New Grivel Ice Tools: the Nexus Machine

I hadn't seen this anywhere else yet, but Grivel appears to have undergone a major rebrand, and they put up a number of new products on their site this week -- one of which was a new ice tool, the Nexus Machine.

Advertised weight is only 410g, which would make it among the lightest (maybe the lightest?) true ice tools out there. It's also an eye-watering $759 per tool. Supposedly going to officially launch in November.

Those look cool. Different enough from the dark machine that they might be good. 

Holy exploding nomics, the greed.

A Zwrote:

I hadn't seen this anywhere else yet, but Grivel appears to have undergone a major rebrand, and they put up a number of new products on their site this week -- one of which was a new ice tool, the Nexus Machine.

Advertised weight is only 410g, which would make it among the lightest (maybe the lightest?) true ice tools out there. It's also an eye-watering $759 per tool. Supposedly going to officially launch in November.

*sighs and pulls out wallet*

mike dwrote:

Holy exploding nomics, the greed.

I don’t think it’s that unreasonable of a price for a full carbon tool…only other main stream tool with a complicated manufacturing process is the Dmm cortex which is similarly priced 

Finally after 8 years they release this thing

Looks like they’re still designed for robot hands

A Zwrote:

Advertised weight is only 410g, which would make it among the lightest (maybe the lightest?) true ice tools out there. It's also an eye-watering $759 per tool. Supposedly going to officially launch in November.

Also among the shortest, at 48 cm. Interesting.

I'd consider it if it was compatible with Petzl picks

Keys Laynwrote:

I'd consider it if it was compatible with Petzl picks

Why on gods green earth would a company make a tool that uses a competitors picks. Also the razor pick makes the pur ice feel like a drytooling pick

Im glad it looks like they finally decided to start having pick weights it was one of my biggest complaints with their lighter tools even with the weight balancing they've been doing. It looks a bit like the aspeed but the grivel is 50g lighter which is wild 

Because, Jack, the lack of a standard prevents me from buying tools that I can't run Beartooth picks on. In a choice between these and Nor'easters I'm choosing Nor'easters because I know I'll be able to source picks. Meanwhile try finding spare picks for a pair of Quantum Techs. Petzl has the standard of picks and a healthy and long running aftermarket. The sooner Grivel and BD accept that, the sooner we can see even more innovation in the after market pick world. Why would anyone switch to a tool like this with grivels track record of constantly changing picks?

I’m more interested in the geometry compared to the dark machine X and dark machine. The dark machine is impossible to use bc of how light it is, but the X has much better weight balance towards the pick which made it swing better for ice. So, how is the nexus different than either? Also, why not go full carbon? Elite climb does. I’d still like to try it out, I do like Grivel pick design

Keys Laynwrote:

Because, Jack, the lack of a standard prevents me from buying tools that I can't run Beartooth picks on. In a choice between these and Nor'easters I'm choosing Nor'easters because I know I'll be able to source picks. Meanwhile try finding spare picks for a pair of Quantum Techs. Petzl has the standard of picks and a healthy and long running aftermarket. The sooner Grivel and BD accept that, the sooner we can see even more innovation in the after market pick world. Why would anyone switch to a tool like this with grivels track record of constantly changing picks?

Both BD and Grivel are making better OEM ice picks than petzl right now, so they should give that up so they can lose sales to petzl/aftermarket pick companies? Also Grivel has been using the current pick system for over a decade, and continuing it into their new tool. Seems decently consistent to me

as someone who has a pretty extensive and varied tool collection I see where you’re coming from, it’s taken some investment to get all the picks I want for every tool. But at this point you can put a kruk double 0 pick on just about every modern tool, same thing with aftermarket high end drytooling/comp picks.

 as far as innovation goes I think it’s better that aftermarket pick companies can fine tune their designs for the individual geometry of different brand’s tools, even if they shared the same bolt pattern a picks design needs to take the tools geometry into account. An example of this would be morphos/anchars/tvarogs/ICT using the reparto corse bolt pattern, they still end up designing picks for the individual tools because a one size fits all option for all of those tools wouldn’t optimize performance.

