Show us your ice axes!

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

There's been a fair bit of interest in them in the ''What have you got on the way'' thread, so I think it deserves a thread of it's own

[Grant Lamontagne]

I like ice axes.... tragically their price tags and my wallet have never seen eye to eye, especially since I prefer to hibernate in winter!

Def

[Mr. Whippy]

I gotta look around.  I have some pretty decent shots of ice tools/ice axes...

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

I gotta look around.  I have some pretty decent shots of ice tools/ice axes...

Of you go then

[Mr. Whippy]

This shows a Petzl Quark being used for dry tooling.  Jamming the point in the crack and camming it over, it's pretty effective.  

Just don't release the camming force!  



BTW, that's my daughter reefing on my tools...

[Mr. Whippy]

Same Petzl Quarks used in the traditional fashion...

[cgk]

This shows a Petzl Quark being used for dry tooling.  Jamming the point in the crack and camming it over, it's pretty effective.  

Just don't release the camming force!  

(Image removed from quote.)

BTW, that's my daughter reefing on my tools...

I would be a wreck watching my kids do that, but I suppose they grew-up doing that.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

She's a braver lass than me

[Mr. Whippy]

She is a bit wild...

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

 

[ringzero]

There's been a fair bit of interest in them in the ''What have you got on the way'' thread, so I think it deserves a thread of it's own

Sorry, MickyD.  I've got 5, maybe 6 ice axes around here, but still don't have a decent camera to take pics.

Two Grivels, two other European brands I can't recall at the moment, and I believe I still have two MSRs.

They're all fairly old, with the MSRs being the only semi-modern axes with aluminum shafts.

The older European axes all have wooden shafts and are all nearly a meter long.  They were bought for walking, not climbing.

The Made in America MSRs were bought for climbing use and are much shorter.

.

[Mr. Whippy]

Ok, no more procrastination.  Here's (most) of my ice tools:



From top to bottom: Petzl Quarks, Grivel Alp Monster, Petzl Aztars, Stubai straight shaft (OLD!), CAMP straight shaft (Italian company)



The three Quarks.  Two with hammers, and one (the far right) with an adze.



Another shot of them.  The adze is for chipping steps in steep ice.  The hammer can pound protection into ice or rock.

The Quarks are leashless, but can be climbed with leashes.  The Aztars have to be climbed with leashes, cuz they don't have the hook at the bottom (Keeps you from falling off the bottom of the tool)

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

That's some very fine bit's of kit mate