Modifying Ice Axes for Kids (Tools for Slabby to Vertical Ice)

Mark Regier wrote:

About to cut these down to make kid axes for my 7 yr old and his friends. 

Just looking at them, I suspect you're going to need to shorten the picks too.

Phase 1 complete

Ok, took me a while, but these are ready for the field testing phase! For those interested, I added a thin piece of wood to thicken the handle and insulate it a bit. Used two-part epoxy and clamps to glue it on, wrapped with thin cord, and sealed it off with another round of epoxy.

I kinda got into craftsman mode in case you can’t tell, ha!

https://www.simond.com/mountaineering-ice-axe-fox-carving-id_8091166

You could probably cut the adze off too. It’s short (43 cm) and light, with a good pick for ice actually. easy to slap a petzl trigrest on it too.

Went out to climb a bit and took the modified monsters, and yeah, Gunkiemike was right. Geometry is weird— picks need to be shortened. 

Teaching ice climbing to Boy Scouts in the 90's I had a set of Grivel Third tools for small kids, a set of Hamish Maciness Taradactyls, and some Forrest Serac Sabres (all fixed blades, so lighter) for those who needed lighter / shorter tools. Larger kids could use my Grivel Super Courmayers, Camp Hyper Coulour, Forrest Lifetimes and Cassin Antares (Heavy)

I do not have kids, but if I did... I would check out the ice fifis used for speed climbing competitions.  For older kids that have the ability to swing a light tool, I would check out the Petzl Gully and Grivel North Machine.  Both are relatively light and easy to choke up on.  

Not quite a modification but repurpose. Used my two never used BD ice pitons, the pommels from old CAMP All MountainX handles and 1/2 plywood. I carved out a

 recess for the metal and used epoxy and screws to hold it all together. Adding a buddies petzl nomic pick weights so they swing. My small 9 year old daughter can handle these.

Bump for when I get on my laptop and can upload pics 

For what it’s worth, for reference with slightly older kids, my daughters were/are on the smaller size end of the spectrum for their ages, but at about age 10 they switched to regular axes- Petzl Sum’Tec’s and then after about 12 and beyond they went to Cobra’s (small diameter grip) and have loved them.   They’d struggle on virgin boilerplate on a super cold day, but then who doesn’t, lol.  

Looks awesome Mark.
After trying for a few years to find some Grivel Lil’ monsters without success, I finally just got some Sumtecs instead. The new ones take the same picks as Nomics/quarks and can be stripped down to be very light and still have a pommel rest.