Dry tool training picks

Escape Dry Tool Picks

Escape climbing holds produced an indoor dry tool training pick that can be installed on Black Diamond and Petzl tools. They are intended to be used on regular indoor climbing holds and, presumably you could use them on rock routes that you shouldn't otherwise be dry tooling on.

escapeclimbing.com/extra/dr…

picks

I bought the Black Diamond picks recently and installed them on a pair of BD Fuels. They're noticeably heavier than stock picks (186g vs. 96g for the Fusion Ice pick) but very similar pick angle. They have about 4mm of what appears to be climbing shoe rubber on the bottom contact surface, the remainder is a hard plastic cast around the steel "pick". The installation was very simple, just like changing a pick, they seated well and tightened down appropriately, no conflict.

pick angle

Our local gym, shockingly, is allowing me to use them top roping (no bouldering, no lead climbing, must use a leash/tether). I have about 15 routes over the last 2 days of use. There is a learning curve. Slopers are impossible, pinches and side pulls are very tricky to impossible, smaller holds the rubber is too soft to reliably maintain its grip. I'd say 5.9s in the gym that feel about M5 and get significantly harder from there. I occasionally have to "cheat" grabbing a hold with my hand or use a hold that's off route.

BD Fuel

My biggest concern are longevity and liability. The rubber is already worn, if they were a pair of shoes I'd probably send them for a resole already. I will have to be in contact with Escape to see what their "resole" plan is. At $80/pair they shouldn't be single use. Regarding liability, many (most?) other climbers are oblivious to the danger these pose to them while climbing in close proximity to me. I've instructed my belayer to give warning to others that attempt to climb next to me but it hasn't always been effective. Being cautious I usually just yield to them.

Overall I'd say they are a great training tool, maybe like 8/10 if the resole solution is cheap and easy. I think movement, strength, etc. will translate to the real thing just as pulling plastic translates to rock climbing well enough. I suspect that our gym rules will adapt and change after accident reports start popping from gyms around the country, either self inflicted or proxy climbers, until then I'm going to keep using them!

I'll get some action photos soon and a detailed photo of the rubber wear.

Cheers.
Jason

Escape is local to Minneapolis but I don't have any affiliation with them. In fact I had to pay shipping for my picks and they're advertising FREE SHIPPING now. Jerks.

In true dry tooling fashion I had one pop on me and broke my glasses last night. 5.10c routes in the gym feel M9 to M-impossible with these, slightly sloping hold can't provide the purchase I need to make a move.

Photo of wear after about 18 routes. Highly concentrated at the last 3/4". I have an email out to Escape asking about replacing the contact surface.

wear

How thick of the climbing rubber? Kinda surprised they wore out that fast.

I'd guess 4mm of rubber and I'm sure it's reputable climbing rubber.

It takes a lot of abuse, just like real dry tooling picks. High stress and deformation/shearing/tearing of the rubber as it conforms to holds is the likely culprit.

If you could get your hands on some rubber and adhesive, looks like about a 5-10 minute job for anyone with a modicum of handiness.

Hate to revive such an old dead thread, but wondering what you alpinejason heard back from Escape, did you ever get them re-soled? Any updates now that it's 7 months later? I'm about to bite the bullet to order some leading into ice season, but am worried about the longevity. Thanks!

+1. Curious to hear about long term results.

Late to the party here. Thanks for the reminder in the other Dry Ice Tool thread.

I continued to climb on the dry tool picks through late March this past season with minimal additional wear. I contacted Escape about the wear in January and they mentioned the stealth rubber was/is too soft and they were testing other rubber. Unable to verify if new picks are shipping with different rubber.

They offered to replace the rubber on mine. I haven't taken them up on the offer yet. Just getting back into the gym with them this season.

Cheers.

I did just get a set and I have only climbed maybe 5 routes at the gym, but I don't see the wear you experienced yet so maybe they did change the rubber. I'll keep playing with them and update if I encounter any substantial wear.

what gym allows this?

The three Vertical Endeavors locations in the Twin Cities all allow them. Must be leashed or tethered and top rope only. I can live with that.

Are these still available and/or are there similar products being made by another company?

I have a set of rubber picks, made by Escape, for my Fuels and was hoping to get a set for my Petzl tools.  

Last I knew Escape was still selling these. I heard production was a pain so they don't manufacture very often. They replaced the rubber on mine this winter. Give them a call for inventory check. 

any updates on this thread? they picks have gone up in price considerably ($179USD + shipping), so shelling out that kind of cash would be a hard pill to swallow if they were still wearing out fast and weren't resolable.

I'm mulling over dipping a worn out pair of picks in epoxy then wrapping them in climbing tape, or dipping them in plastidip or something. I'm surprised there isn't more DIY attempts to be found 

The gym I climb at has a few pair of these that I got to use throughout this last winter. Escape starting making a "pick" with an orange head that had considerably stiffer rubber. That's the one to get if there is a choice between the two.

I haven't used mine much recently. My climbing got derailed with a broken ankle pretty much all of 2018. They're definitely re-soleable though. Escape is local to me so I just dropped them off at their shop and had them redone. We had a good chat about the rubber and the revisions they were making to the design and composition. They did not charge me for the resole. I don't know if your local cobbler would do it, you could call and ask. Also call and ask Escape how they normally handle resoles and their cost.

I'll say the orange head model looks like their latest according to their site. I'm not sure if/when they changed their rubber compound but again, you could call and ask.

@turd burglar. You can experiment but I think you'll find none of the homemade setups will be very durable, at least as you describe. The advantage of the Escape pick is they've been vetted and are allowed in some commercial gyms. I'm doubt any gyms will allow your taped and plastidipped homemade setup. If you're looking for a solution for your home gym, dedicated dry tooling holds (or sacrificing some rock climbing holds, Ice Holdz, wood blocks, etc. etc.) and some beater picks are a much better solution.

Has anyone tired building their own pair I'm curious how they could be made. 

Andre Chiang wrote: Has anyone tired building their own pair I'm curious how they could be made. 

Yes, 3-d printed 'shoe' + old Petzl pick + epoxy + FiveTen rubber.  

Fun project to save $, cuz like y'all we were too cheap to spring for the Escapes and had old picks lying around. We went through the rubber in one season of 'bouldering' with a midway re-glue since all the wear is concentrated around the 1cm edge.  Rubber kits from Five Ten are super cheap if you can find them.  

As a note, our former gym had a set of these to use top roping: https://www.hexclimbing.com/product-page/t%C3%B8rr-tools 
Slightly shorter than Nomics, so they worked well on gym routes and much lighter than Nomics. Because they're wood they look less menacing than a regular ice tool (even though they have sandwiched metal construction) so I could imagine some gyms might like them.

Amy Krull wrote:

Yes, 3-d printed 'shoe' + old Petzl pick + epoxy + FiveTen rubber.  

Fun project to save $, cuz like y'all we were too cheap to spring for the Escapes and had old picks lying around. We went through the rubber in one season of 'bouldering' with a midway re-glue since all the wear is concentrated around the 1cm edge.  Rubber kits from Five Ten are super cheap if you can find them.  

As a note, our former gym had a set of these to use top roping: https://www.hexclimbing.com/product-page/t%C3%B8rr-tools 
Slightly shorter than Nomics, so they worked well on gym routes and much lighter than Nomics. Because they're wood they look less menacing than a regular ice tool (even though they have sandwiched metal construction) so I could imagine some gyms might like them.

do you have a closeup or more photos?