
A simple and cheap mod for ski crampons: Hardy tape, a few small strips of foam, and presto.
As Spring sweeps across the Rocky Mountain West, snowpacks have begun to undergo their daily melt-freeze cycles. And, if your ski plans involve an early start, you better be prepared for some firm conditions. After a cool, clear night, the early morning Spring skintrack can be frozen solid, impenetrable to the edges of your skis, and impervious to the traction-seeking hairs on your skins. Quite literally, battling up a refrozen slope under these conditions can often break your spirit and bring you to your knees. But fear not, we do have one last tool in our ski mountaineering quiver just for this occasion: ski crampons ( a.k.a. “skrampons”).
A lot has already been written on WildSnow about the craft of skramponing. There’s from Doug Stenclik’s take: “ski crampons are likely one of those things you rarely need and are supremely bummed when you don’t have,” to Lou Dawson’s musings: “My wife wants me to aerate the lawn, so I figured a pair of skis with crampons would do the trick. But what crampons to use?” Jokes aside, let’s face it, ski crampons are a specialized tool for a specific problem we only occasionally face as backcountry skiers. But when you need them, you really need them. And with Lou’s question in mind, what ski crampons you choose to use and how you choose to use them (or modify them) can ultimately help you decrease the odds of skidding out on some frozen crust and taking that horrifying slide into oblivion (yikes!).
Solving the Problem
A shot of my ski crampons, modified Dynafit 120mm ‘pons, was highlighted in a recent social media post. The crampon mod was simple enough; some lightweight aluminum bumper bars cut to size and attached with good quality medical tape to the top of the skrampon. I found the square-stock aluminum in a thrift store and cut it down to size, then my creativity waned. I resorted to good old tape for a quick fix to my problem. And, what exactly is the problem I was trying to solve? Ski crampons often attach underneath your boot, right behind the toe piece of your binding, and they are designed to pivot so that you can still achieve a modicum of glide with each step. I often use ski crampons on steep, slick sidehills or when I want to punch it up a firm bowl in Spring, and it’s more convenient to point my skis straight up the fall line. I also sometimes find myself using my high heel riser in these situations, even though, in general, I try to avoid it. Here’s the problem: When your heel riser is up, your boot does not push the ski crampon down as far as it can go into the snow, and, as a result, you get less traction.

The problem, with higher risers installed (right photo), the ski crampon’s penetration into a firm surface is reduced.

Here we see a similar issue with the G3 setup. The left photo shows greater potential penetration with no riser engaged.
One solution to this problem is the “bumper” or “spacer” that I, and the many others who commented on my post, came up with. A different solution is to fix the crampon to the ski: B&D Ski Gear makes crampon locks to temporarily clamp the crampon down onto the ski, while Voile’s ski crampon is fixed in place (without pivot) wherever you want to mount the attachment knob to your ski. These solutions provide excellent traction, but you sacrifice all glide when you take away the pivoting feature of a ski crampon.

The bumper installed on a G3 (left) ski crampon and a Dynafit ski crampon (right). This is the bumper and pivot combo.
And, if the comments on my post say anything, people prefer the pivot and the DIY “bumper” solution combo. From wine corks to plastic bottle caps to chunks of blue-foam pads, folks have been sticking things to the tops of their skrampons to solve this problem for years. I think the foam pad stack is the most elegant solution to this problem and is also universally doable for all the different ski crampons out there. The foam is stiff enough to push the pons down into the snow in high riser mode and squishy enough to flatten out when walking with risers down. Foam is also super light, cheap, and easy to replace. I liked this solution so much that I ditched my aluminum spacers for the blue foam bumpers. I’ve heard that some folks use zip-ties to attach their foam to the top of the crampon, but I went with some Gorilla Tape, which I’m hoping will tolerate the repeated squishing and un-squishing of stepping on the foam (possibly better than zip-ties?). But, considering the foam will also compress and eventually need replacing, we’ll have to wait and see how long this rig lasts.

The foam pad stack on the G3 Ion, no riser.

