Ice Gear advice wanted

[Stacey]

La Sportiva Nepals are a good solid boot that will last you.

Also, i know through the grape vine that Scarpa is coming out with a new boot line soon.
Chris

a new boot line? oh no! I have Nepals now - that I love for WI ice...but heavy for mountaineering...so just got La Sportiva Trango Evos which are super light...

Stace

[gwa]

I used my new Rambo 4's on Sunday in Parlee. They sure bite nice. What an improvement over the old mono's I used last year! It was my first day using the new rambo's and the first day on ice this year so it'll take a few more days of climbing in them before I know if I like them.

What I wanted to say was about the antibotts that come with them. I was surprised last week to open the box and see that the antibott was one piece of black plastic. The product description from Grivel and MEC was that there were two yellow rubber sections in the antibott to help pop snow off. I called MEC about it, they were kind of confused that there were no yello rubber sections on mine. They checked the other stock none of them had the rubber sections. So I guess Grivel changed the antibott design and hasn't told anyone yet. Maybe for the better. I didn't notice any snow/ice build up all day, despite getting them wet a number of times.

When I took off my Rambo's at the end of the day on Sunday I found that both antibott's had broken in the same place . The plastic snapped right off where the heel section attaches to the connector under the arch. I don't see how the lack of yellow rubber section on my antibotts could have contributed to them breaking. But maybe the new design is weaker? Unfortunately the antibott is integrated into the whole crampon and acts as the spacer for the front point. I can't just remove it.

I expect this equipment to hold up to moderate abuse. I'm going to contact MEC about it. But don't want to send them back at the start of ice season. Any other Rambo users out there have thoughts on this? Was I too rough with them?

[Andrew]

I'll let you know how I make out. My Rambo 4's just came in today. Now I'm worried they will fail. Arg. As long as they still adjust and still work on the ice and stay on my boots, I'm happy. Maybe there will be a recall and they'll send out replacement parts.

Meanwhile, my Nomics were scheduled to be delivered today; however, that hasn't come to pass yet. I guess they have till 7:00PM technically. We'll see how it all turns out.

Andrew

I used my new Rambo 4's on Sunday in Parlee. They sure bite nice. What an improvement over the old mono's I used last year! It was my first day using the new rambo's and the first day on ice this year so it'll take a few more days of climbing in them before I know if I like them.

What I wanted to say was about the antibotts that come with them. I was surprised last week to open the box and see that the antibott was one piece of black plastic. The product description from Grivel and MEC was that there were two yellow rubber sections in the antibott to help pop snow off. I called MEC about it, they were kind of confused that there were no yello rubber sections on mine. They checked the other stock none of them had the rubber sections. So I guess Grivel changed the antibott design and hasn't told anyone yet. Maybe for the better. I didn't notice any snow/ice build up all day, despite getting them wet a number of times.

When I took off my Rambo's at the end of the day on Sunday I found that both antibott's had broken in the same place . The plastic snapped right off where the heel section attaches to the connector under the arch. I don't see how the lack of yellow rubber section on my antibotts could have contributed to them breaking. But maybe the new design is weaker? Unfortunately the antibott is integrated into the whole crampon and acts as the spacer for the front point. I can't just remove it.

I expect this equipment to hold up to moderate abuse. I'm going to contact MEC about it. But don't want to send them back at the start of ice season. Any other Rambo users out there have thoughts on this? Was I too rough with them?

[chossmonkey]

I expect this equipment to hold up to moderate abuse. I'm going to contact MEC about it. But don't want to send them back at the start of ice season. Any other Rambo users out there have thoughts on this? Was I too rough with them?

I got a pair of R4's a few years back, they didn't fit my boots very well so I ended up sending them back. At that time they had a bit too much plastic on them for my tastes. They shouldn't have broken the first day regardless of how rough you are with them, unless you were purposely trying to break them. They should be made to stand up to heavy kicking and stomping.

[Fred]

I have the R4's and the antibote is now plastic as you described but I have not had any problems with mine. This seems to be the new design. The R3's had the conventional rubber antibots but they are black from what I recall.

[anderfo]

I see that some people wrote you would want leashes on multipitch - but after starting with Nomic I've never used leashes even though I climb mainly multipitch. I hate clipping/unclipping from the leashes every time I want to place an ice screw, and if I'm in the leashes I can't shake out or match. If I don't shake out I'll loose the feeling after 15 meters of climbing and when the feeling comes back it hurts like hell.

