So the story goes like this: heading back to the car along the ice river in Grotto Canyon last night, I suddenly noticed my right foot felt a little weird, as if my crampon had loosened or come off. Surprised that I still had some traction, I looked down to find the front points of my Black Diamond Sabretooth crampons flopping around on the strap.

Details and photos here: Broke my crampons blogpost

Inspect your crampons and stay safe out there!

I've had problems with crampons lately as well. My old (awesome) Grivel Rambo 4's were at the end of their life after 3 or 4 hard seasons. Without really thinking about it I replaced them with new Grivel Rambo 4's. For some reason Grivel has gone from the flexible yellow antibot to a rigid plastic antibot of the same shape. The hard plastic has predictably shattered from walking on rocks (within a handful of uses). Not only are they less durable but the also suck because when you step on anything like a rock or a cauliflower, it just skates around on the hard plastic. They also ball up quite a lot. Not sure what Grivel was thinking there.

I'm currently test-driving a pair of G22's. So far I'm very impressed, but I've only had them out once.

K

My brother had a similar experience, with my sabretooth's, at Grotto. Must be some weird things going on in the Canyon this year...

Seriously though, mine fractured in the same place. I'm planning on bringing them back to Dave at Wicked Gravity as I'm sure BD will want to know about this.

That looks like exactly the same place mine broke. Unless there's a third pair, BD already know about yours as well...

I wonder if it's all the flat-ice walking on the Grotto approach?


Karel: Those are my exact issues with the Rambos! I have a pair, and naturally the plastic is cracked and broken in several places, but the biggest issue is the lack of flex in the anitbot- stepping on features, my feet skate off because the point don't even have a chance of contacting the ice.

I'm glad to hear you're liking the G22's - I've been looking hard at the G20's and G22's to replace my Rambos and G14s.

Yowsers...I had hoped it was only the clipped version and not the Pro as well. That is the earlier version with less metal in the toe area but sheeeeeeeeeeet!

What kind of boots were used and what kind of time frames?

Nice photo. Just what you'd want to see halfway up a pitch.

I'd wager we're just seeing the long(er) term consequence of their shift to using stainless instead of other steel alloys. (After all, there's a reason why they don't make pins out of it.) There's always the possibility it's a QC issue, but from where they fractured it looks more like a fatigue issue to me.

I've never really heard what prompted BD to switch in the first place.

To quote the BD website: "Distinctive stainless steel construction doesn't rust, is more durable, resists snow balling and saves weight"

I agree that it doesn't rust... the rest I think are a pure PR and Marketing spiel.

I've broken two pairs of BD crampons in the last 5 years. Putting up a new route on gear an old Sabretooth frame cracked, similar to your photos, and fell of my foot. I thought wiser than to call the route by the first name that came to mind; BD Crampons Suck. The second time wss a Cyborg where the frame in the forefoot also cracked, much like in the photo also. I had a Rage snap in half half way up the shaft. The Viper bump on my Vipers kept popping off at inopportune moments as well.

Only in one of the four cases did anyone warranty the stuff, and that was because I was friends with someone at a store. Twice I contacted BD about the problems and no one seemed too worried. Imagine if a wheel fell off a GM, you contacted the company and no one did anything. This is about the same degree of severity I would think snapping a tool half way up a pitch would be.

Anyway, my Fusions seem solid and I don't break picks anymore so it seems maybe they're doing a better job on quality control on certain products, but it does seem worrying that their crampons are still snapping in the frame. Used to think Petzl/Moser gear was infallible but it seems from recent Nomic problems that maybe is not so anymore, and who knows what you're getting if you buy Petzl gear these days , wink.

Nepal Evo's

Nepal Evos?

OK, that eliminates one theory.

How old and how much walking in them. I agree looks to be a serious problem to me. And, having just packed two pair of Sabers for a 6 week trip.