BD Neve crampons in "walk" mode design flaw?

well you'll be happy to know that I'm now enrolled in the Black Diamond Remedial Shopping program. Just a little fringe benefit they offer to those who actually read product descriptions and act on them... boy, I do hope they serve good food like that man who sits on the couch and talks to his dog all the time.

I would think the priority for any manufacture would be to have equipment that was compatible with their products. There are too many variables to consider for a piece of equipment to work perfectly with all other brands without compromising performance. Yea, it would piss me off too if I ordered something and it did live up to my expectations.

If you are set on an aluminum 10 point crampon you might as well go with a strap-on rather than step-in. You could save even more weight, performance will be about the same since you won’t be climbing ice, and they are more compatible with other footwear. Just something to think about.

Did you purchase these crampons over that interweb thing ?

An advantgage of buying at your local brick and mortar shop is you could bring your boots in and see how they fit before purchase -- then you might have found a pair that worked out of the box.

BTW the ski mountaineering crampons on my short list are the C.A.M.P XLC 390s -- an all aluminum automatic binding wieghing just 390 grams. 1/3 the weight of my ancient Selawahs

Thanks Dave.

I would think the priority for any manufacture would be to have equipment that was compatible with their products.

I get what your saying, but BD is not Apple (to make a computer analogy). As far as I can tell there's no sort of BD product positioning along those lines. If you claim that your crampon is made for touring boots (and not only BD boots)... well then, Scarpa is far from obscure. It should fit and fit safely.

If you are set on an aluminum 10 point crampon you might as well go with a strap-on rather than step-in.

I thought about that, but there again I'm trusting that the crampon is made for what it's stated to be made for. I'm trading versatility for a solid fit. (or so I thought...)


Randy -

Did you purchase these crampons over that interweb thing ?

yes (as mentioned above)

An advantgage of buying at your local brick and mortar shop is you could bring your boots in and see how they fit before purchase -- then you might have found a pair that worked out of the box.

yes that's the lecture I got from BD too (as mentioned above) and (as mentioned above)I'm already enlisted in the BD remedial shopping program... 

Seriously though, have you hauled your boots all over town doing this? And calculated the time it takes to do this? Not to mention doing this when most stores have already shifted their inventory because supposedly the season has changed (hey, where's my corn? it's not even here yet..!).

And besides, is it totally unreasonable to trust manufacturer's claims?
My experience with BD is that yes, it is...

I’m a blue collar skier, and it’s very frustrating to spend the kind of money these gear items demand to find flaws… especially for products with flaws that compromise their safety. And so I am always highly interested in how companies stand behind their products. I give product feedback to manufacturers… and put customer support as high on the list as the quality/function of the product.

It’s a valid argument that not any product will be compatible with every option, and design flaws sometimes escape the engineering process… but this is where customer support comes in. It should never be a difficult thing to please the customer.

I also think the quality of customer support should be shared with the community. Thanks for sharing this post.

I've used my (older, I assume) Neve Pros on Scarpa F3's and never noticed a problem. cumulus, are you certain this would result in a failure of the strap? I'm on TLT5 Mtns now, which do not have this problem.