Crampons - Types of Crampons
There are a lot of Crampons available in the market today. Which of them is best for you? Which of them would perform best in a particular climbing situation? To answer these questions, we have characterized them into the most basic types, the Hinged and the Rigid Crampons. Please take note that we only focused on their construction since it is the most basic consideration when buying Crampons. Other details on Crampons will be discussed in the Crampons Buying Guide.
Hinged Crampons
The first type is what we call Hinged Crampons. They provide flex at the instep and bend with the natural motion of walking, thus, they are the preferred style for almost any type of mountaineering except steep technical ice climbing.
Hinged Crampons are best for climbing on snowfields and glaciers. The hinge allows the foot to flex for walking. One of the best things about hinged crampons is that they fit on either plastic or leather mountaineering boots with a full shank. With a pair of boots that's stiff enough, hinged crampons will even work on vertical ice. If you buy only a pair of Crampons but want to do a variety of climbing, this is your best bet.
Rigid Crampons
Meanwhile, Rigid Crampons do not bend at the instep so when climbing up steep technical ice, they allow the climber to keep their heel lower when front-pointing, thus less tiring as a result. However, Rigid Crampons tend to be heavier and do not perform that well in mixed terrain. That is why, generally, most people prefer to use Hinged Crampons.
Rigid Crampons are the most technical. They are used primarily on vertical ice. Their stiff structure not only provides support for front-pointing, but also vibrates much less than a Hinged construction. For brittle or thin ice, this can be a significant advantage. Rigid Crampons make glacier walking somewhat awkward, however, because they don't allow your feet to flex for natural striding. They also need to be used with stiff (preferably plastic) boots, since wearing them with flexible boots will eventually cause them to bend and weaken.
So far, we have only discussed the Hinged and Rigid Types of Crampons in this section. There are still a number of factors to consider when Buying Crampons which are discussed in detail at the Crampons Buying Guide section. Along with this article, we hope that the Crampons Buying Guide could help you choose what you think is the best Crampon for you.
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