ICE CLIMBING SERVICE COGNE

It might seem strange, but in many years of activity, I noticed with regret that bring to me always to sharpen many couples of axes and really few pairs of crampons.

Still, if you think about it, on crampons weighs all your body for all the day; we stumble into trees, we crash into the rocks, and we look for a crack for our mono-point!

No, the truth is another: the truth is that we don’t understand the importance of having a couple sharp crampons until…..we try crampons sharp again; and then we notice the difference!

We all know that legs have much more strenght than arms, and therefore we plan to overcome the lack of sharpness by force. Nothing more wrong!

When you are on the delicate, the strenght doesn’t need, and it is usually too late to get angry for the non-maintenance of the equipment.

If you look at able people climb on ice you will find that they often support without stamp the feet; but in any case the crampons hold well. Then an explanation about the grip must be there!

Even the crampons to twelve tips, those that aren't good for making waterfalls, need maintenance: a part from general cleanup duty, it is appropriate to maintain the sharp points, without exaggeration; this for not to weaken too much the structures that will be in contact with rocks and iron stairs like for example the external stairs of mountain huts.

The sharpening is done by hand with several type of files, depending on the type of crampons and repairs to carry out on the equipment. The complete sharpening of a pair of crampons takes about 60 minutes.

Maybe not all of us are willing to admit that when we go to climb and we meet other people, we peek their material, the way they wear it, if it is brand-mark material, if it is keep well or badly, if it is personalized.

I assure you that all those who go to the mountain, know that material doesn't maintain itself. It is important to take care about material be when we use it, be when we don't use it. Try to leave the backpack, after doing a waterfall, in the cellar without undoing it, and after a week you look at your ice pitons and crampons: rust begins to appear!

So I don't want to tell you to be maniacs but, with some niceties, it is possible to avoid situations otherwise irreparable. How many times we are with cold hands to curse the crampons strap that, completely frayed, won't get into the closing ring?

There are also some types of maintenance that require manual dexterity and more specific tools.

A friend with a broken cable can be repaired and not necessarily deleted from your rack; a founded ice-piton can come back to the new after a good treatment and control.

It must be clear for all, that for all the material there is a maintenance limit: a too short ice piton cannot be any more sharp; if we have got a too used axe, we can do the point again, but it would not have any more the measures to respect the least beat corners and then it would be a useless work! To a modular crampon of the last generation it is possible to change the points but to a crampon with the front points to plate consumed, it is useless to do the blade again: it would be unusable or at least it would give a false certainty, incomplete in its functions.

I don't like to pass false images on to the people!