In reply to TobyA:
> (In reply to dutybooty)
> The big unspoken truth though, is of course that all modern tools are great and you can get used to pretty much any of them.
The big unspoken truth though, is of course that pretty well all ice tools since the mid 1980s have been more than good enough for any climber.
It is nice to have the latest bit of kit but when a team takes as long, if not longer, to climb a route than when it was done back in the step cutting days you have to wonder if they paid a bit more attention to their technique then ...
To the OP: until the modern matched pairs of axes appeared it was the norm to have two different ice tools, perhaps the extreme example being Choe Brooks who climbed with one Terrordactyl and one 65cm axe.
ALC