Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Gear Lust / Lost & Found

Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

Topic Date User

recommendations for mountaineering hammer/crampons 1-Aug-2006 At 6:19:31 PM LGJ

Message

I've seen several comments that recommend going for the petzl vasak's (horizontal front points) rather than the sarkens (vertical front points) and similarly the grivel g12's over the g14's. I'm at a stage where I want to buy my first set of crampons and start using them in NZ.

Are these recommendations because the sarkens break? Or do most people find that horizontal front points are better for all round use than vertical points?

I don't expect to be climbing hard steep routes anytime soon, and so one train of thought is that horizontal points would be ok. But as someone said, it's not a matter of if the ice bug bites, but when. So the other train of thought is, might as well get vertical points as they're more versatile.

I guess what I'm getting at is: are vertical front points EVER a disadvantage in the mountains? Eg are they noticeably worse on say steep soft snow slopes? If not, then surely getting vertifcal front points seems like the better option??