UKC

Has anyone ever managed to straighten bent crampon points?

I bent several of the points on my crampons (Charlet Moser M10's) in a fall and am worried that they will catch on my gaiters / overtrousers etc. and not bite the snow properly.

Any suggestions?

In reply to Robert F.:
Use a metalwork vice.

In reply to Robert F.:
Which points and how badly?

The M10 is a technical crampon so if the front points were doubled back then I wouldn't try to straighten them.
If they are modular then you can replace the points.
I am no metallurgist, but I now that bending hardened steel is likely to cause cracks. These maybe already be present following your fall.

In reply to Robert F.:

Crampons are cheap - chuck them. If you bent them back in to shape you will require only about 1/4 the force of last time to bend them out again - if you do anything at all serious (which I assume you do with M10s) the it is not worth the risk.

In reply to John I: Unfortunately they are all side / back points - the front points are replaceable.

In reply to Tom P: Crampons are not that cheap! I know there are problems with bending them back (not least that it's almost impossible to do on hardened steel) which was why I wondered if anyone else had done it successfully.

In reply to Robert F.:
If the remaining (side-mounted) four front points aren't effected then put them in a vice and use a big lever.
You can probably afford to lose them if they accidentaly snap off.
However (as the above post stated) they will be more prone to bending in the future.

In reply to Robert F.:

Snow and Rock are selling BD sabertooths for £50 and Switchblades for £40 at the moment - you can normally pick them up for about this price in the sales - personally I think that is cheap for a pair or crampons!

In reply to John and Tom:

Thanks both of you. #50 for BD Sabretooth is a good price - I hadn't seen them that cheap before. At that price I think maybe I will just replace them.

In reply to Tom P:

£40 for Switchblades... That is class.. I bought a pair of these from S&R last year and I thought that was a bargain... Greta crampons...

In reply to Eugene: Ooops... I paid £80 then for them

In reply to Eugene:

Dont know where I can get anti-balling plates for them do you - or any suggestions on making some up.

In reply to Tom P:

Are you talking about about M10, Sabretooth or Switchblade?

I am only aware of universal anti-ball plates by Grivel and Mountain Technology but both of these clip over flat front points (not 'pie-cutter').
Charlet Moser produce an anti-ball plate specifically for the M10 and maybe this could be adapted.

This summer, my alpine partner shaped some thin Karrimat and strapped it to a pair of Rambos with gaffer tape.
This seemed to work quite well, but it did need a bit of
maintenance.





- or any suggestions on making some up.

In reply to Tom P: use tape-gaffer tape or parcel tape it dosen't last for ever but nor do anti-balling plates and it costs 50p a roll or free if you work in an office

In reply to Anonymous:

and have no qualms about stealing from your employer!!

In reply to CENSORED: who does?

In reply to chris:

I want some anti-bs for the switchblades (just the back half of the crampon by design) which I have just acquired. How long does gaffa tend to work for - would you be able to do, say, a 20 hour mixed route before having to replace it? Would be a pain to have to do it mid-route - and you normally only need it on the approach and descent anyway.

In reply to Tom P: I tend to have to tape them up every couple of trips osy although the routes I do don't sound as impressive as yourself the tape happlily survived curved ridge for example

In reply to Tom P:
If you use the karrimat & gaffer tape solution, then this works fairly well.
I suggest that you fix both front and back because the front tends to 'ball up' more than the heel.

We christened the prototype on a two day ascent of the Aiguille d'Argentiere North Face from Argentiere.
The wet afternoon snow was finding its way between boot and karrimat at the end but even bespoke anti-ball plates were succumbing.

The route involved descending from the Grand Montets top station, crossing the Argentiere glacier(dry), traversing the Col du Chardonnet(snow, rubble and ice), climbing the 700m North Face and descending the snow route on SW Flank, then following the Argentiere glacier down.
This should compare favourably with any routes that you might have planned.
After this outing they looked fairly servicable but you would probably want to tidy them up before a repeat.

In reply to John I:
Oh yes!. Use proper fabric 'gaffer' tape, the brown parcel tape won't last 5 minutes on ice or scree.

In reply to Tom P:
For emergency anti balling you could carry a couple of plastic carrier bags, stick the spikes through the bags and then put your crampons on your boots. it may not last long but may stop a slip on balled up crampons while descending soft afternoon snow. Others may say how good this is who have used it, I just remember a posting about it.

In reply to John I:

thanks for the advice - sounds good

In reply to chris: I do, I'm self-employed!!

In reply to Tom P: Other thing you could try is fizzy drinks bottles made of PET - cut them to shape and fix them on with wire and they should last as well as anti baling plates that you buy. But I have to admit that I made a set for one pair of crampons but then bought a new pair of crampons anyway and promptly bought Grivel plates to go with them, so the fizzy drink bottles version has only seen a couple of trips. Worked fine though.

What I can never understand is how I put up with whacking my boots with an axe every few steps for so long before I discovered how much easier life is with anti balling plates.

Hope this is helpful,

Andy