The G14 is the climbing version of the popular G series of Grivel crampons. The G10 being the walking crampon, and the G12 being the all round mountaineering version.

The G14 comes with 2 bindings to suit your needs;

Newmatic: Newmatic fitting features a black plastic front bail, and a semi step-in rear clip. This allows faster fitting of the crampon to a B2 boot. Clip on the rear relies on a stiff rubber rand at the rear of the boot. From the rear the strap goes to the front, passes through the front bail and back to the rear where it is secured to a buckle without needing to pass over the top of the boot. This system is very reliable and allows crampons to be fitted quicker, but only suitable for B2 boots and above.

Cramp-o-matic: The cramp-o-matic fitting features the same rear clip at the newmatic fitting, but features a metal front rand. This system is most suitable for B3 boots, although will fit some B2 boots if a) they are stiff enough and b) they have a big enough front rand, however in the case of B2 boots the newmatic would definately be more suitable. The system relies on a decent sized front rand on the boot, the metal front clip slots on top of the front rand, and a strip of metal with a loop on the top comes further up the boot. The rear clip locks in the same as the newmatic system, and the strap passes from the back, to the front (through the loop at the end of the metal strip), and returns to the rear. On some versions of the crampomatic the strap simply loops round the ankle, and doesnt have the front metal strip.

The G14 has vertical front points (or mono points if you want to convert), making a more suitable ice climbing crampon compared to its brother the G12. This is a great crampon with lots of adjustability but be aware if you have larger than UK size 11 feet you may need to buy the longer extension bar.

Overall great crampon, excellent build quality, good fit, everything you would expect from Grivel!

If you are looking for a crampon that is solid all round look no further.

I have owned a pair of the G14's for just over 2 years and still think that they are the best all round crampon
whether you are climbing steep ice, on technical mixed or doing one of the classic ridge traverse's in the alps.

The pro's are very obvious as I've stated above they are perfect for just about everything maybe with the exception of hard dry-tooling, and the list would be enormous if I were to name them all. I shall therefore try and highlight a couple of the minor faults or issue's I've came across.

Firstly the first winter I used them I stepped on a rock oddly with the middle bar and the back of the crampon popped off - on closer inspection the little screw/bail that holds the rear there merely popped off. It just needed a simple bash with the adze of my axe and it was fixed - I continued to use the G14's to this day and have not had this problem again. Secondly, if you want to change them to a mono-point it is a bit of a faff and can take a while - if you want a mountaineering C3 crampon to use solidly as a mono-point crampon I'd recommend the Black Diamond Cyborgs. Finally, they are quite bulky but nomore than others in this 'genre' - I only make this statement as I now own a pair of G20's (aswell) and they fold in half and are significantly smaller & lighter than the G14's.

I cannot stress how good these are for an all round crampon and the issues stated above are all very minor and it's me just 'trying to pick fault.

I had a loan of these for around 5 months and was very impressed with their performance. They are a little on the heavy side however their adjust-ability certainly makes up for this.

I found them great on ice, mixed and walking. I like the way you can replace the front points, meaning you can sharpen them without having to worry about having to replace the whole crampon!

I would prefer a crampon like the Petzl Sarken but don't think they would last as long as the Grivel's. Again, a bit heavy but a good work horse of a crampon for real mountain routes.

Pros:
Adjustable
Aggressive
Mono-point
Replaceable front point

Cons:
Weight
Cost