In reply to Arete:
The front points are an ok length for climbing ice and snow, two of my friends had the newmatic G12 one with nepals and other mantas and both have climbed ice to Scottish V in them no problems. If you are going to climb harder than that you may want to consider some vertical point crampons anyways.
Its not just the front point protrusion to consider here, the G12 newmatic Nepal pairing is a good fit because:
- the downward facing points cover the sole well, they are not located too much to one side or the other.
- the heel unit is well captured by the crampon
- the sole crampon interface is good (ie they are the same shape and no gaps - often you see this at the toe or towards the instep on a less good fit)
- the front point angles are in line with the kick
- another good test of a newmatic crampon is to fit it to the boot and leave all the straps undone and loosened and pick up the boot. The crampon should stay on the boot.
You may well find a crampon with a longer front point protrusion and that may help you on snow or some ice, but then it will work against you mixed climbing or climbing hard ice and the likelihood that it fits the nepals as well as the G12 is low IMO. The points are long enough on the G12 fitted to the nepals. If grivel asked me how to improve them for nepals I would ask for 7 mm or so longer on the front points and slightly wider points towards the base but that's just my 2p worth.