ice climbing question

[Braydon]

When you are placing your ice screws how far away do you want to place them from your tool placement or does it not matter? I haven't had this question answered for me in any books but it seems like the fracture lines from the tools will decrease the screws strength if you have it too close to a tool placement.

[jmace]

You wont be able to put a screw in if its too close to your tool cause you wont have the room to twist it in.

 

[northvanclimber]

it seems like the fracture lines from the tools will decrease the screws strength if you have it too close to a tool placement.

 

i think you figured it out all by yourself...

 

likewise, cracks can spread out from screw as it drives through the ice. would be a shame if your axe was in their path...

[jmace]

ya if your strong enough to somehow place a screw near your weighted pick..

[OlympicMtnBoy]

And if your pick penetrates the ice as far as your screw you have a problem. The fractures from your pick hopefully don't go anywhere near that deep.

[marc_leclerc]

you place your screws at hip level... otherwise its hard to apply enough pressure to get them to bight easily....

[summerprophet]

This is one of those things that you can overthink whilst sitting in your comfy recliner during the summer........ in all reality, it is obvious when you are out there.

 

Get a decent stance, with good tool placements, and drive in the screw between mid chest and hips..... anywhere else is simply going to be too difficult.

 

I often use old tool marks as a good spot to start the screw, gets it to "bite" easier.

 

 

 

[hafilax]

The only place I can think of where it might be an issue is at an anchor.

[Braydon]

i know you place screws at hip level but as you move up your old pick placements become at hip level. OMB has a good point though...

[jmace]

you place anchor screws vertically to avoid fractures.

 

Braydon, when placing a screw you chip away the garbage ice so sluff the garbage off that your old pick scar created and fire it in.

[OlympicMtnBoy]

Next time they have gear night at Feathered Friends go and check out the ice blocks they use for the v-thread contest. With a big clear ice block you can see how the fractures propagate from an ice screw in 3-d (although it's not a perfect example because ice is rarely that uniform outside). Not only can you see how radically different fracture patterns emerge from different brands of screw, you will also see that fractures tend to propagate radially from the screw and hardly at all in front of the screw. I haven't looked at fractures from an ice tool in a clear block, but my guess is that they don't penetrate very deep beyond the pick either. Thus I don't think in normal ice conditions you need to worry about this sort of thing much, and like Summerprophet said, old pick holes make good screw starters in hard ice.