Snapped Wire Toe Bail

Had an interesting experience over the weekend... Wire toe bail on the lynx snapped mid-lead on a section of moderate ice. Appears to have broken right on the bend. Kicked, didn't get a good stick, looked down and watched the bail bounce down to the ground below, crampon dangling from the strap. Replacement in the mail... Never seen or heard of anything like this. Have you?

lynx

lynx

lynx

How old are they, how much do you use them?

Contact Petzl, send them the pics and details and you'll get replacements.

Always good to inspect your gear (which I should do more often).

Hard to say without a macro photo, but there seems to be a an older crack in the rupture zone.

Luc-514 wrote:How old are they, how much do you use them? Contact Petzl, send them the pics and details and you'll get replacements. Always good to inspect your gear (which I should do more often). Hard to say without a macro photo, but there seems to be a an older crack in the rupture zone.

Second season, they've got less than 75 days. Hardly "old" by gear standards. Replacement on the way. Macro photos incoming...

I'm no metal expert but that doesn't look right.... eh?

lynx

Pretty common, especially with Petzl. Looks like metal fatigue to me. BD bails are much beefier if it still fits your boot.

You weren't the dude next to me on Positive Reinforcement that broke his crampon this weekend were you?

Max Forbes wrote:I'm no metal expert but that doesn't look right.... eh?

Yup, fatigue, you see the crack propagation until it snaps.

Time to take the toe wires out to twist them and look for cracks.

Jace Mullen wrote:You weren't the dude next to me on Positive Reinforcement that broke his crampon this weekend were you?

I was not.

MyFeetHurt wrote:Pretty common, especially with Petzl. Looks like metal fatigue to me. BD bails are much beefier if it still fits your boot.

BD just came out with a new line up of toe bails. If you have narrower scarpa boots their small bails fits the best out of any brand by far. They do sell bails individually on their site also.

Petzl bails (older than 2014ish?) explode. I put 40 days on them, then change them out. Change as often as your comfort level requires. Apparently have been redesigned lately for newer models and won't explode anymore, according to the local rep.

Had one break on my Lynx while soloing 3 years ago, so I stopped buying any more new Petzl crampons. They have a considerably higher failure rate than other brands. If the new ones turn out to be OK over the next few years, I might reconsider.

I broke a bail several years ago. There was a sharp crease in the inside of the spot where it broke. The bails that I have had since then are all very smoothly radiused inside the bends, so no stress risers.

PSA - don't overtighten your crampons; it puts a lot of needless stress on the bails.

Nick Drake wrote: BD just came out with a new line up of toe bails. If you have narrower scarpa boots their small bails fits the best out of any brand by far. They do sell bails individually on their site also.

Looks like they are sold out. It's about time they made theses available. Such a simple thing.

Jeremy Cote wrote: Looks like they are sold out. It's about time they made theses available. Such a simple thing.

They've actually had them hidden away on the site for years, not in with climbing but just misc parts (tent flys, C4 triggers, etc). I ordered some to convert my petzl vasaks to full auto last year.

I managed to order the ONE remaining small toe bail they had in stock last month (not doing me much good without a second). It is a slightly different profile than the older small stinger bail. Smoother radius that hits more of the boot instead of sharp angles.

Max Forbes wrote:I'm no metal expert but that doesn't look right.... eh?

Would love to look at that under an SEM!

Gunkiemike wrote:PSA - don't overtighten your crampons; it puts a lot of needless stress on the bails.

You gotta overtighten the Bladerunners or they get sloppy :(

Bill Kirby wrote: You gotta overtighten the Bladerunners or they get sloppy :(

So...how tight do you want your crampons?

Jeffo wrote: So...how tight do you want your crampons?

Depends on the model, Bladerunners gotta be mad tight yo, like for realz!

Bill Kirby wrote: Depends on the model, Bladerunners gotta be mad tight yo, like for realz!

La sportiva G2SM's and Petzl Sarkens.