Ice Tool Placements
Good Sticks Means Safer Climbing
These days ice tools are designed to give you optimal swing power without exerting a lot of energy, while the best ice climbers known how and where to place their pick with minimal effort. Too much power in your swing can do more damage to the ice than you want, so a nice steady wrist flick is more important than an overpowering drive.
Grip
Over-gripping is a leading cause of the screaming barfies, flash pumps and panicking, so don’t over-grip. How you hold your tool is as important as the tools you’re using and climbers often don’t think about it. Have a relaxed but firm grasp with a focus on your pinky finger’s placement. For added precision, line your thumb up with the shaft of the handle.
Where to Swing
There’s a lot of ice in front of you as you head up a route and knowing just where to swing can save you time and energy. Extend an arm to see how far your tool can reach before swinging. Keep the placement offset with the other tool and offset slightly with your centre of mass. Keeping it offset with your centre of gravity will make it easier to retrieve the other tool. Examine the ice, look for previous placements of small concaves in the surface where snow collects, those are the zones you want to aim for because the chances of the ice shattering is less. Never place your tools on the same horizontal plane, because ice breaks horizontally.
The Swing Prep
The number of swings it takes you to get a safe placement will depending on how sharp your tools are, the conditions of the ice, how picked out it is and how precise you swing. Find the spot you’re hoping for a stick and touch your tool to the ice. Keep your eyes fixed on that spot as you get ready to swing.
The Swing
As you bring your arm back, keep your eyes on the target and get ready to swing. The wrist flick is similar to throwing a dart. As your arm straightens, give your wrist a snappy flick. At the end of the flick your pick should make contact with the target you had your eyes on. As you swing, keep your elbow, shoulder and wrist in line and slightly twist your hips.
The Placement
An experienced climber will know almost immediately if the placement is bomber or not good. It depends on the sound and feel of the swing. The colder and more brittle the ice is, the less likely you’ll get a good stick on the first try. You might have to keep swinging to break away flakey layers. In soft ice, a “thunk” sounds is the sign of a good placement. The pick should be deep enough that you can’t easily wiggle it or remove it with little effort. Repeat the process until you get the desired results. This comes down to experience and commonsense. Practice on top-rope or have someone show you to be sure you’re not about to test bad placements. As you swing, watch the pick to make sure the placement is accurate, but then duck your head toward the ice as the pick connects to protect from debris. Inexperienced climbers look to the side.
Test
Don’t just trust your placement, you never know what might go wrong, such as the ice beneath breaking or the pick popping out. Give a good pull down on the tool and continue to test it by semi-weighting it. The more ice climbing you do, the faster this process will go. If you’re unsure of the placement, then give another swing to bury the pick deeper.
Keep Climbing
Now that you have a good placement, repeat with your other tools and then move your crampons up. Concentrate on getting bomber placements for your ice tools, they’re the only thing keeping you vertical and not airborne.—gripped
TIPS FOR