Koflach Verticals with BD sabertooth crampons

[petah]

Just picked up an older pair of Black Diamond Sabertooth crampons from Craig's list. They are maybe 1 to 2 years old.

 

The toe clip does not fit around the welt in the boots.

 

Advice?

[fishstick]

The bigger the boot, the bigger the problem. Subtle work with a disc grinder on the side of the front welts might work, but there may be a secondary issue to consider. Sabretooth crampons are quite asymmetric (curved inwards) while Koflach shells are quite straight. The result is that the front points might stick wierdly inwards, which makes it hard to transmit power when you really need it. The only solution would seem to be non-asymm connector bars, but I don't know if BD makes them.

 

That said, I think welt grinding is necessary from about size 9 and up.

 

Cheers,

 

GB

[petah]

 

It turns out I have an older model of Sabretooths. The BD rep I corresponded with suggested updating the toe bails with a newer version that fits more kinds of boots. I ordered a pair. While there is no guarantee that these will get the crampons on my boots it is a first step. I would like to hold off on grinding and or blacksmithing. Although the BD rep encouraged me not to be afraid of modifying toe bails with a vice and hammer...

 

Thanks for the tip GB!

 

p.

[jshamster]

I used this combo for a few years with no problems.

The updated toe bail will probably solve your woes.

 

That said, I will never use Sabretooths again.

 

Cheers.

Jimbo

[petah]

Jimbo,

 

Why thumbs down on the Sabertooths?

 

 

 

p.

[jshamster]

It's not so much that the Sabertooths are bad, although I don't like the fit on my current boots.

The Charlet Moser Sarkens are just so much better.

Lighter, stronger, and more versatile for all alpine formats.

The BD's are fine for glacier slogs, but I went beyond that pretty quickly.

 

My 2 pesos.

 

Cheers.

Jimbo

[studklimer]

They're too heavy for a glacier slog. Are the sarkens pretty good though? I use the sabretooths for alot of alpine stuff, and they seem to work fairly well. Worth getting a new pair? That much better performance?

[Couloir]

If you have the Sarkens and are interested in ignoring the recall then you could do that. As far as I can tell Petzl has stopped making them. If you have them, you can trade them in for a brand new pair of any Petzl crampons. Which I just learned is a great dealio.