How To #Build An #Anchor - #Ice #Climbing!!

How To Place #Ice #Screws - Ice #Climbing!!

Ice Climbing For The First Time

Breaking the Ice: My First Ice Climb They say there’s a first time for everything…So there I was, hanging from the face of an ice covered cliff in the White Mountains of New Hampshire with nothing but a few points of metal (and some rope) keeping me from plummeting to the bottom. Frozen Frankenstein CliffPhoto: Cait Bourgault You may be wondering just how does one find themselves hanging from the…

Lara Croft is an Ice Climber Now

Lara Croft: Bow Shooting Ice Climber

I saw this large display add for a new version of Tomb Raider while shopping over the weekend, and I just can’t help but to share it with you all. Check out those fancy ice climbing tools! Apparently Lara Croft is an ice climber now. She’s kicking ass and taking names, with her flare, and her bow and arrow, and her ice tools, both of which has an adze and…

Grivel 360 Ice Screw

The air is cold and crisp, the ice is blue, your 100 feet off the deck, your last piece of pro is glistening in the sun some 40 feet below your shaking crampon points and your forearms are pumped beyond anytime you can recall. This is the moment where the last thing you want to do is fight to get pro in. But for too many of us this is just what we do. More often then not this is due to bad choices in ice screws. 

I have tried and cursed many ice screws over the years and up until the last few years there really hasn't been a good choice out there. With all the ice screws out there now you would think that they would all pretty much preform the same. At this point to many people look at the price tag and not at the screw it's self. 

I have been using Grivel's 360 ice screws now for the past two ice seasons and have been more then happy with the way they preform. At first glance the coffee grinder handle looks better suited to grinding coffee then aiding the twisting in of an ice screw. But after the first few times placing them I found that I was able to place the screw in and around ice features that only pound-ins were once able to protect. Which your second more often then not would be unable to clean, unlike the 360 which cleans as well as it places. The teeth on the 360 stay sharp and bite into the hardest of ice as well and in most case better then other screws on the market.

What's up with this hanger? It looks like no other hanger on any ice screw I have ever seen but more like a bolt hanger on a sport route. What took someone so long to come up with this idea? This hanger is sweet, you can clip two carabiners into it with out a problem which makes it ideal for belays. And with the hanger pulling almost strait down on the screw it makes them the only screw to place under a roof.

The only draw backs I found with the 360 is the coffee grinder handle. It dose get in the way a lot more once placed then other screws and when racked it seems to get hooked on everything on me and near me. I would have to say that having a few 360's on your rack will be well worth it but expect to have to fight to unsnag them on your rack a lot.

So out of a possible five Yaks WhipperJ gives the Grivel 360 ice screw a four Yak rating.