For me, the winter season is now completely over, but before I have a chance to get out climbing at any of the local crags here in Stockholm I’ll finish the winter season by reviewing three different pieces of winter gear. As the title suggests, I really like some and don’t like some at all.
The Good: Scarpa Mont Blanc
I got my Scarpa Mont Blanc last spring and have used them about ten days on snow and mixed terrain in alpine summer conditions and eight days climbing waterfall ice. I’ve seen the Scarpa Mont Blanc described as a softer boot geared more towards high altitude walking, which the name also suggests. Although that is a good use for this boot, it’s also excellent for technical alpinism and ice climbing. The sole is completely stiff, works great with automatic crampons and provides a stable platform on vertical waterfall ice.
It seems that scarpa boots in general fit my feet quite well. I was pretty happy with my Scarpa spirit 4 ski touring boots, I’m super happy with my Scarpa Maestrale RS ski touring boots, and my old Scarpa Vegas have keept my toes nice and toasty in the coldest conditions. My main problem with my previous mountaineering boot, the Hanwag Omega Gtx, was that I got a lot of pressure on my heels, causing pain and blisters (except for that, it was a great boot). The Mont Blanc has a lot more room for my bulgy heels and seems to distribute the pressure better over the whole heel-area.
The boot has kept my feet warm during most of the winter. On our ice trip to Rjukan in Norway, we had about -15 C one morning, but my toes were still quite OK (but not toasting for sure). That’s pretty much the limit for this boot though. I wouldn’t wear it in colder conditions or on expedition style or high altitude climbs. For summer alpine “climbs” (walking on snow) it is more than you need in terms of warmth and stiffness. It would be a great choice for higher and colder climbs like the Mont Blanc itself or for technical summer ascents of higher difficulty in the alps or elsewhere.
After about 15 days of technical alpinism and ice climbing the boots still look like new, so as far as I can tell, the quality is great. At about 300€ at Snell, they’re kind of expensive, but quite similar to the competition and so far they’ve delivered excellent value. The closest competition is probably the La Sportiva Nepal Evo or the Hanwag Omega, both great boots as far as I know and they will probably all make your feet quite happy for many years to come, it’s just a matter of finding the boot with the best fit.
http://en.scarpa.net/products/tech-mountain/mont-blanc-gtx/
The Bad: Vaude Backcountry Pro Shovel
I got this shovel a few years back, and it hasn’t really been put to the test until now. On the Sylarna trip over easter we had to dig out blocks from hard snow to build the sheltering wall around the tent. I was not putting a lot of force into the digging, but it didn’t take long until the blade of the shovel was bent and soon thereafter, a big crack appeared. If I actually had to dig for a person in avalanche debris, I would not want this happening to my shovel. I guess you always get what you pay for. Buy nice, or buy twice!
The Ugly: Grivel X-Monster
I would like to start off by saying that if you are a beginner thinking about investing in your first set of tech ice tools, go for leash-less tools with a bent shaft like the Nomic, Quark or the X-monster. If you get the “old school” straight axes with a leash, you will just end up buying leashless axes the following winter. If you for some strange reason want leashes, you can always put them on the leashless axes mentioned above.
I’ve been using the X-Monster for two winters of waterfall ice climbing and some technical alpine climbing. I got these when I wanted to get in to ice climbing and didn’t wanna put too much money into gear that I wasn’t sure if I would use. If you didn’t know, these are some of the cheapest leashless tech ice tools you can find out there. Since then, I’ve gotten quite hooked on ice climbing and probably wouldn’t hesitate spending the extra money on Petzl Nomic or Quark. I am still quite happy with my purchase and I will for sure stay with these tools for at least another year or two. When compared side to side with the Nomic (which seems to be somewhat of the reference tool), they are very similar in shape, but the X-Monsters are noticeably heavier.
The handles on these are super comfortable and grippy and give plenty of room for big hands. The shafts are not made from hydroformed aluminum like most other similar axes, but from steel sheet metal. This gives them a strange look when seeing them from “behind”, but it is of course a much cheaper manufacturing process and the reason for the low price tag. With the axe comes rubber grips that can be taped to the shaft to make it more comfortable to place the hands above the fixed rubber grips. I find that I rarely move my hands away from the main grips when climbing ice.
Since the shafts are made from sheet metal, they’re quite “springy” in the sideways directions, such as when jamming the blade in a crack on rock. Grivel advertizes this as something of an awesome new feature. It’s not. Unless you plan to do a lot of dry tooling, you probably won’t even notice this “feature”. A feature I really like though is that it is super easy to place a wide HMS-carabiner over the bottom of the handle to be able to hang from the axe just in case you climb into something a little bit tougher than you can handle on lead.
If you are a beginner on a budget wanting to get in to ice climbing, these are great tools, but for the more experienced or for someone with less constraints on budget, the Quarks or Nomics (Or BD equivalents) may be better choices.
Alpine Exposure 