how to get your feet to stick on steep or bulges???

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

 This was the clincher for me . 

 The bolt broke while on a long easy solo in plastic conditions. (as you can see the secondary points are duller than a plate of piss.)   it could have been ugly in  bulletproof conditions.   I led The Last Gentelman last winter when the 1st pitch was in very serious condition.  There was no gear to be had. A crampon failure would have been catastrophic.  I have heard too many stories of modern spacer bars breaking and the crampon just falls apart.

Obviously, none of the points need to be that dull—they can just be sharpened. But are you suggesting that dull points all around are useful as an indicator for “it’s time to upgrade”, especially for less visible parts like the frontpoint bolt? Crazy that we essentially trust our lives on a tiny bolt! That picture doesn’t instill confidence…

Yes. the dull points just indicate that the crampon has been used hard and should be retired to someone who has the time to sharpen it and only top ropes or has no other choice but buy a cheap worn out rig or keep using an old worn out rig. .  A serious climber who does serious climbs should probably keep their crampons and tools as current as possible  treating them like the life support equipment that they are. 

Nick - to extend their life, you should take your crampons off when you get to the parking lot. ;) 

last time i bought a pair of Grivel crampons they had a note in the box warning that running on the concrete stairs to the cable car with the crampons on would shorten their life :)  One of my favorite long solo loops has a nasty section of rocky  vereglassed rubble gully on the decent in lean snow conditions..