The Mountaineering Ice Axe

June 6, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized 

My uncle Richard just gave me this wall mounted antique ice axe. This ice axe’s history is little known other than a friend of my uncle’s was using it to clean his fireplace. It has no markings that would denote it being made outside of a home shop. The pick has the beginnings of teeth. So this axe could be the generation after the initial axe design. Which had no teeth and was greater than waist high in design.

Below is a shot of of various mountaineering axes

The tallest axe on the left being just above waist high and then stepping down to just above knee high with the shortest axe in the above image. These three I just received from my uncle too. The shortest axe is the only one with full teeth going up the pick for roughly three quarters of it whole distance. Beyond the wood shafts of these model above we moved to the whole metal forged ice axes of steel that were rather heavy and cumbersome. Yet still fairly long in length.

Next we moved to a light aluminum construction as depicted in the Grivel Air Tech Race Axe below

This is my personal axe for mountaineering weighing in at 14oz. However there are lighter model on the market now. The mountaineering days of evolution also lead to the development of the more modern ice tools that are of the realm of the frozen water ice climber. These started with just getting shorter in length. However, that was not enough. So the next step in evolution was a bend in the shaft. Now here is where we depart from the old…the now semi-standard ice tool is leashless.

These again our my tools for modern cliff warfare. A slim profile, aggressive curve and beefy handle. These have revolutionized the way we approach ice climbing. Now we climb a bit more fluid as if we were just on a rock face. Naturally, you can’t monkey up the whole face with just your arms. Spikes on the feet have evolved just as the tools in our hands. Though the story of the crampon is for another time.

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