m'kay...found myself trudging thru deep & steep snow-cone snow recently with a standard mountaineering axe and naturally spent a lot of energy making little headway.

Thought about a picture i had once seen of guys in Peru using what looked like removable 'trowels' (for lack of a better description) attached to their technical tools, but i've never seen any such component first-hand - are these home-made jobs? dis-continued tools? anyone ever mod their own set for this kind of climbing, or better yet, have a bit of beta or a template on what works and what doesn't?

I have access to a full steel machine shop and wouldn't mind fiddling if there are any pointers from the more experienced out there

thanx!

Haley used the wings for the cerro torre linkup, but they were custom made for tunneling. Not that 'custom' = difficult to make. If I remember right I'd say they were made of Al, maybe 6" in diameter, looked to be about 1/6" thick in the wings, and were full of about 3/8-1/2" speed holes.

EDIT: name corrected.

That was Colin Haley.

Sorry this is a bit off topic but it's something I've been wondering about....

Something else about modifying a mountaineering axe caught my attention when I was flipping through "The mountaineering handbook: modern tools and techniques that will take you to the top". Sharping the point of the pick from neutral/negative clearance to positive for better penetration on ice. If positive it so much better why is the stock on some mountaineering axes neutral/negative if positive is clearly better? Is it worth the work to so a couple of changes to the pick's point for better penetration into ice? Just curious as I'm about to head to Huntington Ravine on Mount Washington. I'd love to give some ice a try and get out beyond the central gully.

Oh the pick's I was considering modifying were a std raven and/or a raven ultra

http://books.google.ca/books?id=3hgJ0gvwIIIC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false

the differences are respective to their uses (if i understand your question correctly) - think about the angle at which the head/pick will be for its intended use: positive clearances on technical tools are for just that - penetration; the negative on mountaineering axes are for general dagger use but without a severe cutting angle thru the ice/snow during an arrest. if i mis-understood yer question & stated the obvious due apologies

great article here:
http://www.summitpost.org/article/17939 ... ls-eh.html

and a useful trailer gear note by the Chief at bottom of this article:
http://www.summitpost.org/route/354299/ ... uloir.html

ExcitibleBoy wrote:That was Colin Haley.

Haha, yup, you guys are right. I was at slideshows by both recently and so the wrong name came out;) I corrected the post to reflect this...

pjc30943 wrote:

ExcitibleBoy wrote:That was Colin Haley.

Haha, yup, you guys are right. I was at slideshows by both recently and so the wrong name came out;) I corrected the post to reflect this...

I read some of Haley and Garibotti's write up of their Torre Traverse a while back. Damned impressive stuff they did.

woodsxc wrote:

pjc30943 wrote:

ExcitibleBoy wrote:That was Colin Haley.

Haha, yup, you guys are right. I was at slideshows by both recently and so the wrong name came out;) I corrected the post to reflect this...

I read some of Haley and Garibotti's write up of their Torre Traverse a while back. Damned impressive stuff they did.

+1