Grivel Crampons? Respect is due....

G20 prior to the release of the improved G20




The blog allows me to see gear and comments from around the world on a daily basis and in a timely manner.



I had and used the G20 and G22 for a couple of years now off and on. G12s previous to that.









While climbing in Scarpa boots the majority of timehas made the Grivel factory front bail fitting rather problematic for me. So I shied away from Grivel on my Scarpas and generally just climbed in the Petzl offerings.



Dave Searl loved his first pair of G20s todeath. I offer the titlephoto of this blog post as proof. That is Dave's "used"G20 above. Used ( and worn out) mind youwearing the same Scarpa boots that I seem to fretso on the fit. :-)



http://coldthistle.blogspot.com//11/grivels-g20-monopoint.html



Three places I don't fret about the G20's fit? That would bethe La Sportiva Spantik,the Dynafit TLT 5 or the Dynafit DyNA Series of boots.



The G20 and the G22 are the best fitting crampons I have seen out of the box for the TLT ski boots that I occasionallychoose to ice climb in.








If I am climbing ice in ski boots, I am generally soloing. And I really do fret about a crampon failure while instainless.


Which brings me to the point of the conversation. Back in the fall of Dave broke the connecting bar on one of his G20s while climbing at the Zoo. TheZoo is a small mixed crag just out of the Chamonix valley at Le Feyet. But plenty of climbing to be had there on a rainy day when the mountains are not an option.



The Grivel factory took a quickinterest in the broken G20 and immediately replaced not just the broken connecting barbut replaced Dave'spair of totally worn out crampons as well! That of course made Davea happy lad! And to be honest, really impressed me. But the story didn't stop there. Hard to imagine I know, looking at how another crampon companyhasand continues to handle their own crampon failures...



Griveldidn't stop by just replacingDave's the totally worn out G20s with new ones. They took a very close look at why they failed. Then they kept looking for ways to improve the earlierversion.



Grivel went looking for the reason of the failure and how it could be done better and prevent the next failure. No excuses, no questioningthe customer' skill level, no blame on the use or abuse of the product,no Internet blather and tasty talk, no "lost" crampons and no obvious public tap dance.



Thank GOD!



It is clear now thattwo ofthe three biggest players in ice gear...what ever the problem.....just do the right thing and then.......get on with life.



My new pair of G20s and a pair of Haute Route crampons showed up on UPS today. Which Ipaid for BTW. Theyweren't freebies.






photo courtesy of Krister Jonsson



http://alpinemadness.blogspot.com/


Both were purchased specifically for my Dynafit TLTs boots. The G20sfor real climbing,Cham's alpine ice in mind. The light weight Haute Route versionfor the NW volcanos. They both fit my TLTS almost like they were made for them. Close enough for me not to fret anyway.








My older G22s are the same perfect fit.




Respect and props are due Grivel here. Grivelhas immediately replaced the fewpair of broken crampons I have heard of in the last three years. (and none were an obvious flaw in design or materials) They have also takena critical look at the parts that were failing on occasion and redesigned them for the better. No excuses, no song and dance routine. They simply made it better. IMO much better. All this in less than five months of the first broken connecting bar to appear.



I had mentioned this before but failed to realise just how big the effort really was to come up with a better connecting bar for the G20/G22. My G20s came with two full pages of printed literature describing what was done differently. If you are new to Grivel, likely you would never notice. I'm not, and did.



http://coldthistle.blogspot.com//03/another-look-at-grivel-and-g20.html



"Grivel cares about the perfect fit."



What I have quoted above isthe first sentence in Grivel's informative two page, multi languagehand out that come in the crampon box for the G20 and both versions of the G22. Take it to the bank..or on your next solo. Grivel does care about your crampon fit and your personal safety. The effort didn't go unnoticed. Respect is due. Thank youGrivel!






Dane's new G20s and another perfect fit!



Thank you Grivel for allowing us that level of trust and keeping the stoke alive!