Mertz was as usual wearing leather boots and mountaineering crampons, otherwise progress would have been practically impossible; the finnesko crampons worn by Murphy and myself giving very little foothold.
The sea was close at hand and we realized that, as the wind was directly off shore, a man without crampons was in a dangerous situation.
After six miles these improvised crampons broke up, and the increasing wind got me into difficulties.
In winds of fifty to seventy miles per hour, when with good crampons one had to stagger warily along the ice-foot, the snow petrels and Antarctic petrels were in their element.
To lighten my load for the climb I threw away alpine rope, finnesko crampons, sundry pairs of worn crampons and socks, while I rubbed a composition on the sledge-runners which prevented them from sticking to wet snow.
The blizzard was in full career on January 31 and I spent all day and until late at night trying to make the crampons serviceable, but without success.
With long-spiked Swiss crampons we could hold up very well on the ice.
It sounds simple enough, but, as we had to take off crampons so as not to tread on the tent, our difficulties were enormously increased by having to move about wearing finnesko on a smooth surface in a high wind.
Crampons were worn to give some security to the foothold on the uneven track.
The sledge was being continually jammed into big, old, invisible sastrugi and we fell about in the wind until crampons became absolutely necessary.
Of course we soon learned never to go about without cramponson the feet.
During the next three days the wind was so strong that Webb's were the only crampons in which any efficient marching could be done.
As already indicated, spikedcrampons on approved models, tested on the glacier-slopes in a hurricane wind, were almost always worn encasing the finnesko.
I spent the long hours making cramponsof a new pattern, eating and sleeping.
Many experiments in the manufacture of crampons were tried with the limited materials at our disposal.
Two men start from the Hut with iron crampons and a full complement of clothes and mitts.
Our thoughts flew back; the crampons we had left behind seemed to dance before my eyes, backwards and forwards, grinning and pointing fingers at me.
The sole was to be thick and stiff -- for we had to be prepared to use crampons -- but the uppers as soft as possible.
The double tent was considered a great success, and the new crampons were much praised except by Bowers, whose fondness for the older form was not to be shaken.
Evans, the inventor of both crampons and ski shoes, is greatly pleased, and certainly we owe him much.
Pulling the sledges in crampons was not at all difficult on the hard snow and on hard ice with patches of snow.
Our ski shoes and crampons have been [Page 377] absolutely indispensable, and if the original ideas were not his, the details of manufacture and design and the good workmanship are his alone.
We have worn our crampons all day (December 17) and are delighted with them.
Our next plan, based on our experience of this long mountain ridge, was to practise the coolies in the use of crampons on hard snow and ice.
And though crampons afterwards came up to our camps wherever we went they were not destined to help us, and in the event were never used.
Ice is far from an insuperable obstacle on Mount Everest; almost anywhere above Chang La crampons would overcome it: but powdery snow, in case the snow has melted too little, is a deadly handicap.
Our ski shoes and crampons have been absolutely indispensable, and if the original ideas were not his, the details of manufacture and design and the good workmanship are his alone.
Pulling the sledges in crampons is no difficulty at all.
We have worn our crampons all day and are delighted with them.
The cramponsare much praised, except by Bowers, who has an eccentric attachment to our older form.
The work goes on very steadily--the men are making crampons and ski boots of the new style.
He held on tight, and somehow Crean and I wriggled off the bridge, sticking our crampons firmly into the ice and crawling up to where Lashly was.
I had considerable difficulty in working back to the party amongst the labyrinth of ice bridges, but I fortunately found a patch of hard snow whereon my crampons had made their mark.
We packed our ski on the sledge, attached spiked crampons to our finnesko, and guided the sledge through the maze of hummocks and crevasses.
There were no crevasses, only the great drift of snow, so hard that we used our crampons just as though we had been on ice, and as polished as the china sides of a giant cup which it resembled.
In front of us the slope fell for a mile or more down to the ice-cliffs, so wind-swept that we had to wear crampons to walk upon it.
It was so steep that the pony could only be led up and we had to put on crampons to grip the ice.
Had a good run to-day but the ice was very rough and very much crevassed, but with crampons on we made splendid progress.
Taking careful soundings with his ice-axe and using his crampons with almost uncanny certitude, he guided his companions through a moraine and debouched on to a tremendous glacier.
An alpenstock, knapsack, coil of rope worn in saltire, crampons and iron hooks hanging to the belt of an English blouse with broad pleats, completed the accoutrement of this perfect Alpinist.
He had been taught to shoot at a target and a running mark; he had become skilful at climbing with crampons and managing a boat.
He can use his crampons right manfully; will not the Countess soon let me teach him to shoot?
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "crampons" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
