Petzl kit cord tech on dart front sections

Has anybody has tried out the aluminum leopard rear sections available in the “kit cord tech” in conjunction with the dart front sections? I just ordered a pair of the irvis hybrids which come with the aluminum rears and was wondering if it would be worthwhile to pick up some dart front sections to swap out for steeper stuff. Petzl's website lists the rear section as being compatible with the dart, but I’m not convinced that the dyneema cord would perform great on anything near vertical. Thanks!

yes I have used it on alpine routes up to maybe M5/WI3. Works very well and as long as the crampons are set up correctly with a lot of tension on the cord I don't feel a difference compared to the linking bar.

Philipp Brugger had a new (according to him) cord tech string break while in the Schmidt route on the Matterhorn north face. Obviously not good. 

When looking at some IG pics of Fabi Bühl it looks like he and Colin Haley were climbing with some Petzl prototype Darts with alu heels and regular linking bars. In my eyes that sounds like the best solution.

For easier alpine stuff and skimounteneering the Irvis hybrids are amazing. FYI if you want to try out a hybrid Dart you can just cut open the stiching on the irvis hybrid and the string is still long enough up to boot size 43/44 if you knot it back together with either the Irvis or Dart front.

Allot of people in chamonix are running aluminium heels, dart fronts and dyneema link bar, by far the most popular option amongst the wads. 

Not suitable for hard mixed though. 

that guy named seb wrote:

Allot of people in chamonix are running aluminium heels, dart fronts and dyneema link bar, by far the most popular option amongst the wads. 

Not suitable for hard mixed though. 

what would you say is a good use for this setup then?

Sylvain Tree wrote:

what would you say is a good use for this setup then?

Anything alpine that doesn't involve hard mixed, vert ice would be fine just don't torque the set up in cracks.

With this being said apparently there are wads in Scotland using this set up on m8-m12, but that seems a lite sketchy. 

Anyone know the actual weight savings of the cord-tec/ alu heel compared to the traditional set up?

Austin Mallet wrote:

Anyone know the actual weight savings of the cord-tec/ alu heel compared to the traditional set up?

Not insignificant, 335g. Why you felt the need to outsource going on petzls website and counting grams I'm not sure. 

that guy named seb wrote:

Not insignificant, 335g. Why you felt the need to outsource going on petzls website and counting grams I'm not sure. 

Well I apologize for my laziness. You may want to recheck your numbers though….

Dart Toe Section 415 gr

Toe Bail 30 gr

Cord-Tec Kit 120 gr

Heel Bail 100 gr

Total: 665 grams 

compared to the weight of the standard Darts which is 870 grams. So a 205 gram difference. Still not insignificant. 

Unless you are climbing something so cutting edge you need to save every ounce possible why would you even bother?

Mark Westfall wrote:

Unless you are climbing something so cutting edge you need to save every ounce possible why would you even bother?

You can make that argument about literally every single bit of kit out there. Everything is only a small weight saving, when you combine it all is when you get a real impact few 100 grams here and there in the right places makes for a huge difference in the end. Saving weight on footwear can be especially nice. 

Mark Westfall wrote:

Unless you are climbing something so cutting edge you need to save every ounce possible why would you even bother?

Emotions.

Anyone recognize this line?

If you take care of the ounces, the pounds will take care of themselves.

The cord setup is what led to this rescue off the Matterhorn unofficialnetworks.com/2021…;

I heard from a Petzl rep that the dyneema cord will loosen a little as the knot settles, so it can result in it popping off.

Unofficial must have ripped the video before the uploader removed it, because it's the only place this video can be found online. 

that guy named seb wrote:

You can make that argument about literally every single bit of kit out there. Everything is only a small weight saving, when you combine it all is when you get a real impact few 100 grams here and there in the right places makes for a huge difference in the end. Saving weight on footwear can be especially nice. 

For most climbers though, there would be better places to save those grams than on a pretty important part of safety gear and by making that gear a lot less safe.  

That seems like a risk/reward tradeoff that is way out of whack. 

Victor Machtel wrote:

For most climbers though, there would be better places to save those grams than on a pretty important part of safety gear and by making that gear a lot less safe.  

That seems like a risk/reward tradeoff that is way out of whack. 

There's not really much of a risk to it provided it's done properly, it's important to have all systems dialed before you enter a high risk scenario. All systems have failure modes part of prep is being aware and mitigating if possible. 200g off boots is significant it's not like 200g off a rack, most people have no way to reasonably lighten up their footwear as they're probably already in very lightweight super gaiter boots.

Even for the price for the amount of weight reduced is unmatchable for footwear.