UKC

Having seen the advert several times today I can no longer hold forth:

Why do Grivel think that having differnt colour handles on their ice screws will help people tell them apart? I'd have thought the 5-10 cm variation in length would have been obvious...

In reply to ianstevens:

If you're carrying them in a Grivel Pan Pipes (or whatever they call it) the length would not be apparent.

Maybe also if you'd forgotten what you'd put in your belay and wanted to re-assure yourself or something you'd know when they were placed also.... bit of a stretch.

In reply to ianstevens:

Robin makes some good points, but frankly it just is easier to look at handle colours when they're all racked up than it is to look at the length of the screw compared to others. Especially when you're hanging one handed in a precarious position.

In any case, not sure why you've singled out Grivel. Plenty of other brands colour code theirs. Including Black Diamond, Petzl, camp etc etc

In reply to ianstevens:

Apart from the fact that many ice screw manufacturers colour-code the handles, do you not have a problem with nuts, cams, hexs?

What about quickdraws? Surely its pretty easy to tell which end is captive and which is free?

Seems like a silly thing to be complaining about.

In reply to Bob_the_Builder:
It's not really complaining, more seeking the opinons of others, at it seemed like an odd thing to advertise.

With nuts/cams et al.,, two similar sizes are actually quite similar when you look at them. I've used the old-school non-coloured equivalents, and will often mix up 1-5, grabbing the wrong one. Here, the coulour helps.

Robin - does anyoen actually use those things? Seem incredably faffy to me.

Neil - When I grab a screw in extremis, I tend to look at the screw, not the handle. I understand your point if you have many screws racked on one clipper/loop, but if they're properly spread I don't really see the issue. I picked on Grivel becasue I've seen their advert pop up multiple times (probably to much time spent on UKC) and wondered why they would consider this to be either a) a selling point or b) they bother to do it in the first place. I haven't purchased any new screws for a few years, so don't really know what the market has to offer.

My main thought on the issue is that it seems to be a signal of a trend of "lets do this because we can" rather than aiming for useful developments.

*edited due to poor spelling

In reply to ianstevens:

I see what you're saying now about it being a rubbish selling point in an advert since everyone does it. I missed that point the first time round. I still maintain its a useful feature though.