UKC

Hi there,

I thought I'd draw upon the collective wisdom of UKC before taking the plunge and buying a new pair of crampons.
I'm looking for a pair for scottish winter climbing mainly (alpine and winter walking is already sorted, I have a pair of G12s- but they are a bit lacking in the front point dept- especially with my rather narrow-toed phantom ultras, and I'd prefer full automatic).
I thought the Edelrid Sharks looked really good for what I want (unlikley to be on anything harder than grade IV), and a bit more affordable than G14s, but don't know anyone who has used them, or anywhere I'd be able to look at some in the flesh; so if anyone has any knowledge or experience with these it'd be really helpful!
Cheers

In reply to Strachan:
Why would you prefer fully automatic? I think the newmatic fitting is better for numerous reasons:
- Quicker to put on
- more robust to staying on
- if well fitted less movement of boot without crampon, bail bars always move a bit as the bar can often flex a bit as well as move a bit side to side.
- fixed front point protrusion, with fully automatic crampons the front point protrusion reduces with time as the sole rubber wears down and the toe bail bar bends. With my G14s and my scarpa freneys I've found that I need to order rambo bails to help solve this problem.

Do you intend to keep your G12's or are you aiming to replace them?

In reply to Strachan:
What is the front point protrusion of your G12's?

Measure this by fitting to boots and standing on floor, put a piece of thin card across toe of the boots and measuring how much the front points protrude in the horizontal plane (ie parallel to the floor NOT the length of the points themselves)

In reply to CurlyStevo: Have to agree with you about semi automatic. For general mountaineering I think they are far far better than fully automatic and at that sort of grade you'll not notice a real difference in performance from a fully stiffened boot IMO - I don't use B3 anymore as I just find for the number of routes I do at a stiff grade, I'd rather have the comfort of a B2 on the walk in - if you buy fully auto crampons you don't have that choice and you just have to put up with stiff boots. Plus toe bails never seem to fit quite right and you end up hammering the shit out of them to get them to fit right whereas semi auto you just fit to whatever boot you use. G14s are decent enough crampons though quite heavy - they're all duty... just a heads up but before looking at BD, take a look at Danes coldthistle blog about stainless sabretooths - they seem to have an inherent design flaw... http://coldthistle.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/it-is-dead-horse-more-on-stainles...

In reply to Strachan: The Sharks look a really clever design but mainly in terms of the universal binding system that means they'll fit all sorts of boots. But beyond that they look like classic 12 points which means they'll probably not climb so differently from the G12s you already have.

In reply to mike kann:
Quite a lot of the B3 boots now a days have quite a bit of flex (for a b3 boot) and are not too bad for walking in. My freneys despite being B3 have quite a lot of flex and if anything the jorasses have more flex. Both these have noticeably more flex than nepals do which in turn flex more than most plastics would.

BTW I have some BD stainless steel sabretooths bought after I read Danes article (and are the more resent model with extra reinforcing metal on them). Personally I'm not worried but I do inspect them for hair line cracks a bit more than I would a normal crampon. I don't think BD would continue with the line if there really are a significant number of problems with the stainless steal on the newer models.

One thing I don't like with the scarpa B3 boots is the front lug being made of rubber, it bends worryingly if you use the boots without crampons (summer alpinism etc) when stepping on small holds.

In reply to TobyA: Agree with Toby, here. As a standard 12 pointer they will be much the same as a G12. I have been using a preproduction version of the Shark for a bit and quite liked it, although it has taken some getting used to for climbing on rock (due to the 3D form of the front points). http://www.jamesthacker-mountaineering.co.uk/media-resources/equipment-revi...

Have just received a pair of the EDELRID Beasts and really looking forward to trying these out. Might be an option for something a bit more technical. First look here - but yet to use them in anger... http://www.jamesthacker-mountaineering.co.uk/media-resources/equipment-revi...

In reply to Strachan: Interested to know what difference you think the shark will have compared to the G12's? If you're planning to upgrade from G12's I would look at horizontal points that can be swapped between mono and dual such as the G14.