Snow flukes (aka deadmen) have been around for ages, but most mountaineers today seem to prefer carrying pickets for snow anchors. The new Brooks-Range Deadman will challenge alpinists to add this gear back into the mix. These flukes (available in three sizes) feature a single-cable design—unique in the fluke market—which makes placements faster and stronger in firm snow, especially in the smallest size, since the cable readily slices into the snow.
Dig out your crampons and sharpen your ice axes: Here's the best alpine climbing gear of 2012.
With the Fusion, Black Diamond offers mixed climbers a sweet new ice climbing tool for going higher on longer, harder, and steeper lines. The sleek shape of the Fusion comes via hydroforming technology, which allowed Black Diamond to make the entire curved, dogleg shaft out of a single piece of aluminum, upping rigidity, reducing weight, and making for a high-performance piece of gear.
The Cassin Mirage ice tool has decent clearance, and its pick is versatile, requiring only minor modification for dry-tooling or use in cold ice climbing conditions. The reverse shaft curve just above the grip rotates your wrist to an odd angle, so it’s slightly more strenuous to hold.
Climbing magazine collected the premier ice screws offered by seven manufacturers and put them through rigorous field testing.
The Viper shaft’s 90-degree-rotated major axis adds space between the shaft and the tip of the pick for extra clearance. The tool’s pick is well suited for dry-tooling and a wide variety of ice conditions. Its shallow droop angle allows a natural swing, but detracts just slightly from hooking security.
Trango’s line of ice tools is modular, with interchangeable grips and numerous head options based around a common shaft design; the Mantis is the latest design in the line. Its new stacked-grip handle was a dry-tooling dream, with minimal shifting as you moved grip to grip.
This tool’s a real clunker. The pick is too big and its teeth are not beveled, so the Scorpion got hopelessly stuck when planted securely, plus the shallow droop angle made the pick insecure when hooking. The grip is OK, and the wraparound pinky shelf provides good support, but nearly half a hand contacts heat-sucking metal.
The surprise of the review, the primeval-looking Tiburon pick penetrates with minimal effort and little ice disturbance, and was our favorite in cold, brittle conditions. The simplistic shaft is well suited to alpine conditions, but requires extra grip strength on steep ice or rock.
Here’s another potentially excellent tool that needs some work on the details. The Spitfire has a radical curve that offers great clearance. The pick penetrated well and bit securely in both Pont Rouge’s deep-freeze ice and Vail’s frothy slush, though its protective coating began wearing off with a little abuse. The plain-Jane grip and inadequate leash could be improved to bring this tool in line with the top performers.
The molded grip on the vertical shaft (for leashed climbing) on this ice tool felt good in the hand and had a nice pinky shelf, and the leash fit our wrists well. The pick is short, which adds stability when dry-tooling, and makes it less likely to break, but it steals clearance from the tool. The pick’s steep droop and well-designed teeth make it one of the best hooking tools. Madame Hook offers limitless possibilities in her leashless mode, but that’s fodder for a different review.
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