Stamford, CT - 'A FROZEN WORLD, the world's premier mixed climbing newsletter, tested the ICE COMP GTX from LOWA.

Read what this reviewer had to say:

"Gear Review: Lowa Comp GTX with Black Diamond Raptor mixed bootie/bolt-on crampon. By Lowa Boots and Black Diamond Equipment.

At last the orphaned Raptor crampon has been teamed up with a respectable bootie!

The Raptor has been redesigned with a threebolt heel-piece to fit the narrow Ice Comp GTX bootie, otherwise the toe plate looks the same as the earlier model, essentially a bolt-on version of the Bionic crampon in mono-point configuration.

The Raptor sports a formidable (and potentially hazardous) orange spur you could suspend a portaledge from, there are two positions, horizontal and (sharply) inclined that the spur can be configured in. The front-point can also be adjusted to long and really long, this particular front-point has a pretty good droop, if the Bionic was your style this should appeal to you.

The Bionic crampon is aggressively configured for ice, the secondary point set has the bivalent Sabretooth format which offers good bite and stability in waterfall ice. The tertiary (rear-most) point set on the front plate is aggressively slanted towards the heel for raking, or grabbing on to features under roofs or overhangs, this it does quite well.

The Lowa Comp GTX bootie is essentially a very robust winter rock shoe with a full rand and smooth climbing-shoe rubber sole. The whole she-bang comes all drilled and fitted with T-nuts so off you go. The bootie is insulated, has an integral Gore-tex membrane and has a synthetic and leather-trimmed upper replete with a Schoeller fabric cuff that closes with Velcro to seal out snow and what-not.

The booties are made in Italy so the workmanship is excellent, no expense was apparently spared and every gew-gaw and gee-whiz material has been incorporated into this bootie.

Not only that but the considerable reputation of Ines Papert has been leveraged behind this product. On a recent excursion into Wilderness Sports in Silverthorne, Colorado I was greeted by a sizeable placard of the German mixed maven herself sporting these very same booties.

Absolutely Bootie-licious!"