Black Diamond Raven and Raven Pro Ice Axes Reviewed

by on 22. Jun, 2010 in Alpine Ice Axes, Mountaineering Ice Axes, Walking Ice Axes

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 without trying to show off and they comes in enough different models to sit most budgets and needs. The odds are, in fact, that if you go into a store to look for a beginner’s ice axe, then you will probably be pointed in the direction of a Raven or Raven Pro.
The first thing to note about them is that they are about as close to being all purpose as you will find. It would be wrong to think that one axe could do everything, which is why lots of climbers have a whole variety for different purposes such as walking, alpine climbing or technical climbing, but this family of tools fit nicely in the middle of the range and can be used for a wide variety of purposes from ski touring to relatively steep ascents with a few bits of really steep ice thrown in. They have relatively straight shafts, which means they will plunge in easily and they also have a good shaped head. The pick is also relatively level, which makes a quite suitable for self-arresting, though it is not quite angled enough for really serious ice climbing (even if you forget about its general shape, which rules it out for that anyhow). The adze (or back of the head) is wide enough for you to do a fair bit of chopping without being a huge unwieldy shovel.
They come in a length that will accommodate most people’s height as well as climbing style (if you want to read more I’ve written a bit about sizing an ice axe).
But in short the main Raven model weighs 437grams (15 oz) and is available from 55cm to 90 cm long.
Since most mountaineers and climbers will be looking at something in the range of 65cm anyway for a nice balanced axe, this clearly gives more than enough choice for most people.
The other great thing about the Raven family is that they also come in a range of different prices and with different technical characteristics and weights so that there is something for those people who are on a budget but also for those who are willing to pay a bit more for something that offers slightly better performance or lower weight.
The Raven Pro is even lighter at 362 grams for the shortest model (50cm long) and these go up to 75cm. They are really intended for use on steeper ice and snow than the ordinary Raven. They are both made of aluminium for lightness and are B-rated axes.
If you want to go even more ultra-lightweight then there is always the Raven Ultra, which is a very light, quite short axe with a more aggressive pick.
Most people I’ve spoken to who own these are really happy with them and use them all the time. They are not especially fancy, but just well made tools that offer reasonably good value for money. Speaking of money, you should shop around to find the cheapest Raven ice axe. They usually retail for about $79 but you can often find discounted ice axes on sale so be sure to check out the various online offerings.
The Raven is a long way from being the only ice axe out there. I’m not even sure I would say it is the best ice axe available. But it is a good balance between performance and price and should give many years of happy service to both beginners and expert mountaineers alike.

Black Diamond Raven Ice Axe Gray, 65cm

$79.95

Raven Pro Ice Axe 75CM by Black Diamond

$99.00

Black Diamond Raven Ultra Ice Axe Bd Orange, 50cm

$109.95

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Ice Axe Self-Arrest: How to save your life

by on 23. Apr, 2010 in Beginners Guide to Ice Axes


The most important reason for carrying an ice axe up in the mountains is to be able to “self-arrest” or stop yourself from sliding down and off the mountain if you fall. It is not, as some people think, a glorified walking stick with a pointy end for showing off in the parking lot. To be able to self arrest you need to have drilled the movements into you mind and body so that they are second nature. One way of doing this is through accessing what is sometimes called “muscle memory”

Self-Arrest and muscle memory

The term muscle memory is one that first become popular  in police forces and the like. A lot of studies into the deaths of police officers discovered that when they were faced with the extreme stress of having a gun pulled on them by a felon or even worse, actually being shot at, many officers fumbled when trying to pull out their own guns in response. The adrenalin shock was just too much for them to access any sort of fine motor skills. The response was to drill them repeatedly so that the act of reaching for and pulling out a gun was no longer in their heads but almost ingrained in their bodies. The way they achieved this was through performing the action hundreds of times untill it became second nature. This is not to say it actually resides in the muscles, but just that the brain has got the action down so smoothly that it can perform it without any real thought under extreme stress. It stands to reason that this is what you want to achieve with your self-arrest. When hurdling down a steep slope, you don’t want to have to think about how to stop your slide, you want your body to just do it automatically.

The first thing to do is to figure out the right method of self arrest. I’m not going to post detailed instructions here (though if you want you can find them on the Web). The reason I’m not is  because I think this is something that is best learned through practise under the supervision of someone who knows what they are doing. Ideally you should learn this from a qualified instructor and then practise it over and over. Start out on a gentle slope and literally flop down on your but and start sliding, then do your self-arrest. Do this a whole bunch of times and when you think you’ve got it down pat, then start adding variations. Fall down on your face (don’t puncture yourself with the pointy bits of your ice axe) and then stop your fall. Do the same falling backwards so you are heading down slope head first. Remember, what you are doing here is trying to teach yourself to perform these actions totally automatically and instinctively in any situation without having to stop and think. Remember too that when you actually have to use them, you won’t be sliding down a gentle slope all relaxed, but may be startled by a fall, winded, scared and tired.

When you get home go over what you have done in your mind. Visualisation is a powerful learning technique. The brain often doesn’t know the difference between practise and visualisation, so close your eyes and go over what you have learned. Imagine yourself performing each action. Do actual practise often and visualisation too to help reinforce it and if you do need to self-arrest, you’ll know how to do it.

