Just got back from 10days in La Grave. Reccomend it to anybody thinking of going away for a winter trip. Had day days consecutive climbing on brilliant ice (bar one route).
And to have a rant at the Uk public transport system. Leicester to Stansted was £35 return. Stansted to Grenoble, Grenoble to La grave and back to stansted cost £20. wheres the logic in that!
Sounds great Ben! I've never really understood the leashless thing - surely it just means you're more likely to drop your axes? Can you explain the advantages to a numpty like me?
1) You won't suffer a popped shoulder should you fall badly and be hanging from a leashed axe
2)you can place the axe over your shoulder good for placing pro etc, which you couldn't do very easily if leashed, or generally getting a better grip on the axe etc, or simply just to rest a hand
3) traverses are made simpler by shouldering the tool to crossover, grab the other axe with both hands, switch hands, then grab the other axe and place it. The arms are never in the awkward crossover position. Also, you can shake out the hands to get the blood back, and alternating the grip position to rest different parts of your hand
4) you can move your hand up and down the entire length of the axe with obviously no restriction unlike if you were leashed
6) you are cutting down on weight which can make all the difference after X amount of swings into ice
7) allows you to go faster, lessening muscle fatigue
Grivel do a strap that goes over your head and shoulder - not sure how good it would be for ice climbing but I've certainly found it good for winter hill walking - means you can easily switch the axe from hand to hand when changing direction but if you drop it you don't lose it.
IMHO the andvantages of going leashless are: -Ease of placing gear as you can just remove your hand from your axe, swap hands depending on which side your placing your screw. Also makes it faster as you dont have to faff about getting your leashes to sit right after placing gear.
-Swapping hands on thin or mixed routes to move from one good placement to the other without having to cross your hands putting you off balence.
-Placing one axe, leaning back off the other and having a good shake out to get rid of pump, hot aches etc etc.
-allows a more controlled swing plus allows you to get that extra flick at the end which leashes seem to prevent.
And leashless axes have better grips which usually means less bruised knuckles to!
I use BD vipers and was climbing with leashes for the first 3 days and found leading to be a real faf as I could never get my leashes to sit correctly on my wrists after placing gear which led to holdng the axe to high and destroying the mechanics of my swings. After the 3rd day I added a pair of Fangs to the bottom and stuck the leashes in the cupbord. At first your instinct is to holdd on to tight pumping your arms and grip out quickly but one you learn to relax and climb normally it feels so much more free like your axe as just and extension of your arm, plus placing gear then becomes a doddle.
As for dropping your axes. The way I see it, the most likely time to drop an axe is when placing screws its when your not holding on to it. But even with leashes, you take your hand out to place stuff anyway. Plus if its in well enough to pull on it then its in enough not to fall out. When absailing/belaying or standing around i just clip my axes to a ice clipper attached to my harness making them safe and easily accesable.
Hope that helps a bit.
p.s. Mike. Got back from La grave. 5 days concentrated studying and have just finished my exams!
Or you could use the leashes that Grivel and DMM (I think) do that clip off with a wee wire gate and have the best of both worlds. Leashless soon becomes all about grip strength, although the newest axes diminish that with the shaft sculpting and grip shaping and flanging.
