Longer axes are used as walking sticks and for probing crevasses during glacier travel. Alpine climbers gain a foothold on steep and snowy slopes by using crampons. Invented in 1908 by British climber Oscar Eckenstein, crampons are frameworks of sharp metal teeth that fasten to mountaineering boots and grip the snow and ice. They attach to the boots with straps that lace around the ankles or by snaps that connect to the boot sole. Basic mountaineering crampons are hinged between the sole and the heel, have straps, and have 10 or 12 points.
More technical crampons have two teeth pointing forward.
These teeth, called front points, allow a climber to kick straight into the ice or snow on especially steep slopes. When attached to a climber's rope, hardware provides anchors to steep slopes. Hardware can include such items as nuts and chocks, which are wedge-shaped or hexagonal pieces of aluminum alloy attached to a wire cable or a Perlon sling. Climbers can wedge these high-strength pieces of metal into cracks and fissures in the rock. Hardware also includes pitons, which are blades or U-shaped spikes made from a durable metal called chromolly steel.