I really like the Lightning snowshoes and wish I could use them all the time. Performance, both uphill and down, is great. Unfortunately, for marketing purposes, they wanted to claim
"Ultralight: The lightest snowshoe in its class. "
Because of this, they have used both thinner gauge steel and less of it for the crampons, compared with the Denali evo or Denali. The objective was to be able to say they were the "lightest", not to be the most durable or reliable. I even tried mounting the Denali evo crampon/binding assembly on the Lightnings. The are a little tight and not a perfect fit. When the current Lightning crampons break, I might just buy a spare set from the Denali evo and see if they will work.
The ascent Televators are a nice feature on both models. But you really need a fairly open and long, steep grade to use them. For example, Allen Brook or Algonquin open rock slope above the Wright junction. On terrain with changing slope, it is annoying to have to take them up and down frequently. Leaning over is a great opportunity for the snow on your pack to fall down your neck--cool

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One last point and I'll shut up: excessive body weight (beyond the design limits) is not the cause of these failures. I think I am in the "normal" weight range (bw about 160 pounds) and you can look up past reports from our petit colleagues, Highonlife and Kerry, who also broke their Lightnings. The product is not built strong enough for normal use in mountain hiking, such as in the Adirondacks or Whites. It is probably fine for walking around golf courses or groomed trails--which in numbers is probably where most of their sales come from.