Best/Favorite Crampons + Ice Tools?

What is everyone's favorite/opinion on the best crampons right now? Also, good ice tools for someone just getting started? I'm looking at some new x-dream alpines as an end of season purchase, but most crampons seem to be out of stock :(

https://rockandresole.com/products/cassin-alpinist-tech?pr_prod_strat=use_description&pr_rec_id=1a33beb1d&pr_rec_pid=7848123039967&pr_ref_pid=7848108097759&pr_seq=uniform

X dream alpines and cassin alpinist pro. 

I like Petzl Nomics for tools. After using Petzl Darts and Grivel G20 Plus for crampons, I have settled on Grivel G12 for ice. It is funny, but true.

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

X dream alpines and cassin alpinist pro. 

Is Cassin now CAMP?

Team Petzl here.  Nomics swing well and Lynx or Darts for crampons. Love the mono point and the ability to change to dual front points if wanted. 

B C wrote:

Is Cassin now CAMP?

My understanding is that Cassin has been owned by CAMP for quite some time, and that they are in the process of rebranding everything as CAMP.

Enjoy my x-dreams, for pure ice(less than Wi5) I would probably pick the x-all over the x-dream. they share picks/hammer/adz so if you get one you can buy the other later and reuse any picks/hammer/adz you bought which is pretty sweet. 

Nomics with pur' ice picks, dart crampons, and light boots together make for very fun ice climbing.  

Crampons: Petzl Darts (updated / latest version.)

Tools: X-Dream Alpine; Nomics for a very close second.

If you are not going balls out every weekend and you have a monthly budget that included things other than climbing gear.

Cassin x-all Mountains and Alpinist Techs or Blade Runners, whichever you can get cheaper!  : - )  You will be able to get up pretty much anything... even with the much heavier wallet. 

For a crampon that will see winter hikes/snow - any reason to get the Alpinist Tech > the Alpinist Pro?

I prefer the alpinist pro for up to 5+ only need  monos if you are doing a lot of hard drytooling. duals more stable for pure ice. 

Thanks for the help everyone. Ordered the xdreams and alpinist pro.

BD Snaggletooths are my new favorite crampon.  

Terrific performance on just about everything from water ice to snow.  

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

I prefer the alpinist pro for up to 5+ only need  monos if you are doing a lot of hard drytooling. duals more stable for pure ice. 

We’ll have to agree to disagree on duals for pure ice.   Dual horizontals for lower angle Alpine snow, glacier ice

But for more vertical water ice WI 3-5 and beyond, a single vertical front point, is more stable, uses less energy, shatters less ice, lighter, and helps develop better technique quicker — proper engagement of secondaries with lower heels.  

Monos have the precision when needed, or the stability of a tripod typically.    I think of duals as that annoying 4 legged wobbly bar table. 

I learned the trick from a guy who only switched to monos when it got hard enough for his fruit boots..   ( i have never climbed anything hard enough for fruit boots)  I find duals really good for  super thin slabby stuff. I have led the first pitch of the Last Gentleman a few times when it was unprotectable and thought is was less scary with the duals than the monos.  I also  have great luck on really candled 5+  I can grab little icicles between the front points and cam them.  I do have a brand new pair of  blade runners somewhere that I use a few times last year as duals but they seemed to underperform in that configuration so my plan was to turn them back into monos. they have such a big bundel of secondary [points that i think they will better as monos. 

Mark Pilate wrote:

We’ll have to agree to disagree on duals for pure ice.   Dual horizontals for lower angle Alpine snow, glacier ice

But for more vertical water ice WI 3-5 and beyond, a single vertical front point, is more stable, uses less energy, shatters less ice, lighter, and helps develop better technique quicker — proper engagement of secondaries with lower heels.  

Monos have the precision when needed, or the stability of a tripod typically.    I think of duals as that annoying 4 legged wobbly bar table. 

I actually prefer my G12 on WI 4-5. I´m not an expert climber who gently places a monot into the ice. But I wack the ice way less with G12 than with mono points. 

Wictor Dahlström wrote:

I actually prefer my G12 on WI 4-5. I´m not an expert climber who gently places a monot into the ice. But I wack the ice way less with G12 than with mono points. 

Well this brings up the key points here that are:

1.)  ALL modern gear is pretty damn good regardless.

2.) Everyone has personal preferences that just seem to fit certain options better than others.

Just because someone doesn’t prefer the same exact gear as I do, doesn’t mean they’re wrong… just that they’re not as good as me yet. 

Monos have the ability to pivot or rotate your foot around the single point.  Double points don't rotate,  other than that there is no real benefit to monos

It's all so awesome compared to the broken SMC strapons that I started with .