Front/secondary point position

I am trying on my Grivel G14s with my new boots, and I am a little concerned about the fit. Do the front and secondary points look reasonable, or do they appear to be very far back? The toe bail is already in the back position. Is this just a less aggressive crampon, or is it a bad boot-crampon match? Are there any other ways to remedy this, if it does look like an issue?

Many thanks!

my two cents: doable, but not ideal. I would like to see the boot about half a cm further back, bringing the secondary points closer to the edge of the boot. If I were you, I would look around for a shorter toe bail. I have seen on some of the ukclimbing forums that people used rambo bails on g14s as they are shorter and thus give you a tight fit with the boot further back. Iirc, maybe needlesports in the UK was a dealer that had lots of Grivel spares for just this type of thing. 

Definitely try other bails. IIRC BD and Petzl bails will fit a Grivel, though I had to file the holes JUST a tiny bit to get the other brand bail in there.

Ideally you would be slightly engaging your secondary points with your boot perpendicular to the ice and fully engaging them with some dorsiflexion and your heels down. To my eye those bails are a very poor fit and I doubt you would ever get consistent secondary purchase unless kicking at an unaturally weird angle. Test them against a wall and see what angle those secondaries touch.

Thanks for the feedback so far. It looks like the G20/G22 toe bails are shorter than the G14, so I started by reaching out to the Grivel distributer in Japan to see if that's the case, and if they can sell me a bail separately. Waiting on their reply. Failing that, will look into other brands.

Petzl fit but the BD bails are larger diameter. Grivel and Petzl both sell toe bails separate so you should be able to source some. The Grivel G20/22 are a smooth curve compared to the Petzl FIL which has several acute bends, probably doesn’t matter much but on some boots it can improve the fit to the toe welt. 

Linnaeus wrote:

Petzl fit but the BD bails are larger diameter. Grivel and Petzl both sell toe bails separate so you should be able to source some. The Grivel G20/22 are a smooth curve compared to the Petzl FIL which has several acute bends, probably doesn’t matter much but on some boots it can improve the fit to the toe welt. 

This is very helpful, thank you. Grivel's distributer only lists different width toe bails, not different styles, in their catalog, but hopefully customer support will be able to help. 

It looks like Petzl does have toe bails on their Japan distributer's store front. When I tried some Petzl on my Nepal Evos several years ago the toe bail did not fit very well because of the angles you mentioned, but might be worth trying again with the G5 Evo if the Grivels don't work out.

AaronJ wrote:

This is very helpful, thank you. Grivel's distributer only lists different width toe bails, not different styles, in their catalog, but hopefully customer support will be able to help. 

It looks like Petzl does have toe bails on their Japan distributer's store front. When I tried some Petzl on my Nepal Evos several years ago the toe bail did not fit very well because of the angles you mentioned, but might be worth trying again with the G5 Evo if the Grivels don't work out.

The petzl ones are weird: the angles make it so it doesn’t look like it contacts much, but in performance it gives a solid fit. I wouldn’t worry about it. 

DeLa Cruce wrote:

The petzl ones are weird: the angles make it so it doesn’t look like it contacts much, but in performance it gives a solid fit. I wouldn’t worry about it. 

That's reassuring. Will give them a try for sure if the Grivels don't work out.

This guy is using the same combo. He also used these crampons when he did the slovak direct a couple of years ago. Interesting choice, given the front point potrusion you are showing and these being perhaps the heaviest crampons on the market. And I am sure he buys whatever gear he wants. instagram.com/p/CZT0hC6ttNT…