UKC

Anyone know much about swapping toe bails between different crampons?

I have a set of Blue Ice Harfang Techs, looking for a set of wider toe bails to fit ski boots (i.e. the OEM 'Standard' bails). Currently live in NZ which doesn't stock Blue Ice kit anywhere. Anyone know if the equivalent 'Wide' bails from Black Diamond or similar will fit?

Ta.

In the past I've used petzl with grivel bails, there isn't to many compatibility issues but be aware that BD has a thicker guage wire than petzl. i know it's not much help but BD is quite thick, I would start with grivel G20/22 bails I had to bend mine a little to fit.

Cheers! I've ordered some BD ones to try out - unfortunately New Zealand doesn't have many options available. No-one stocks grivel toe bails here!

I can only confirm that the BD wire will fit through Blue Ice holes, I only have the Harfang tech and mono and a normal BD bail. It was however too narrow to fit the Harfang mono which I think is essentially the same front section as the tech.

I remember the BD wide bail being quite sloppy and loose on my Snaggletooths and overall one of the easiest to fit and much easier to compel into the holes on the opposite side. So you may have some luck.

Just be aware the wings on the BD wide crampon actually stick out quite a bit which can make them easy to snag with the points of your other crampon and one of the reasons I swapped to the BI crampons.

Thanks for the info! I'll see how I get on with them when they arrive.

Where in NZ are you?  I'm heading to Wanaka in September.  

Many years ago I put some camp toe bails on a set on Mountain Technology Ice Viper crampons.  They fitted well... until the rogue pitch on Point 5 when one popped out.  I finished the pitch, and route with one crampon.  The problem was that the rectangle hole in the crampon where you insert the bar of the toe bail, lined up with the flattened part of the bail bar.  I thought the stiffness of the bail would keep it from popping out, but I didn't realise the forces involved when kicking into ice.  Make sure the bail cannot pop out of the holes!!!!  Don't risk it if there are any doubts!!!

I actually live in Wanaka! Not doing much of anything at the moment after tearing some ligaments in my shoulder though. Happy to share guidebooks, beta, etc though.

Thansk for the word of warning! 

Aha, hope your recovery happens quickly.  I'm just hatching plans but should have a couple of weeks for mountaineering.  

Thanks. Probably won't be up to much at that point (maybe some friendly grade 1-2 routes) but give me a shout if you're about and need anything.