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From Monsters to Bastards - No. 246
Reviews by Matt Stanley, Dave Sheldon, Ted Callahan, and Luke Laeser
Unleashing a Monster
Product: Grivel Monster
A year and a half ago, I noted in our leashless tool review that the designs then available were only a precursor of shapes to come. Grivel’s new Monster tool is the radical first step in that new direction. First, the company has discarded the traditional aluminum-tubing shaft in favor of a shape cut from chromoly spring steel. This shape features a multitude of gripping positions, more than any traditional design can offer. To optimize the grip positions to your specific needs, you’ll want to experiment with hockey-stick grip tape (or similar material) and perhaps utilize the included plastic “Guancet” add-on grips.
The Monster features the same handle as Grivel’s Racing Wing — an office favorite — and offers two distinct gripping positions: an upper position for swinging and a lower position for dry-tooling, with enough room overall to accommodate both your hands overlapped. The Monster’s balance is quite different, however, from the Racing Wing and just about any other tool out there. Regular ice tools are designed with most of the weight in the head for maximum impact. The Monster, however, has its weight balanced between its head and handle for better directional pull on rock holds, avoiding the dreaded side-to-side head wavering typically present when you make long reaches with regular tools.
At the heart of the Monster is its hot-forged pick. It is without doubt the most aggressively toothed blade on the market; no matter in what direction you’re pulling or pushing, the Monster has points that will traction. Stein-pulling, hooking, torquing — the Monster handles all with aplomb. It’s not, however, a tool for delicate ice due to the pick’s thickness, but then again, it’s meant to handle the occasional ice blob on a mostly rock route, not a long, diaphanous curtain. The pick is also fixed to the tool’s head, which many armchair Internet pundits have dissed, carping that the tool will have a very limited lifespan. But unless you’re the most rabid file fiend out there and dry-tooling four days a week, you’re unlikely to reach the Monster’s metallurgical limits.
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