Sweet design, poor material

Familiarity:

I've put it through the wringer

I am enjoying these crampons. Some pros, some cons. Here are my two cents: In snow/firm snow/neve mountaineering conditions, there's no difference from a traditional 12-point horizontal crampon (I've had the Grivel G12). In ice up to grade 3, I have experienced little difference as well. The BIG difference is on rock. I'm significantly more comfortable on rock in the Snaggletooth because of it's mono design. Be it 4th class or M5, these crampons perform a lot better. One point of contact with rock features = more secure than dealing with two like the G12. These have a shorter front section than the Sabretooth or G12...probably done to shave weight. Same amount of points on each side under the forefoot, but over less of an area. This reduces security in 'french technique' on low-angle firm snow or ice. Not as bad as, but headed more towards the Petzl Dartwin and BD Stinger in this regard. I have had feet skate or shimmy a little in some terrain where I believe the G12 would have held. The Con? Say what you will, but stainless steel is a bogus material for crampons, period. I am not worried about catastrophic failure, but simply rapid wear from climbing rock. Use these two times a year on snow on Rainier, and they'll never wear. Use them on a lot of alpine rock (which you should, you bought them for their rock performance) and you'll see heavy wear pretty quick. After maybe 10 proper days in the mountains with a decent amount of scrambling and climbing on rock, the main frontpoint has been chewed back a good bit. I have used Grivel G12, a different steel, in similar conditions and experienced maybe...20% of the wear? See for yourself...get a pair of BD stainless crampons next to another pair of regular chromolly steel ones. Find a rock with a sharp tip and try to etch your name into the metal of both. See what you find. Shame on BD for favoring a shinny, sexy appearance over function. So? When these wear out, which they will soon, will I buy another? Maybe, because I really like how they work. Hopefully someone will come out with a similar design but use a proper material, so I won't have to.

NickM

When someone says snaggletooth?

Familiarity:

I've used it several times

It is a crampon. It is also what I and others call a chick with screwed up teeth. Funny how this crampons tooth design resembles the gals I am talking about. My previous review drew anger from someone. Oh well, the truth hurts some people. To think that when they came up with the name for this crampon and they didn't think out loud of what a snaggletooth is? Check the Urban Dictionary and you know the people at BD knew what they were naming it after. I recently used this crampon climbing Rainier.. I used them on both the La Sportiva Trango Ice Cubes and the Baturas that I own. I finally went with the Baturas because of the sub zero temps we faced. It is a crampon that would excel on the Liberty Ridge route. I just wanted to see how they would do on the DC route. Again, they are a crampon and they worked fine. They aren't just a Sabretooth with a new front tooth design. They are a new crampon with a smaller front cage design altogether. I would say they are shorter by 3/4" of an inch and the new front wire fits way better than the old style that BD was using on their pro wire gate crampons when the strap went through the eyelet ring. Certain routes with steeper pitches would benefit from this front tooth design, but, you can use them on less steep pitches as well. I had no problems with the crampons at all. Is it the end all, beat all of crampons? It has it's strengths in the right conditions. If I had to choose between these and the sabretooths? If I could get them for the same price? Yeah, I might go with these over the sabretooths. Overall.. I doubt there is really that big of a difference for general mountaineering.

Greg

So far so good!

Familiarity:

I've used it once or twice and have initial impressions

These were what I was looking for! I can do it all from ice climbing to glacier travel. The true Alaskan crampon!

Sarah M.

What is the size range for boots that these crampons will accommodate? I have the Nepal Evo boots in a 47, will these crampons fit? I know some crampons require a longer bone for boots over size 45, and I cant seem to find this information anywhere.

Sam H.

Concerned about the lack of a strap to the toe piece like on other models (Stinger)... Is it possible to get this toe piece, and what was the reasoning behind going without a backup safety toe strap? (without a proper fit or with enough torque these toe welts have popped off on people)

Chris J.