newbie intro & gear question

[surferclimber]

hey I just wanted to do a quick intro and ask a little question about gear.... my name is Tim; I'm a professor way over here in FLA so naturally I surf etc, and I do quite a bit of climbing ( mainly NH & WA ) with the means of delta & Alaska air... I'm hoping to one day find a job in the Seattle area so I can climb the beautiful cascades a lot more often and withount 6 hour flights!

 

Anyways, my question about gear is pretty simple.... for ever I have been using a regular black diamond standard 65cm ice axe as my "walk up part" and then a black diamond leashed cobra hammer ice tool as my "2nd tool" for when the going gets tough

 

Ok, long story short me and my wife were out for a walk on Grand Teton approach trail on our last vacation...... we left my ice axe up there somewhere So the next day at the local store I impulsed bought the only reasonable priced one they had in stock (we planned to do Raineer a few days later), which was a new black diamond leashless retractor ice tool

 

 

What is the pros and cons of using my old cobra ice tool as my "walk up part" ... it has a curved shaft, but not so crazy like the new ones leashless ones. So I am pretty confident that I could dig it down in to the snow to do a belay or whatnot. The only bad thing I could think of is that they are both hammers and I know most people carry one hammer one adze??? I've always carried up with the pick forward so I am not sure how the adze would really help me in an arrest; the only time I've had to arrest I dug the shaft and it held me ! I thought about maybe just buying the part to replace the hammer with adze???

 

 

Thank you in advance,

 

Tim

 

p.s. here is the picture of that ice tool

 

http://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en-us/shop/climb/technical-ice-tools/cobra

 

 

 

 

Edited June 6, 2010 by surferclimber

[Water]

if you think it works my main understanding of such a tool for walk-up is other than risk of appearing too tool-like, the shaft is too short on a moderate slope to do a good self belay, and too curved/finger grip can make plunging it more difficult, the pick angle is not ideal for self arrest.

 

but if you find it works for you, it works for you.

[sobo]

...I've always carried up with the pick forward so I am not sure how the adze would really help me in an arrest; the only time I've had to arrest I dug the shaft and it held me !

You don't use the adze in self-arrest. You use the pick. And Water already mentioned that the angle of the pick on the Cobra is not the best angle for arrest. Just drop the sheckels and buy a new piolet.

[surferclimber]

Just drop the sheckels and buy a new piolet.

 

it does make sense as that angle looks pretty low and probably would hit the snow at a weird angle... interestingly though for a tall guy like me on a steep slope that tool with the curved shaft worked really well for step step move the axe step step as the angle away from the body seemed to help.....

 

 

anyways, guess black diamond is getting some more of my $$$ for that new axe

 

 

thanks for your time, Tim

Edited June 6, 2010 by surferclimber

[sobo]

Just drop the sheckels and buy a new piolet.

anyways, guess black diamond is getting some more of my $$$ for that new axe

A Raven Pro should suit your purposes swimmingly. It's a fine all-around mountaineer's axe.

Lots and lots of them out there, and at only 100 sheckels, it is a good buy.

[genepires]

unless you are thinking of alpine ice action, you might want to consider some of the light weight axes out there.

[surferclimber]

thanks... that what I had before black diamond got from ebay so can't name its details, but it was around 70cm basic but very light weight and I was very happy with it.

 

I goofed and left it on Grand Teton coming down so I can only hope that somebody else picked it up and is putting it to good use... or maybe some animal picked it up and is using it hmmmm

[tomtom]

A 64cm BD Venom works well as a glacier travel tool and also for climbing moderate alpine ice.

 

http://www.supertopo.com/review/Black-Diamond-Venom