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Cracked petzl darts
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When changing out the points on my petzl darts I noticed a crack under the where the frontpoint interlocks with the frame, then I noticed the other crampon was cracked in the same way! Its scary because the cracks were hidden under the frontpoint. These crampons are a little over a year old, and haven't seen any abuse or big falls. I'm not sure what broke these but when I had the frontpoints off two months ago the frames were still intact.    |
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yikes! |
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Contact Petzl NA and arrange to send the crampons to them. |
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Just curious, did you have these set up as a mono point or Dual configuration? |
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Thanks for sharing. I look forward to seeing Petzl's response. From the info available, it seems most likely that the cracks were initiated and propagated by mechanical fatigue. You might be able to confirm this for yourself by closely examining the fracture surface. "Beachmarks" are often apparent to the naked eye, when viewing the fracture surface. I will start routinely checking my Darts for cracks at this location. For anyone else that wants to do this, be aware that fatigue cracks are very thin and can be hard to spot, before they propagate through thickness. Professionals often need to use dye penetrant or magnetic particle inspection methods to find surface breaking fatigue cracks. For what it is worth, Petzl's "inspection procedure" can be found at https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Crampons/DART. |
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Did you notice anything feeling odd last time you climbed on them? |
jdejace wrote: Looking back on it, the last few times I've been out I've felt more calf pump and I've been less confident on my feet. However I thought I was just being a baby. |
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Maybe they've been that way for a few climbs then. I guess semi-reassuring that they didn't explode on route. Sucks though. |
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...those look like BD toe bails and not Petzl. I’m sure Petzl “could take issue“ with this in regards to warranty. |
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Interesting. That looks exactly like common notched test specimens for metal strength evaluation. I guess yours failed the test you didn’t know you were conducting.  |
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The Darts share the same crossbar design as the Lynx don't they? |
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Kevin, Did you ever receive a response from Petzl regarding the cause of failure? |
Karl Henize wrote: Petzl examined the crampons and determined the crampons were manufactured within tolerances. I probably didn't have the frontpoints tighted down enough, or I'm just fat |
Kevin Mcbride wrote: Thanks for sharing. I doubt that Petzl would openly admit to making a poor design choice, without issuing a recall. I don’t think the tightness of the bolt has anything to do with the failure. Unless you are heavier than 99% of climbers, I don’t see how Petzl wouldn’t have accounted for someone of your weight in the design. Unfortunately, this response from Petzl does little to reassure me that the same failure will not happen to me or others, climbing on Darts. |
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Sadly, I haven’t been impressed with Petzl when it comes to admitting fault and their responses are usually band aids until they come out with a new design. I’ve had amazing responses from Grivel fwiw |
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Their response is disappointing. That looks like it failed exactly as it was designed to. Very curious. A 2nd year engineering student (or savvy high schooler) could predict that they would fail just like shown in the pics — way before they “needed” to. |
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It looks like the metal has been flexing/bending around that mid point and over time has failed. |
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BD bail on Darts——> this guy knows what’s up |
Karl Henize wrote: Karl, this link isn’t working for me. Can you post a photo? I’m still climbing on the older version of G20s that are one solid piece and don’t have replaceable front points. I just tracked down another nearly new pair of these, and will be using them when I wear mine out. I don’t know why everyone feels the need to make fancy complicated crampons with multiple parts and intricate machining. |
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Because it looks cool? |
