Grivel Air-Tech Crampon

The Air-Tech additionally offer something different to the mega classic G12. First off it’s lighter and cheaper which has got to be a win win situation. I would have to assume that some of this lightness would come at the expense of durability and rigidity but to be honest over the review period I found it hard to tell. What you do notice is the Air Tech has noticeably shorter walking points (that may help with the lightness) which are also serrated. These are excellent on mixed ground as they reduced the whole ‘standing on stilts’ feeling you get on rock at times and the serrations gave some funky opportunities for added purchase on both rock and ice. Like many of the Grivel crampons it telescopes down to an extremely compact package, although if you fit the ‘concertina’ anti-balling devices to the central bar you loose this ability to an extent. The anti balling plates are another excellent feature of the Air-Tech. Grivel’s unique proactive antibott consists of a convex bulge that gets compressed as you step into the snow then tends to ‘pop’ snow off your boot when you lift your foot. There are times when the system gets overwhelmed but there were noticeably less anti-balling ‘taps’ wearing these crampons.