UKC

I recently picked up a pair of Jorasses Pro GTX boots for a very good price and a very good fit. I'm now struggling to find a good fitting crampon. I have ruled out Petzl because the front of the boot extends a fair way through the front bail (or strap) and reduces the effective front point length considerably.

I'm under the impression that Scarpa and Grivel are a good combination, and La Sportiva and Petzl. Is that right?

Does anyone have any recommendations of good fitting crampons for these boots? They are size 8.5 if that's relevant. I'm looking at 14 point technical crampons with front and back bails, unless recommended otherwise. The ability to switch to mono point would be useful but not essential at this stage.

Thank you.

In reply to NottsRich:
the previous generation of scarpa boots (freney and cumbre) fitted the grivel rambo IV very well however not the g12 / g14 nearly as well.

the new generation are not as assymetrical and are more similar to the nepals. I tried them with the rambos and out of the box the fit wasn't as good.

Furthermore I think g12 and g14 are a good fit on la sportiva boots.

So I think to generalise all of a manufacturers crampons against all of a manufacturers boots as a good / poor fit is too simplistic.

Which petzl crampons did you try? Did you move the toe bail bar to the furthest back position?

I suspect the cyborgs (and probably the g14 but the later doesn't have as good front point protrusion) will fit your boots well, I have tried the sabretooth clips on them but I can't remember how good a fit they were now.

In reply to NottsRich:

You are going to struggle my friend if you think that petzl are a bad fit on the jorasses.

I got the size 43 jorasses and found that the petzl crampons fitted better than any other offerings.

I found that the only grivel crampon to fit half decent is the g20 or 22s.

The other way of getting a half decent fit was to take the toe bails off these crampons and fit them to g14s or other grivel crampons of your choice.

Petzl Dart / Dartwins IMHO fit great as do the sarkens.

This was all last year mind and grivel might of now changed their toebail.

I don't know about the new petzl lynx or any BD crampon.

Good Luck with it all

Gaz

In reply to NottsRich:

Hi

I use cyborgs with this boot

I emailed Scarpa as well, and their reply was that they recommended the G14 or Rambo, both crampomatic types.

From this:

2 votes for Cyborgs
1 vote for Sarken
1 vote for Dart
1 vote for Dartwin
G20/G22

1 for G14 (and 1 against it)


I'm lost!


CurlyStevo, I didn't move the bails back on the Petzls. It would have improved it, but still been a little limited. I guess I'm looking for a 'perfect' fit but am aware it might not exist... The bails were a differnt 'curve' to the curve on the front of my boots so moving them still wouldn't have made them fit, but would have helped with the front point protrusion. Can I shape the bails myself with a vice and hammer, or is that a bad idea? I've not been able to work out what grade steel they are yet to know if it's possible.

I'm tempted by G14s because Scarpa recommend them, and Gazlynn says the toe bails from G20/22s are transferable if they do turn out to not fit that well. Does that sound like a plan?

I think I'm going to struggle to find a shop that stocks so many brands/models to try them all. Can anyone recommend any shops around Nottingham? Otherwise I'm in N Wales this weekend and next so might take some time out to try some shops. Again, any recommendations?

Thanks for the tips so far, even if they're all different! I appreciate the help.

In reply to NottsRich:
I tried the rambo IV on to the jorasses and I didn't think they fitted straight out of the box perfectly like the rambos do to the freney (size 46) but I've never seen a fit as good straight out of the box of a pair of crampons to a boot as that. However if you tweak the bails a bit I reckon you could probably get a good fit to the jorasses.

Bending the bails to get a better fit is normal (apart from on BD crampons as you can't bend those bars). I normally use mole grips (a vice would be good too) to do this, I think a hammer would be the wrong tool for the job, Its quite a time consuming process if you need to change the shape much and can be a bit of a steep learning curve!

Really the best thing is to go to a shop and try a few pairs on the boots. I think you'll prefer the front point protrusion of the cyborgs to the G14.

In N Wales there is a lot of good shops Joe Browns has a large range of crampons and I think the shop stock is the same as the online.

