Yeah slap I probably don't need to have poles in my hands for anything steep enough to be fun, but I'm too lazy to put them away, and my ski partners think it's funny, and I like to entertain them (because I'm nice like that).
So inspecting the whippet poles, I have to say the attachment point for the pick looks pretty damn weak. All that's holding the pic in is about 1/32" of aluminum (and that's being generous). Sketchy?
Consider that the total newbie, hiking up the easy route, feels just as hardcore and adventuresome as you do on your uber-hard super-gnar death trap testpiece.
I guess there would be some excitement in climbing an infamous route. There's a lot of fantasy in climbing, otherwise you're just a stupid human torturing yourself on some steep piece of earth for no reason.
French Technique? If by that you mean pussy-footing around and trying to come in sideways? This here's aMERica, and here we go steer-ate UP the gnar, gawd-dimmit!
One could construe flat-footed techniques as a way of compensating for inadequate support for frontpointing? But I'm not an ice climber.
I'm 5'8" 155 lbs and ride a 166 cm Voile. It's the right size for winter conditions. Something shorter would be more appropriate for summer corn riding.