If you are looking for a pretty good general purpose ice axe that offers really exceptional value then look no further than the Camp Neve. This is a really simple, yet well made ice axe with a steel pick and adze, a decent steel spike and a package that doesn’t weigh too much and that [...] Read more »
Camp Corsa Ice Axe Review: The Lightest Ice Axe About
Lightness is always an asset when climbing. I’ve always found that my time out in the hills is much more pleasurable if I’m not weighed down with heavy gear. That applies as much to a gentle walk through the woods as it does attempting a a new summit. The Camp Corsa Ice Axe If you [...] Read more »
Grivel Air Tech Racing Ice Axe
Multipurpose ice axes generally give you a choice. You can have an axe that is light or you can have an ice axe that is strong. Grivel’s Air Tech Racing Ice Axe changes that equation and give you one that is light and strong at the same time. Its head is forged, which basically means [...] Read more »
Black Diamond Raven and Raven Pro Ice Axes Reviewed
It is hard to imagine a piece of gear as mundane as an ice axe approaching something like celebrity status. But if anything has it must be the Black Diamond Raven ice axe family. They are, I guess, the VolksWagen of ice axes. You find them everywhere. They do the job without any fuss or [...] Read more »
The Most Famous Ice Axe Belay Ever
Anyone who has been around mountaineering for any period of time will have come across the name of Peter Schoening, a real legend of American mountaineering. He spent a life on high mountains and was famously on Everest in 1996, an ill-fated year in which scores of mountaineers died on the mountain. But he is [...] Read more »
A Classic Wood-Shafted Ice Axe Reinvented: The Grivel Monte Bianco
Climbers with a real sense of nostalgia often look back on classic wooden-shafted mountaineering ice axes with a real sense of loss. Many of these were works of art. And there is something to be said about holding wood in your hand. You can feel that it is a living material, rather than just a [...] Read more »
Buying a Mountaineering Ice Axe
When taking up any sort of winter mountaineering, ski touring, or hill walking that requires you to cross glaciers or steep ice one of your most essential safety instruments is a good ice axe that is suitable for mountaineering. Ice axes provide a very useful third point of contact (in addition to your two feet) [...] Read more »