No one would accuse me of being an inexperienced ski mountaineer but, like one, for some reason I have never owned a pair of ski crampons. Until this season, I was always watching my friends scurry along with them while I booted with crampons. If it was super firm, the difference in speed was marginal but if it was punchy I was dropped quickly. In spring their utility is undeniable when skinning up smooth, frozen corn and glazed skin tracks. But even in winter on wind swept passes and ridges, ski crampons take a terrifying, precarious moment and reduce it to pleasurable. They add a level of security and increase travel efficiency to a degree that is staggering.