Ice Screw, "SIBERIA" 180
It is an analog (NOT A COPY) of Grivel 360 Ultimate Ice Screw.
Made of steel. Titanium hanger accommodates two carabiners. The Ice Screw has unique teeth and smaller internal diameter of the teeth point of the tube. It gives extremely easy and fast placements even in hard Siberian Ice.
Victor Kozlov and Dmitry Ustinov designs.
Made in Russia.
JScoles - Apr 5, 2004 3:35 pm - Voted 4/5
Untitled ReviewLike all of the products of ALVOTITANIUM they are made to a very high standard though they are not finished with a nice nickel or chrome plating like their western brethren. But for 20$ a pop what do you expect.
This is an odd product for this firm as it is not made of Ti at all (except the hanger) but is made out of some sort of hardened steel it has yet to rust so it is most likely high quality.
The first thing you notice about these screws is they are much heftier that your average screw. At 200g and 22mm in diameter they will make your super~light climber types gag. But what they lack in lightness they make up for in functionality. I find their double holed hangers easer to rack than the Grivel 360s though they still catch on everything like the 360s. They are much more convenient when used in a belay as it is very easy to keep things separated. Their thick diameter meant I could reuse screw holes that were already present in the ice, though I don’t recommend this as a regular practice, but sometimes you have no option.
They do go in just as fast as the Grivel’s and the handle was much more hardy being completely metal and easer to hang onto and use. I also found that in hard ice (-20 and below) they do go in better than the BD’s and the Grivel’s and a close look at the teeth you seen how they were cut differently than their competitors quite unique actually, with a sort of an under-cut divot on each tooth that funnels the ice into the screw boar.
Now for the bad news besides having no CE or UIAA certification (neither do 10cm stubbies and that doesn’t seem to bother many), their threads go in the opposite direction to all modern screws that I have seen and as such flat edge of the thread points in the diretion of pull.
Us old farts will remember that all screws at one time did this it is only recently that most have reversed their threads, for a supposed increase in holding power, Grivel being one of the last to do it by the way. This little tidbit may scare some climbers away.
Their other drawback is they have no internal taper so they are a bugger to clean when compared to tapered BDs or other modern screws. As well I do not think they will be any joy to sharpen because of the unique under-cut of the teeth, though after one season of moderate use they do not need any sharpening.
All in all a great new product and at the price very cheap and well worth the money even if you only use them to set up belays.
I give them 4 out of 5 starts since the design can still be improved.
Available on Ebay at Uralsport