I'd take scarpas advice of g14 or rambo with a pinch of salt, I think they must have an agreement with Grivel of some sort. Firstly the fit of these crampons is quite different and the boots which fit one well rarely fit the other well (although this could partly be due to the bails, the rambos fit very assymetric boots far better than the g14). Secondly scarpa used to recommend G14 for freney / cumbre and I've tried them with and without asym bars and in both types of bail fitting and they are some of the worst fit to the freneys out there!

In reply to CurlyStevo: So the Rambo IV is a good fit then, with a little bending adjustment. I'll bear that in mind, thanks.

I'll take my boots to Wales this weekend and have a hunt around once seeing what shops stock what crampons. Now I know it's commonplace to bend the bails I'm much happier, thanks.

I did wonder about the advice from Scarpa because it was against most of the advice I'd been given elsewhere. Trying kit out in a shop has to be the best way, but now at least I've narrowed down my options a bit!

Thanks everyone.

In reply to NottsRich:

The shop route is the best by far but make sure you try the range as some shops will only stock Grivel and Black Diamond and others will stock Petzl and so on.

I have some spare toe bails I can post to you if your still struggling to find a decent fit.

cheers

Gaz

In reply to NottsRich:
I wasn't really trying to say that, I as more implying that fit could probably be improved by bending the bail bar on the rambo. I didn't go past putting the rambo IV on to it and seeing that the toe bail bar wasn't nearly as good a fit out of the box as a freney.

One issue you may have with the Jorasses is they have a larger rocker on them than most boots. I got some keyland boots that had a very large rocker on them and failed to find any crampons that fitted realy well. In the end I took them back despite the fact they fitted really well and were very comfortable.

Go to a shop and try as many on as you can.

Well that's annoying. I took my boots with me at the weekend but spent too much time climbing that I didn't bother going to a shop. "I'll do it next weekend". Well, guess what, it snowed that very same night, and now I'm stuck without crampons that fit these boots. Typical, eh?

I'm going to investigate the Dartwins, Sarkens and Cyborgs. It might be an expensive week. Thank you for the pointers everyone.

Gazlynn, thanks for the offer of your spare bails. I'll see what I get, and may well take you up on that offer in the future. Thanks.

In reply to NottsRich:

Hi

Any update on this thread? Am in a similar situation with a new pair of Joarasses and not much time (doh!)

Cheers

In reply to zebedoo:
I tried some grivel air tech (new matic) on to them (size 46) and they were an excellent fit - better fit than the sabre tooth clips (althouth the later were not a bad fit). I think this would suggest the G12/G14 would be worth a go also as they are a similar shape.

In reply to zebedoo:

I am selling some dartwins on here that fit them brilliant and what I would of been using on my Jorasses if not injured.

cheers

Gaz

Just a quick update...

After a helpful tipoff, the BD Cyborg Pro is a good fit. The heel and rear bail fit no problem at all. The front points protrude plenty, and the front bail fits well but could do with a little adjustment. The boot sole and crampon top surface are in contact with no gaps.

The Cyborgs I got were fitted with a straight bar and this causes the front section to be slightly off-centre under the boot. I've been told that an asymmetric bar fixes this and so have one on it's way in the post.

I hope that might be useful to other people!

In reply to NottsRich:
Depending how badly offcentre the down points are, you may find the assym bar 'fix' actually cause more problems than it solves, your front points may well become pigeon toed (they certainly did on my freney / sabretooth combo) and point inwards out of line with your kick. It doesn't matter if your down points are a little off centre aslong as they aren't seriously skewed to one side of the boots (or even overhanging the sole in some cases!)

Also you can't bend the bails on BD crampons - they aren't bendy like the other manufacturers bails are. Also as they are a bit wider than the bails from other manufacturers so are less likely to provide a safe/secure fit if you try interchanging them (although I haven't tried this), although I note that Dane does this here: http://coldthistle.blogspot.com/2011/06/vertical-front-point-crampons.html

In reply to NottsRich: if the boots you are talking about are the orange gtx with partial fabric, then i use a pair of old cyborgs, orange front points with flat grey sole pieces, then the fit is good, and mono points line up with big toe.

I also use old messner scissor crampons, again fit is good. Hope this helps.
If you want i can email you pc of set up