In reply to all who are being sucked in by marketing:
Stainless is no better than carbon steel. In fact it might well be considerably worse for use in crampons. There are some very good reasons for NOT using stainless steel and one of the few advantages (that it doesn't rust) is easily sorted by drying out your kit properly after each trip out.
Don't believe me? Then take a look at Grivels website....In summary: SS-v-chromolly
1. NO weight advantage - same material density = same weight for the same design.
2. SS is softer (therefore blunts more easily) for the same strength/toughness... (anybody got access to a harness tester to check the alloy that BD are using versus Grivel?)
3. Anti-balling abillty - After they've been scratched to buggery any advantage will be lost, but you're almost certainly going to use anti-balling plates anyway, so who cares ?
4. SS is shiney - they're on the bottom of my feet, so again who cares? A total marketing gimmick.
5. SS doesn't rust. So what? Its not as if you're going in the sea with them. Just dry them and spray with WD40.
The disadvatage of stainless being softer SHOULD easily outweigh any benefit of better cosmetics.
![[Black Diamond Sabretooth Crampons (Clip), 2 kb]](http://img.ukclimbing.com/t/124710.jpg "[Black Diamond Sabretooth Crampons (Clip), 2 kb]")
For the winter season 2009/2010 Black Diamond lifts the evolution of the Cyborg, Serac, and Sabretooth crampons to new spheres —these renowned crampon models now feature stainless steel and a drastically enhanced geometry. This results in a clear and sophisticated design with various performance and durability advantages..
