Learning how to use an ice axe to self arrest is a key skill that may save your life in the mountains. Don’t neglect to learn and practise it. Anyhow, I recently came across an old Army field manual on mountaineering that shows how the American military teaches ice axe self arrest. I thought I’d [...]
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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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