The foam pad stack with the Ion’s high riser engaged.

The foam pad stack with the high riser engaged on the Dynafit Superlight 2.0 binding.
What are your thoughts on ski crampon mods? Do YOU believe in high heel-riser use with skrampons? Let the debate begin. These bumpers seem to be one of the classic DIY mods that each backcountry skier has their take on, so let us know what you think.
Chris Dickson lives in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains where he guides, is an avalanche educator, and produces The San Juan Snowcast. He can be found @sanjuansnowcast.
13 comments
The photos have been lost to website upgrade time, but Amar Andalkar has had this trick in his back pocket for a while now:
https://turns-all-year.com/forum/index/random-tracks/50271-blue-foam-spacers-for-dynafit-ski-crampons
You can read some pretty extensive theory and practice of different cramp-mods there.
Yep, I have a set of Dynafit crampons in the gear bin I modded up nearly 10 years ago based on Amar’s post.
Always boost your ski crampons. PVC pipe and p cord tied through holes in the crampon and holes drilled in the pipe. It can be done in 30 minutes with only a leather man. Myself and several of my friends have been using this setup for years and I’ve never seen one break. Plus it is as easy as untying a knot of you ever want to remove them. Pics for those interested. https://photos.app.goo.gl/UGvUeLMvzRLUudFJA
B&D Ski Gear has always offered plastic shims with their excellent ski crampons that do same, but are more durable and attachable with a screw.
I’ve used the little round spacers that used to come with the Dynafit IV/Speed/Classic bindings.
You can even see a picture right here at this website:
https://www.wildsnow.com/1813/wide-ski-crampons/
Since I now use race bindings for all my setups, I no longer need the spacers on full-size crampons like those shown in the old article.
But I still use the spacers for this diminutive crampon, with a picture shown in my review toward the bottom:
https://skimo.co/dynafit-speed-crampon
(Funny to see that review again, since over six years later, that Movement Big Fish-X with the old Dynafit LTR bindings is still my go-to setup for late-spring and summer skiing.)
Uh, maybe I’m just not checking my (flexible boot) privilege here, but it always seems like people are way too in love with their risers… feels like they are the number one culprit for sloppy skinning technique.
I agree. Modern AT boots permit enough ankle flex that risers are unneeded. When you hike up a steep trail, do you use high heels then switch to flats for the way down? Well, if you do you should stop. Same goes for risers; then the riser problem with ski crampons becomes moot.
I’ll disagree here. Yup, ROM on lighter boots is great. Biomechanically, it is not exactly like walking, but moving in that direction…they are comfy. I think for most light-touring bindings the riser options are less aggressive (even the high option) than what used to be on offer (I’m thinking of the fixed tower on some Turns). I love flat mode and find I don’t need much in terms of a riser to make steeper skinning slightly more efficient. I’m on a Plum R170 now, flat and single riser option (med/low height) and It is a great combo.
I’m from Spain, where we ski a lot on re-frozen snow, which makes ski crampons an almost everyday essential.
I just don’t use the binding risers when I’m wearing crampons. I tried this mod using cork, but while it works well, it makes it impossible to put crampons on without removing your boot first.
If you, like me, prefer to put on crampons without removing the skis from your feet, this type of mod is not for you. At least on the dynafit or plum attaching systems. I don’t know with other systems like G-3 or Fritschi.
For me, the mod that I like is to carry two different sizes of crampons, so I can nest one inside the other when I carry them in the backpack and save space.
In use the extra width is barely noticeable.
I nest the crampons tine to tine and put a plastic box in that space to carry repair stuff, I hold it together with a voile strap
Sometimes I did it like this, but when you have to put on and take off your crampons several times a day it is not a good way to have them in such a complex fastening. I’m always looking for a way to get it out/in my backpack easy and fast. Without taking off my backpack.
I usually carry my crampons in a chalk bag attached with a small carabiner to the side of the pack so they are always close at hand.
Crampon modify by Lego
https://youtu.be/79qi9kYA-ik