Designed to be the lightest technical crampon in the world and, at under 900g a pair, it is certainly light and an obvious progression to weight saving at the top end of the crampon market.
It uses a new mono-rail technology (patented) and although it still has 12 points, it is a mono point and several of the other points lie under the centre of boot rather than under the edges of the boot, though we can't see this causing any problems once you get used to it.
The mono-point is replaceable and there is a second offset and much shorter front point to aid stability on steep ice.
This Evo model has three major changes over the previous version:
- New heel lever is lighter and has only one moving part (as opposed to five) but still adjusts to all suitable boots.
- The webbing tape is narrower (12mm as opposed to 14mm) and lighter.
- The buckle has been redesigned to be lighter and more compact but still give a strong hold.
All this means that Cramp-o-Matic and New-Matic models are 54g lighter that their predecessors, whilst New-Classic models are 14g lighter.
NB This crampon is designed for steep ice climbing and buttress routes of around Scottish V and above. It is not a suitable crampon for hill walking or general mountaineering. Do buy if you are a Mick Fowler type pushing the limits in the high Himalaya, for higher grade Scottish winter stuff and maybe for pure water ice.
Fit only to a B3 Mountaineering Boot.