Hello,
I have seen them being used extensively and one held a fall of my partner. His first ever fall on ice, btw, and the first one I witnessed for that matter. Anyhow, I just used one two days ago in a mixed rack including Grivel 360 and BD express. Good ice conditions. The klau is by far the lightest, regardless size. The klau3 is 123g on my scale. The lightest 360 is 179g on paper, the small express is 130g on my scale. I've been told the new Petzl's are lighter. Fair enough. I'm quite new to ice climbing, but my favourite is the 360, though I think it costs on average at least £10 quid more than the klau. Simply put I find it easier to manage, the handle folds very nicely it racks well and when fully open it works like a charm. However, the weight and cost of the 360 can be a deal breaker. And with the small 360 you'll sometimes need to fully extend the handle before placing the screw. Few klau's are probably worth having along with everything else for that reason alone. If starting from scratch, as far as I know, e-climb is the only one offering packages that can save you some money. The question was do they go in alright? Yes, of course they do. They're easy to place and they're light. The tip can be replaced by anyone anytime, though there are machines (like Grivel's) that can do a great job at sharpening the screws teeth and the thread is probably more important than the teeth. I'm not fond of its handle. I'm not fond of bd's express handle either. I've experimented weird placements and often the 360 is the only screw that will go in fine. Avoiding weird placements sounds like a good idea anyway... Out of the three I used the only one I didn't think had anything special to it was the bd express. It's a screw and it works, but that's all. Maybe it's enough, isn't it? I'll have to test them for longer to actually get a clearer picture, but the klau is definitely in and up there with the best screws on the market IMHO.
Ciao!
Nic
