Black Diamond Xenic Ski Crampons

In French we call them couteaux and in Spanish we call them cuchillos, in other words, 'blades'! When the melt/freeze cycle kicks in for spring touring, there are a few ways for us to get up those steep pitches to access the goods: we can throw our skis on our backs, put crampons on our feet and walk... we can put in that uber-steep, straight-up-the-gut skin track and hope our skins hold, or we can affix some simple ski crampons!

These Black Diamond Xenic ski crampons work in the same way as the tried-and-true Dynafit models, you remove you ski and slide the crampon in behind the toe of your binding. On the skin track, you'll bring the angle down a bit, do a little more sidehilling, and take advantage of the lateral purchase that these tools afford.

Once you give ski crampons a try on a firm morning skintrack, you'll never go back to the 'hopes and prayers' method of getting to the ridgeline!

They come in three widths: 85mm, 95mm, and 105mm and weigh in at around 50g.