Forecast equipment stratos for ice climbing?

In effort to only have to buy one tool to do it all, what do we think of this? The stratos is the nor’easter with a longer handle. Overlayed with the nor’easter, everything is the same, so it should swing similarly into ice.

Does having a larger handle throw off the potential hinge/pivot point when swinging? Would the balance be off that swinging into ice becomes more laborious? Would second position change the pivot point when used that it acts as a third position when in ice so it shouldn’t be used? Would the thicker gloves make using two hands in first position impossible? Anything else I’m missing when thinking about this particular tool for ice climbing specifically?

Please don’t bring up how I should just get a Nomic, I have and have had every commercially available tool. As you all should know, the best tool out there is the one you don’t have, I enjoy trying and using new and unique, it’s my choice.  And yes JJ, I should probably just get the morphos, I know ;)

From what I can tell stratos has almost identical geometry to anchar 4. The main issue with anchars on ice was that the handle is completely round and it's quite hard to keep the pick in the same plane as the swing. This should not be an issue with the stratos. Otherwise the geometry was fine for ice, but using 2nd position is definitely a very bad idea (which is probably true for all tools that work really well on ice in first position).

It's a whole different story with hard mixed. You can make the comp geometry work on tiny edges by turning the tip of the pick down and you can make it work for ice by making the angle of the pick almost perpendicular to the wall with a low volume tip. It's almost impossible to do both at the same time. 

I cannot speak specifically to the stratos, but I do have the forecast handles on my x-dreams that I use pretty much solely for dry tooling. But when I got them I did some pitches of purre ice just to see. And frankly I was surprised by how well they worked in pure ice.  Like JJ said, using second position is a pretty bad idea, but there is kinda an intermediate position with only one finger over the second position pommel that worked for me.

I haven't used them on ice since and the x-dreams are pretty much my dedicated dry tool tools now. But, IMHO, yes, you could get away with it. But probably not the optimized tool.

if you just want to climb ice buy X dreams or Nomics... 

Have you tried asking Forecast Equipment?  They should be able to answer these questions.

It looks to me as if the upper pommel position on the Stratos was designed for use with comp picks and likely will not work well with most reverse curve ice or mixed picks, but I could be wrong.  The Nor’Easter or Meso models look like they have a better second grip position for ice climbing and might be better suited to your use case.

Forecast has a quick Instagram video reviewing the stratos vs the nor’easter, which is what brought up my question in the first place, the geometry is the same, but the first position handle is larger for comp purposes. I do some indoor dry tooling but ice climb much more and I like having the utility of one tool that does each well, I just need to change out the picks and I’m good to go.

It looks like it can be done, that I wouldn’t lose much utility using it for ice, I just wouldn’t be able to use second position, I’d have to use an uncomfortable higher first position when I need to match, which isn’t ideal.

I’m going to stick with my first plan, which is to get the nor’easter for ice and mixed and Tyler Kempney’s new comp handle for my x dreams for indoor dry tooling. I’m sure the morphos will be on the horizon in the next year or so. I don’t know what I’ll do after that, maybe start going retro?  

Matt Gravier wrote:

I’m going to stick with my first plan, which is to get the nor’easter for ice and mixed and Tyler Kempney’s new comp handle for my x dreams for indoor dry tooling. I’m sure the morphos will be on the horizon in the next year or so. I don’t know what I’ll do after that, maybe start going retro?  

You should ask Tyler about ice climbing on his handle. I’ve never tried it but he told me it works surprisingly well. 

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

if you just want to climb ice buy X dreams or Nomics... 

that forecast tool felt like a neanderthal club. To be fair I did not get to climb with it but it really did not feel like a gracefull tool.  If you want me to  say something nice about them comp me a set for next season and I will give an honest review..