Ebay Ice Screws
|
My father has been getting interested in ice climbing after hearing about some of my adventures. He bought a lot of 10 of these screws off Ebay for $2 a piece. They apparently come from a guy who sells primarily military surplus items. They are stamped only with "CAMP 194." Anyone have any experience or information on these things? I don't plan on climbing on them, but they're interesting. |
|
Possibly CAMP Vertige screws? I'm guessing that those are pretty old surplus pieces. If you google "vintage ice screw" a lot of things looking like those come up. |
|
For kicks take a couple out and try placing them when you are out. Preferably standing on the ground. You will find out why people don't use these. I started climbing on those bad boys. They take forever to place and you usually have to use a tool to place them... |
|
These screws appear to be based on the old Salewa ice screw of the late 60's and early 1970's. They were the state of the art back then, but not today. There are a couple of major problem with these screws. First, the teeth really aren't that sharp so to get them started you really need to peck a hole in the ice. |
|
Bruce Hildenbrand for the win, again. Complete and accurate summary! |
|
As Bruce notes old school screws. Today they make good bail screws. |
|
Went and played around with them today with pops. Brought my modern screws with to show him the difference. As everyone has stated, and I expected, they were very difficult to place in hard brittle ice and froze up quickly. If I didn't get them in right away and the core froze at the tip they were useless. |