Monday 4 February 2013

New Edelrid Crampons for 2013

As I have a day off today, but the weather is awful. I thought I would share a little about some new crampons that will be out this year.  As some might be aware, Edelrid produced a new range of ice axes last year, with the Rage being part of a tool review on UKC recently.  Over the last year or so, they have also been improving their crampons.  I have been using the old range of the Samba and Salsa for around 3 years, and have been delighted with the way they perform.  The New range however, looks to be a step forwards again.  The BEAST will replace the Samba and be an aggressive crampon that can be either dual or mono point.  It is extremely light weight and has good solid anti balling plates.  The SHARK (which I currently have) will replace the Salsa as their general all round climbing/mountaineering crampon.  So what do you get and how much?
The SHARK crampon fitted on the New Garmont Icon Plus GTX

Some stats:

SHARK £140.
Weight: 880g
Excellent pre formed anti balling plate that is screwed to the crampon for an almost seamless fit.
Optimal Fitting flexibility: They come with all the fittings to make the crampons either Automatic, Semi Automatic or Soft.
SHARK in Semi Automatic mode
SHARK in Soft mode

I have have been very happy with these so far whilst using them for work.  They have performed well on ice and mixed up to Tech 6, and have been easy to use.  Defo keep an eye out for these, and think outside the normal brands when buying this winter.

2 comments:

Rob said...

How does that buckle work on the strap?
Is it a f clip. re-thread something else ?
and well or poor im thinking of iceng up
and end of day ?

they look excellent 800g is way light

Rob Stone

Adam Hughes said...

It is the same buckle regardless of set up. It's more of an f buckle and has been working really well. All the 're thread/zip ones I have had in the past work loose when frozen in snowy crusty conditions. These have stayed put so far.