This made sense before there was a French, American, and Italian Nomic. But now that all the tools are all coalescing around one shape the picks should too. Grivel especially is notorious for changing pick designs. Getting to an industry standard would be massively beneficial for climbers. As I said forecast has already shown this is doable. 

Grivel finally discovered pick weights lol. How long did that take?

I like the rebrand, hopefully it means some actual innovation and well thought out engineering along with it. I feel like they really need some identity as a company and a few flagship products that perform reliably and beat other brands. What does Grivel honestly offer right now other than the snazzy twin gate biners?

Keys Laynwrote:

This made sense before there was a French, American, and Italian Nomic. But now that all the tools are all coalescing around one shape the picks should too. Grivel especially is notorious for changing pick designs. Getting to an industry standard would be massively beneficial for climbers. As I said forecast has already shown this is doable. 

While many general purpose tools are starting to look the same, I’ll even admit hydras have pretty much exact same shaft geometry as good ol nomics. However they do have their subtle but noticeable differences in geometry affect how these tools climb and feel. I wouldn’t say you’re entirely wrong saying they are all the same but it’s definitely not true. I will spare the nice people of MP my rant on the laziness of modern tool design.

I’d argue that the forecast lineup only proves that standardised pick compatibility is not the answer. All four of their tools use the exact same shaft and head geometry, and while the slipstream and nor’easter perform great with that geometry for general ice and mixed. the stratos and the mesos fall well short of the tools they are trying to compete with in my experience. A drytooling/comp tool needs to perform in a completely different way than a pure ice tool, so by having a one size fits all geometry there has to be some compromises.

While there may be demand for tools that sacrifice performance for the convenience of standardised picks. I would rather have a tool that is fully designed to excel in its given role without compromises, even if that means having to have a specific pick for that tool.

Keys Laynwrote:

This made sense before there was a French, American, and Italian Nomic. But now that all the tools are all coalescing around one shape the picks should too. Grivel especially is notorious for changing pick designs. Getting to an industry standard would be massively beneficial for climbers. As I said forecast has already shown this is doable. 

Forecast is the Mexican food of ice tools, the same ingredients mixed 40 different ways. Why do the alpine tools and the comp tools have the same shaft? You can’t tell me that one design is ideal for both the UIAA World Cup and plodding up your local WI4, and having played with some of their tools I can say that forecast definitely kneecapped their high end tools with that shaft design 

akafaultlinewrote:

I don’t think it’s that unreasonable of a price for a full carbon tool…only other main stream tool with a complicated manufacturing process is the Dmm cortex which is similarly priced 

It’s $900 for the pair of cortex’s so they’re not similarly priced. Elite climb are full carbon tools and they’re closer to $600 a tool (depending on the model). They’re trying to recoup R&D with this high price to make up for the low volume of tool sales. 

Matt Gravierwrote:

It’s $900 for the pair of cortex’s so they’re not similarly priced. Elite climb are full carbon tools and they’re closer to $600 a tool (depending on the model). They’re trying to recoup R&D with this high price to make up for the low volume of tool sales. 

I don’t know where you’re shopping but backcountry has a pair for $1333 

hownot2 has them for $759 each.

Where are you finding them in the US for $900 a pair?

I saw them for $900 for the pair at the beginning of the season at my local gear shop. They definitely could have gone up in price with tariffs and the oil shock. But let’s stay at the $1,133 for the pair and compare it to the $769 of the Grivel tool. They’re still $200 cheaper per tool. But those aren’t even the grivel’s best comparison, it’s the Morpho which is $150 cheaper and that’s full carbon and graphene. The  Grivel tool is definitely over priced. With that said, I would still buy it… used. I like Grivel overall, I’d like to see how this tool differs from the ones they already make as well as compared to what’s on the market.

Edit:

I’d like to add that I wouldn’t take the cortex’s if you gave them to me for free. They were absolutely horrendous when I demo’d them.