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| Prototype Ultralight Ice Axe |
The idea for this very niche ice axe is driven by three different but related scenarios. First, rock climbs in Rocky Mountain National Park or the Bugaboos where I have spent some time often require traveling over some snow and ice, but many sections are so easy people rarely bring a one pound (.5 kg) 2 foot long (60 cm) ice axe because it would be a hassle sticking out of their backpacks, so they risk safety and have nothing to hold onto except maybe thrusting their fingers into the snow. Second, occasionally while doing mountian runs the same issue occurs where a person needs to cross a small snowfield, but not enough to bring a full size ice axe. Small chain based traction devices with rubber to stretch over a running shoe have largely solved this issue for footwear being much lighter and smaller than crampons, but there is no ultra compact version of an ice axe. Third, it could be used backcountry skiing, occasionally there are short steep sections where an ice axe would be useful, but most people only have ski poles. While there is a hybrid ice axe-ski pole, only one of my backcountry skiing friends has that ski pole.
For me there are roughly five days a year I don't bring an ice axe for a short section of snow and ice because it would be too big and heavy, and about another five days a year when I do bring an ice axe but it sits on my backpack 95% or more of the hike and climb, slowing me down. This ice axe is my solution to those ten days. It will provide some safety in a package so small that I can't justify leaving it at home. Even bringing two of them, one for my right and left hand, would still only be five ounces. I went through several plastic 3D printed prototypes before purchasing some CNC machined 7075-T6 aluminum prototypes to test in the mountains of Colorado, and they work great! So far it works exactly as expected! I plan to make a few minor design updates to make it a tiny bit lighter and fewer sharp corners where your hand touches the pick. Your support of this project will allow us to order 25+ of these ultralight ice axes, and get many of them anodized.The design is essentially done, I just want to share this with people at a price so low that it would be impossible for the average climber or runner to design, iterate in development, and manufacture.
This small ice axe has features of the most commonly available ice axes such as large holes to accommodate a carabiner if you use it as an anchor and a small adze to chop steps or handholds if necessary. It is not UIAA certified, that would require several thousand more dollars, so use at your own risk, it may fail in a way that a UIAA certified ice axe would not fail which could cause injury or even death. If we happen to raise $10,000, I will definitely try to get them UIAA-B certified.
My interest in designing ice axes started back in 2008 before I was heading to Pakistan to climb Broad Peak, the 12th highest mountain in the world. I couldn't find exactly the right ice axe I wanted. So I designed and manufactured a few prototypes in 2009, filed some patents, and tried to license it in 2010, but due to the Great Recession the project failed and I went on to life as a normal engineer doing design and analysis as my day job at large companies. Fast forward to 2020, I'm much better at design now, and the Internet, 3D printing, and CNC machining have opened up small scale manufacturing opportunities that did not really exist in 2010 to make a project like this possible.
If you would like to purchase one email me the color you would like from your choice of purple, red, blue, green, yellow, orange, black and clear anodize colors. The cost is $90 with free shipping to the USA and $10 shipping to the rest of the world.
