Continue with onX Maps
Sign in with Facebook
Beartooth Alpine picks
Spopepro O. wrote: Climb enough ice with chandelier features and they are more prone to getting stuck. I generally file down massive stein teeth on my ice picks that are designed this way for this reason. |
Spopepro O. wrote: Do you climb anything other than virgin, less-than-vertical, flow ice? I find it hard to believe that any experienced ice climber can sincerely state "I can’t think of a time I’ve buried picks to the tool head on any pick (in anything hard enough to require “cleaning”)". There is a good reason that Petzl, BD, Camp, and Howey all continue the top bevel of their ice picks all the way to the head of the tool. I have also never had a mixed pick that I felt wasn't improved by continuing the top bevel all the way to the head. |
Karl Henize wrote: The solution is climb like squirrel not like bull! |
|
I'm with Christian and Karl on this one. It sounds like some of us are climbing on very different ice than others. Several times, I've had a tool get good and jammed in a naturally existing pocket after placing the pick in it (not swinging at all). |
Doug Hutchinson wrote: dude how hard are YOU swinging your picks Jesus! Also becoming more and more convinced people in this thread don’t know how to file. My goodness. I have smashed mine into rocks and still have the original angle and nowhere near even considering taking a tooth off. 30+ days on them |
Doug Hutchinson wrote: Not my experience at all with Beartooth picks - nor the experience of a dozen others I know who've put a ton of days on them. But let's be realistic: there's no 2mm High Performance Ice pick (or 2.5mm Mixed pick) belt tapered to a .2 razor edge at its point that won't beak if it hits rock. Because of this alleged "durability" issue, Beartooth is coming out with a "non-beaking" 2mm version that I saw smashed into rock repeatedly at Ouray Fest with only minor nicks. Their steel is very strong (but more importantly doesn't snap) and it's waaaay harder than old stock CAMP/Cassin. As for others, Kruks are brittle and snap (I had it happen on lead) they've been trying to back temper to make their steel softer, Steinle's are nearly 4mm and suck climbing anything other than soft ice, Kuznia? Really? It's friggin tool steel from Poland. Because of their geometry and open angle, Beartooth picks do require significant technique change. I had to stop bashing/deep swinging from elbow and be more aware of hitting rock. It happens though and I removed beaks twice without significant filing/re-shaping. Stop swinging so hard, stop hitting rocks and stop filing back so aggressively. It took me a while to learn these things. Have nearly 50 days on a pair of Ice Hawks and have sharpened them four times. They are the most insane performance ice pick I've ever used in 28 years of ice climbing. |
|
Got something like 200 pitches on a pair of stock xdream ice picks, finally took the first tooth off this season and still going strong. Just picked up another set, because they do just fine. I'm fully on board with the ice hawks though having seen the difference in effort, displacement, etc. in action plenty. Just holding out for the new version, which should outlast my tools from what I've seen. |
Jim Clarke wrote: It's highly unlikely they're using tool steel. More likely something with composition similar to american 4340 which is not too dissimilar to Howey's picks. I assume it's mostly the heat treatment that makes kuznia picks softer (on purpose). Is Poland known to have steel that is inferior to steel from an unknown origin? |
Jedrzej Jablonski wrote: I stand corrected. |
|
One more thumbs up for Beartooth, have both - Master Scratcher and Ice Hawk. Did not even get to Ice Hawk yet, Scratcher seems to handle everything well. Excels on hard ice, which we had plenty in NH this season. As Jim pointed out, technique change is a must. Tiny beak once from accidental swing into the rock, but nothing that small file could not fix in the field. |
|
Agreed, technique for swinging has to change because of how easily I bury them into soft ice. On the hard brittle stuff we’ve had in the daks this year, they displaced way less ice than my friends climbing on stock cassin picks. I did beak one pick topping out on a thin Catskill climb where there was a very thin layer of ice over rock covered by snow, but I think with how hard I was swinging and how small the point is on the pick, I would have beaked any pick. Overall I’m happy with them and will continue to use them. Huge difference in how they feel when comparing them to stock petzl and camp picks imo. |
|
Been using the master scratchers on nomics for the past two months, prob around 40 days out or so. Feel like I've gotten enough use that I can post my impressions. Overall I love these picks, they climb ice far better than stock pur'ice picks imo, and mixed just as well as my petzl dry picks. I've beaked them a few times on thin mixed routes but haven't noticed much of a performance decrease after filing off the beaks and doing some minor touch ups. They definitely seem pretty wear resistant if you're scratching around on rock and being careful on thin stuff. Only downside, that's been brought up a few times, is they can be pretty hard to clean if you swing into holes in the ice due to the roosters comb, but I'll take it due to the added stein performance. The caveat is these are my first aftermarket picks so I'm just comparing to stock petzl stuff. |