Although I said earlier that I wouldn’t post instructions here (I don’t want you reading this once and then thinking its so easy that you don’t need to go out and do it) I am posting a video below, because I think that seeing it in action is a useful learning experience. The video below is produced by the British Mountaineering Council, which is the official voice of climbing in Britain and most climbing and alpine clubs belong to it. They have great safety resources on their web site so I’d urge you to visit it.

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The Most Famous Ice Axe Belay Ever

by on 14. Apr, 2010 in Alpine Ice Axes, Mountaineering Ice Axes

K2, the Savage Mountain, and site of the most famous 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 most famously remembered for an event that took place almost half a century before on one of the world’s most dangerous mountains, K2 in Pakistan.
It was on that expedition in 1953 that an American expedition set out to climb K2, the world’s second-highest mountain and among the most dangerous (only Annapurna has killed more of those who have tried to climb it). The team was pummelled high on the mountain for days by a mercilessness storm that trapped them at an altitude of 7,800 meters. After days of being stuck they started to weaken and some team members fell ill from altitude sickness. Eventually they decided they had to move or they would die where they were. So weakened, and under appalling conditions they tried to make their way off the mountain.
On their way down the climbers were roped together and trying to lower one of their ill colleagues, Art Gilkey. One of them slipped and suddenly five climbers were falling down the mountain. Peter Schoening jammed his ice axe up against a boulder that was frozen onto the mountain side, using it to anchor a belay for the other climbers. With that single act he saved an entire expedition. His act has since become known simply as “The Belay” and shows how quick thinking, selfless bravery and a good ice axe can save lives on mountains. Many of the children of the climbers whose lives he saved now call themselves “children of the belay” and have met regularly in recent years.

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A Classic Wood-Shafted Ice Axe Reinvented: The Grivel Monte Bianco

by on 13. Apr, 2010 in Alpine Ice Axes, Mountaineering Ice Axes, Walking Ice Axes

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 hunk of cold metal. Over the past few decades ice axes made from wood have become collectors’ pieces rather than working tools. Although a solid shaft from dense slow-growth wood is incredibly strong for its weight (weight for weight wood can be stronger than steel, but not aluminium or fancy alloys) no companies wanted to take on the problems associated with wood. The truth is that when working with a living material you get cracks and tiny imperfections and it just was not possibly to make ice axes that could reliably pass inspection and get safety certification. More than that, what company wanted to risk a lawsuit if an ice axe failed and someone was killed. So it was far easier for all concerned to simply abandon wood and move onto simple materials such as steel or aluminium.
Fortunately there is one company out there that has gone out of its way to reinvent the traditional wooden ice axe for modern times. The Grivel Monte Bianco has a shaft made of CarbonWood composite, a mix of wood and modern materials that allows it to be consistently strong. This is a B-rated ice axe that has a shaft rated to withstand a force of 280kg. By comparison T-rated ice axes made by Grivel (such as the Air Tech Racing Ice Axe ) can withstand a force of 400kg on the shaft, which makes them more suitable for belaying. (You can read more about safety standards at the website of the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation here)
It is also not the lightest ice axe out there. At 600g it weighs as much as 200g-300g more than modern ultralight weight b-rated alpine axes and it weighs about 100g more than similarly sized T-rated ones. That said, it has a lovely heft and the feel of wood is something quite special. Plus it will look really good in the car park or hanging over your fireplace. If looking wizened and seasoned is your thing, or you like the feel of wood then this is definitely your axe. Most people, however, will probably stick with metal.

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UK Hill-walker Saved by His Ice Axe

by on 07. Apr, 2010 in Walking Ice Axes

A recent story in the UK newspapers highlights the importance of carrying and using an ice axe on tricky terrain that is covered in snow or ice, especially if it is steep. The report in Britain’s Telegraph newspaper notes that a 50-year-old walker was out in the hills in January (remember this was one of Europe’s coldest and snowiest winters in years) when he slipped and fell off a high hill in poor visibility. As luck would have it he was carrying an ice axe that he had only recently bought for climbing Mont Blanc. He was able to arrest his fall, which saved his life. The report is not clear whether he used a proper self-arrest technique (it just says he stuck out his axe) nor does it say what kind of ice axe he was using. Either way, it seems clear that without it he would have been in serious trouble.
The bloke, a certain John Wrightson who has been walking in these hills for years and knew the route he was on really well, also showed real character after the fall.

This is an age when people set out into the outdoors completely unprepared and then call out the rescue service at the flimsiest excuse  – “I was tired” is one of the reasons that heard increasingly often by people who have called mountain rescue teams out in the mountains in the UK these days. Instead of just calling for help, he took care of himself:

After catching his breath he decided it would be safer to climb back to the summit rather than heading towards Red Tarn. “I did think about calling the emergency services because I was in difficulties, but I would never put them through that.

Instead he set off back through the blizzard and made his way back home. Although the walk is a fairly simple one in clear weather it took him almost twice as long as usual because of the poor visibility. As for the moral of the story – the bloke concludes that from now on, he’ll be taking his ice axe with him all the time.

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