Wednesday, 25 June 2025

New Leopard crampons

PXL_20250625_171955768 This summer one possible plan is to walk around a bit, and climb a bit, requiring crampons and axe, but only sometimes. We already have lightweight axes, but my existing crampons are not light. I have two sorts: the traditional steel ones (yellow), and a lighter aluminium pair (blue) echoing D's. These weight 1053 and 728 grams for a pair, respectively. The new ones weight 384 (orange; these are flexlock not leverlock), a saving of 340 grams, well worth having. They also pack up a little smaller. I notice that the steel ones are Grivel, the aluminium ones Salewa, and these (also aluminium) are Petzl; here's their website (arch). They advertise them as "Ultra-lightweight crampon for ski touring and snow approaches".

The downsides are threefold: they are a bit more of a pain to get on; they don't have anti-balling plates; and they may be less securely attached. Exactly how well attached remains to be seen; but I walked round the garden in them and front-pointed a tree, so they seem fine so far.

Online, you'll see people dissing aluminium crampons, and initially - years ago - I was nervous, but I've scrambled over rock in them quite happily and they were what I wore to Scotland last winter and they survived The Runnel quite happily.

Caveat: the pair I have are at the limit of their lengthening (notice the little recesses to pull the string back into). If you have boots above size 11, Petzl say "Boot sizes: 36-46".

Here it is fitted to my boots:

PXL_20250623_161901569

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