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So, I jumped on the leashless ice tool band wagon and realized that not only do they not come with hammer/adze, even if they did the geometry of the tool would make it nearly impossible to hammer pitons. So, I bought a very light weight alpine rock hammer for driving pins when the route calls for it. Is this a stupid idea? Are there better options? I wish I had kept my old straight shafted ice tools now.

It's a very clever idea. I spent a long time trying to drive a few pins with a nomic on a couple of lines. It's hard to do and I hit my fingers.

I bought an alpiney tool (new BD venom), cut it short and plan to use that as one of my tools this season. This is for skimo not hard climbing though.

I also know a guy who carries a short sumtec as a spare tool and hammer.

beean wrote:I also know a guy who carries a short sumtec as a spare tool and hammer.

I have a Sum'Tex hammer, and as an alpine tool it is great, but as a primary tool for driving pitons it is a bit light and the geometry is not ideal.

I've used my Grivel Matrix Tech, Grivel Monsters, and Cassin XDreams to hammer in pitons successfully. Most companies now have picks with hammers, or hammer attachments that screw into the ice tool. You really shouldn't need to carry a separate hammer

buckie06 wrote:I've used my Grivel Matrix Tech, Grivel Monsters, and Cassin XDreams to hammer in pitons successfully. Most companies now have picks with hammers, or hammer attachments that screw into the ice tool. You really shouldn't need to carry a separate hammer

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My experience with the radically curved tools (Petzl Nomic, BD Fusion, Grivel Tech, etc.) is that they are nearly impossible to drive pitons due to the geometry, and also the low profile hammers. Sure, it can be done, but a light weight piton hammer would be more efficient. I suppose it probably depends upon the route of choice. If it requires a lot of pitons, a piton hammer might be justified. If pitons are not expected, or only a few, then one of the stock hammers would suffice. FWIW, the hammers that Grivel offers seem to be the best of the bunch; large and with more clearance to counteract the geometry of the tool.

ExcitableBoy wrote:

buckie06 wrote:I've used my Grivel Matrix Tech, Grivel Monsters, and Cassin XDreams to hammer in pitons successfully. Most companies now have picks with hammers, or hammer attachments that screw into the ice tool. You really shouldn't need to carry a separate hammer

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My experience with the radically curved tools (Petzl Nomic, BD Fusion, Grivel Tech, etc.) is that they are nearly impossible to drive pitons due to the geometry, and also the low profile hammers. Sure, it can be done, but a light weight piton hammer would be more efficient. I suppose it probably depends upon the route of choice. If it requires a lot of pitons, a piton hammer might be justified. If pitons are not expected, or only a few, then one of the stock hammers would suffice. FWIW, the hammers that Grivel offers seem to be the best of the bunch; large and with more clearance to counteract the geometry of the tool.

To each his own. On multi-pitch routes placing pitons, along with nuts/cams, I haven't had problems. I'm sure a dedicated hammer would be easier, but it's not that hard with ice tools to warrant carrying another piece of gear up.

Although I learned how to place pitons with ice tools, not piton hammers, I'm sure it's different for someone who rock climbed back in the day with this gear.

buckie06 wrote:
To each his own. On multi-pitch routes placing pitons, along with nuts/cams, I haven't had problems. I'm sure a dedicated hammer would be easier, but it's not that hard with ice tools to warrant carrying another piece of gear up.

Although I learned how to place pitons with ice tools, not piton hammers, I'm sure it's different for someone who rock climbed back in the day with this gear.

I'm thinking that for the majority of routes requiring pitons will be alpine routes, in which case I will be using alpine tools, which work just fine for placing pitons. I'm thinking more for mixed cragging where a more aggressive tool would be helpful. Since it is just cragging, an extra pound (that is how much the alpine hammer I bought weighs) is no big deal. Also, I have a number of summer alpine rock FA's in mind that might require placing KBs/Bugaboos, so I was expecting to need a hammer anyway.

I bring the Grivel North Machine Carbon when planning to place pitons; the NMC's hammer doesn't drive as well as an actual hammer of course, but handles much better than a quark or nomic for example. It's the best hammer on a tool that i've seen so far.