Diamond no longer makes plates to fit the older model.

They take a few minutes to install, but once on they are light, unobtrusive and work perfectly. A+ to Black Diamond on their design.

These things definitely keep snow from building up underneath your boot, and the added weight to carry them is negligible. The extra weight is easily made up for by the fact that you carry around less weight in snow on your feet the whole way up some snowy couloir, and don't have to whack your feet with your ice axe every 5 seconds to remove the snow. Good buy, get a pair.

I purchased the ABS plates, but are not needed in every situation. For wet or powdery snow, they work excellent, but are not really needed on ice or well packed snow. In the end, I leave them attached because installation is too much trouble compared to the extra weight.

As a result of the Ice9 crampon recall I had Montrail send Sabretooth Crampons as the replacement. I had to purchase the ABS kit myself. With my size 14 boots, I was very concerned about too much flex causing problems with the Sabretooth staying securely fastened to the boot. I did not have to worry after all. I made it to the summit of Mt Adam's a few weeks ago without a single crampon problem. I had no real issues with balling. And this was after several inches of fresh snow the night before summiting. Something I cannot say about the Ice9's. I had problems on Baker keeping them on my boots as well as snow balling up. One side note, to use the Sabretooth crampon on the Ice9 boot I did have to grind away some of the toe of the boot to widen the bail groove and make the toe bail fit snuggly. I do not think this will be necessary for smaller size boots.

Happy climbing!

These are so much better than the old orange latex(?) anti-bots on my step-in Sabertooths. They actually screw into/onto the crampon! No more fiddling with the sharp "clip" things from before. Once on, they stay on! Also, they fit closer to the crampon than the other one (maybe by only a bit).

Usage: Steep slopes in the WA Cascades where ice crusts change to glue.

Bottom-line: These should be standard equipment. Overall excellent, but still some slight build-up in the really sticky stuff. Will never leave home without them.

I didn't think I'd really need these, but am now thankful I have them. They really do prevent the snow from balling up in the crampon. They took a little time to setup, but it was worth it.