has anyone shortened/removed a point from a horizontal crampon to improve mixed climbing performance

 my guess is probably not...

Not really sure why you would do this instead of buying a BD snaggletooth but I'm also just curious what people think of mixed climbing with snaggletooth style front point. 

One note is that I'm pretty sure the snaggletooth doesn't come in a semi-auto mode 

Haven't tried it. But I wouldn't try it with just any "snow" crampon. Check how the front points are placed across the width of the crampon. If one of them doesn't align with your big toe, like a monopoint, climbing is going to be awkward at best.

Paul Morrisonwrote:

Haven't tried it. But I wouldn't try it with just any "snow" crampon. Check how the front points are placed across the width of the crampon. If one of them doesn't align with your big toe, like a monopoint, climbing is going to be awkward at best.

Yeah definitely a valid point

Swap the toe bail on a Snaggletooth to the Petzl semi-auto toe bail. 

Note, I haven’t actually climbed with this, just swapped it in the living room out of curiosity. But the flanges on the Petzl bail fit the holes on the Snaggletooth front well enough that I’d be confident climbing with it. 

Matt Zwrote:

Swap the toe bail on a Snaggletooth to the Petzl semi-auto toe bail. 

Note, I haven’t actually climbed with this, just swapped it in the living room out of curiosity. But the flanges on the Petzl bail fit the holes on the Snaggletooth front well enough that I’d be confident climbing with it. 

Unfortunately, the petzl toe bails don’t work with my semi auto boots. (Toe of my boot goes through the hole in the bail when I kick into ice :( )

John Barry showed pictures of his filed down both of the front points of his Salewas in both his books on alpine and ice climbing. I'm sure there were R&I, etc., 'reader's tips' articles about it, too. The 'point' was to reduce the leverage, moving your toes closer to what you were stepping on. It helps.

abandon moderation wrote:

I haven't, but... How about the grivel G20? You get the vertical front point plus a shorty horizontal.

I personally wouldn't do much mixed climbing at all on a horizontal front point since it's going to be weaker than a vertical point.

For more moderate (m5 and under, mostly m4 and under) is this really an issue though with steel pons?

Petzl lynx lets you switch between monos, duals and staggered dual points. Damn those things are the best crampons ever. 

Specifically interested in crampons with horizontal front points. Also, petzls semi auto toe bails are kinda crappy for my boots compared to dedicated Semi auto crampons.  

I also like the Snaggletooths as an all-around mountain crampon. I use the G20 for cragging and ice routes in the mountains and then Snaggletooths for most other mountain routes. They actually climb rock pretty well. I’ve climbed plenty steep and thin mixed in the Snaggletooths and haven’t noticed any unexpected flexing of the front points. Course I also weigh about 160 soaking wet, so heavier folks might notice more flexing of the steel. 

Bug Boywrote:

For more moderate (m5 and under, mostly m4 and under) is this really an issue though with steel pons?

For what it’s worth, I’ve had my Snaggletooths (Snaggleteeth?) since 2017 and climbed a pretty significant amount of ice and mixed and some sport dry tooling and they’re still going strong. I’m not light either.  I wouldn’t worry about it too much.

I use the Petzl semi-auto toe bail when I want to use them on my summer boots, work great.  Sorry to hear that your boots don't work with that part. :(

They sound legit! Bummer they don’t make them in a semi auto version like their cyborgs. 

Grivel and Cassin also make a hybrid front toe bail, you may have better luck with those. I cannibalized the Grivel ones but have the Cassin and Petzl around and can compare if you desire. 

Linnaeuswrote:

Grivel and Cassin also make a hybrid front toe bail, you may have better luck with those. I cannibalized the Grivel ones but have the Cassin and Petzl around and can compare if you desire. 

That Grivel one sucks.

On the topic of modified frontpoints... I offer this without comment:

This looks funny.  Was material added to the main front point?

Mark Pilatewrote:

This looks funny.  Was material added to the main front point?

Yes. Among other significant mods to the original Dart.

Grivel used to make a version of the G12 with offset frontpoints called the Dahu. Hard to get your hands on these days, but came as a semi-auto and pretty well fit the bill for what you seem to want. I think the points are slightly different than the standard G12, but you might be able to get close by just filing down the outer points.

Why not just buy the snaggletooth?

Just get snaggletooths and rig something like this:  

Eli Spitulnikwrote:

Just get snaggletooths and rig something like this:  

Now we’re talking