Strap on Crampons?

[MisterT]

I bought a pair of Black Diamond strap on crampons. When I put them on my leather mountaineering boots, I have a tremendous amount of the strap left over, should I be trimming this down or did I put them on wrong?

[DirtyHarry]

How are we to know if you put them on right without seeing how you put them on?

[mattp]

Do not trim it down. Another pair of boots may require the longer strap.

 

I don't know how your lacing system works, but do you have an "extra" wrap around the ankle - that is, does the lace go completely around your ankle in an unbroken loop somewhere in the system? This helps assure against loss if the crampon comes off your heel or something.

 

Take any extra strap and tie it through your bootlaces or whatever you have to do to keep it out of the way.

[Squid]

[G-spotter]

if u dont trim it down now, u will always have emergency rappel webbings with u if bring knife also

[MisterT]

OK. Just so you can see what I am doing here is a picture. As you can see there is a lot of the extra strap left over. I start the whole procedure by strapping the front of the ankle, throught the inside ankle strap and then through the toe hole and back to the ankle on the outside. How much do I trim? I tried the crampons on my ski boots (to try and simulate plastic mountaineering boots) and if I trim it to suit the ski boots, I still have too much webbing for the leather boots.

Edited March 4, 2006 by MisterT

[mattp]

If you have enough, take an extra wrap around your ankle. I have seen lots of people lose the heel cup when the laces loosened or they lost a set screw or something. A complete loop around the ankle will prevent loss and, I'd say, if you cannot make that extra loop your crampon straps are in fact too short, not too long. On the first pass around the front of your ankle, can you take an extra loop all the way around your ankle and then to the inside attachment point?

 

And, by the way, I usually loop the front first and then go back and do the loop-loop around the ankle. I'm not sure it matters either way, but maybe somebody here has a theory on this.

[knelson]

Another vote for "don't cut it" and just tie it off to your shoelace or something. My straps are leather and I tuck the tail up under the wrap around my ankle and it stays put for most the day. Having a long tail on it makes it alot easier to tighten up with gloves/mitts on. Cut it too short and you can't get any leverage in pulling it tight through the buckle.

 

-kurt

[Arc]

Trim them down, they look will look and make you feel better.

The day I went to trimmed straps.....my life changed.

[MisterT]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

 

mattp, looks like my straps are too short for your wrapping around the ankle. When I try it this way, I am 3-4 inches short in the strap. I do like your theory with the ankle wrap. On my next outting I will just tie in the laces and see how that works. Thanks.