So, instead, if you're afraid of dropping tools and can't afford bringing an extra pair of tools (hehe), you could have something like Grivel Double Spring which can be clipped to the tools so you won't drop them - but still your hands are completely free to shake out and place screws. It's the best of two worlds.
PS. Those springs are not guaranteed to hold a fall (that's not the point) but they will hold a falling axe. They may also hold your weight when placing a screw if you're too pumped to hold on to your axes, but that's not the main purpose...and if you're too pumped to place screws you should find something easier

[Matt Peck]

Im suprised to hear so many people going with the R4's over the G 14. I've found the G 14 to be an extremely versatile crampon, and easier to use in any format where there is any ammount of walking involved. I still have mine set up as duals and have done a fair ammount of Dry-tooling with them and they've been great. They are slightly lighter and slightly less expensive typically than the R4, and they fit more boots on average. The Anti-bot is two plastic sections with rubber domes in them to flex out the snow, which work perfectly. My only dislike is there is a section of ribbed tubing covering the spacer bar that keeps me from collapsing the ends together for transport. I just ended up removing it though.

[Jon Corey]

I made some cheap anti-bots out of an old crazy carpet and heavy duty zip ties. occasionally a tie will snap but it is very easy to fix and as a bonus it was cheap.
just make sure the holes in the crazy carpet are drilled or use something like a leather punch.

[*Chris*]

Good stuff Jon. I just recently read about somebody using a crazy carpet to rebuild their haul bag. Bomber!

[Stef]

When I took off my Rambo's at the end of the day on Sunday I found that both antibott's had broken in the same place . The plastic snapped right off where the heel section attaches to the connector under the arch. I don't see how the lack of yellow rubber section on my antibotts could have contributed to them breaking. But maybe the new design is weaker? Unfortunately the antibott is integrated into the whole crampon and acts as the spacer for the front point. I can't just remove it.

I expect this equipment to hold up to moderate abuse. I'm going to contact MEC about it. But don't want to send them back at the start of ice season. Any other Rambo users out there have thoughts on this? Was I too rough with them?

I bought a bought a new pair of Rambos over Christmas, and the same thing happened. Broken antibott's after the second time out on ice . Did MEC ever do anything for you?

[gwa]

I bought a new pair of Rambos over Christmas, and the same thing happened. Broken antibott's after the second time out on ice . Did MEC ever do anything for you?

Hey Stef, what were they thinking eh? Way too much plastic on these Rambo in my opinion.

To be honest I haven't contacted MEC yet. I still plan to but at this point in the season I'm hesitant to ship my crampons back and miss a couple weeks of climbing

I have been out in wet snow twice and had snowballing. But then again I don't have much to compare this to. Otherwise the Rambo's are awesome on ice!

[Fred]

They must have changed the design again this year because stef's are different again from mine. Same plastic antibot but no yellow cups just full-on flat black plastic. Given that the yellow cups are popping out on mine I suspect this was an issue and they've tried to fix it. Looks like they re-invented the wheel on this one but made it square!

[Andrew]

Ian and I took my Rambo 4's out for their maiden voyage (or climb, as it were) on NY's day. Both anti-bots are broken.

They broke right where the rear meets the accordion. Doesn't seem to affect anything. the plastic's just cracked. Not all the plastic is flat/flush whatever with everything else. It's basically bad plastic fitting.

Seems like no big deal to me a the moment and I will use them as they are.

[mathieu]

Im suprised to hear so many people going with the R4's over the G 14. I've found the G 14 to be an extremely versatile crampon, and easier to use in any format where there is any ammount of walking involved. I still have mine set up as duals and have done a fair ammount of Dry-tooling with them and they've been great. They are slightly lighter and slightly less expensive typically than the R4, and they fit more boots on average. The Anti-bot is two plastic sections with rubber domes in them to flex out the snow, which work perfectly. My only dislike is there is a section of ribbed tubing covering the spacer bar that keeps me from collapsing the ends together for transport. I just ended up removing it though.

Hey Matt, do you use the G14 as mono points? How do you find them? Everyone I climb with looks at my mono point and comment on how short they are.

[anderfo]

Im suprised to hear so many people going with the R4's over the G 14. I've found the G 14 to be an extremely versatile crampon, and easier to use in any format where there is any ammount of walking involved. I still have mine set up as duals and have done a fair ammount of Dry-tooling with them and they've been great. They are slightly lighter and slightly less expensive typically than the R4, and they fit more boots on average. The Anti-bot is two plastic sections with rubber domes in them to flex out the snow, which work perfectly. My only dislike is there is a section of ribbed tubing covering the spacer bar that keeps me from collapsing the ends together for transport. I just ended up removing it though.

I use Cassin C14: ...which are very similar to Grivel G14: . I agree with your description - at least C14 is lighter, fits more boots and is easier to pack than the R4's. With C14 I am also able to collapse the ends together, and I can configure them as duo or mono.
Additional feature: I can configure them with one long and one short frontpoint, like on R4, so that they work almost like mono on rock/mixed/hard ice and as duo on soft ice - just like I want it... I guess you can do the same on G14? Anyone else tried it? (if I explained it too bad, let me know and I can post a photo or something)

[Stan]

Petzl M10 are similar to C14. I like the design of the secondary points. They don't come with antibotts though, and I can't justify spending almost $50+tax on two pieces of plastic.