Silvretta 500 crampon question///Answered///

I recently picked up some crampons to go with my 500s, but I'll be damned if I can figure out how to make them fit correctly.

There is a hook type attachment at the front of the crampon that obviously fits into a slot at the back of the binding toe piece. With this hook engaged, the swivel locking piece falls directly on a plastic block that joins the two binding rails. If I slide the crampon down, I can engage the swivel lock on the rails, but then the hook in the front is not engaged.

What am I missing? It doesn't look like the block joining the two rails can be moved, and I don't think I can adjust the position of the swivel lock on the binding.

Hopefully the photos will help...
 

It fits in from the top not the bottom.

That's weird.

I have a pair of Silvretta Easy Go's, which I think were introduced a year or two before the 500 model. The Easy Go has carbon fiber rails, but no crossbar. Your crampons would fit an Easy Go, no problem. (I have a pair just like them.)

I wonder why they added the crossbar. What would happen if you removed it?

---
Edited to add:

Check out Lou Dawson's on-line binding museum:

www.wildsnow.com/backcountry-ski-museum/...y-skiing-museum.html

I suspect that Silvretta added the crossbar in later versions of the Easy Go / 500 bindings. Presumedly there is a later version of the ski crampon that would work with your binding. Your crampon fits the original non-crossbar version.

I'm not an AT guy, and I could be way off base here, but is it possible that you have the crampon reversed? Wouldn't they enter to 'bite' more smoothly and hold better when you step down if the rake was aimed to the rear? Would the supposed toepiece catch, if the crampon was reversed 180 front to back, then fit properly onto the block that spans the rails?

Go easy on me, please, - just thinkin out loud...

Yep, tried that. There is no way for the obvious hook/binding attachment to happen. I have also thought that it looked like they were on backwards, but I think Lowell hit it right on the head. The crampons are made for a slightly earlier version of these bindings, one without the additional stabilizer piece between the rails. Silvretta currently sells crampons that *look* like they would work with my bindings, in fact they even reference attaching to the stabilizer bar that is causing all the problems with my current crampons. I think that I must have picked up an older set of crampons.

Believe me, I've tried every other possible configuration and there is really only one way that it would make sense...

Thanks for the input everyone.

OK, one more time. The crampon fits onto the binding from the TOP not the bottom. Place the crampon OVER the rails and attach the toe piece and then clip in the rear. It doesn't attach from the BOTTOM - the crampon goes in-between the crampon rails and your boot.