The ice axe is the mountaineer's tool par excellence. Almost more a symbol than a real piece of equipment. Like boots, the ice axe can never be left behind.
The ice axe is the mountaineer's tool par excellence. Almost more a symbol than a real piece of equipment. Like boots, the ice axe can never be left behind.
Choosing your ice axe is one of the most important moments. It often happens, during a CAI (Italian Alpine Club) course or among friends in a mountain association, that you hear good advice on which is the best ice axe to buy.
As with everything, an ice axe that is right for every situation does not exist. While in the early days of mountaineering ice axes could be long, used more like a trekking pole than as a safety tool, today ice axes are generally shorter.
As a general rule the ice axe should not be too long, roughly in proportion to the height of the mountaineer who intends to use it.
The ice axe has many uses; here we will try to highlight the most important ones. The settings in which you most need to turn to an ice axe are winter mountaineering ascents, although in some very rare cases you may also turn to the ice axe on grassy or rocky ground. Quite often you hear people talk about “dry tooling”, but this is one of the exceptional cases that for now we will not consider.
If possible, it is advisable to avoid buying your ice axe in a supermarket or a big retail outlet. Saving money on a tool for your own safety is decidedly paradoxical behaviour. Go to a small shopkeeper, who will in any case be able to ask you the right questions and suggest the product best suited and matched to your abilities, as well as to the sporting activity you have chosen.