Crampons
Crampons are perhaps the most underrated piece of gear in the arsenal of an ice climber. Good, solid foot placements that will hold in the ice is vital to success on difficult lead climbs. It is also interesting to note that most of the time, the crampons are holding more of the climbers mass than the ice tools. The physics behind the force applied to a crampon is actually quite simple. While on vertical ice, the climber applies most of the force to the toe box, meaning that by newton's second law, how ever much mass is on the foot at anyone time multiplied by the mass equals the amount of force the crampon is applying on the ice.
As an example, I am a 75 kg climber, and I have had instances where almost all of my weight is on one foot. That means that,
That
means the ice and the crampon were withstanding an
astonishing 735.75 N force!