In reply to TobyA:
"And in a similar vein, it's not that long since Emmett and Gresham were competing in the ice climbing world cup using Flys. Plenty of people have climber VII and I'm sure some VIIIs with them, so it's hardly like they'll stop you climbing."
The same could be said of climbing in EB's but there ain't many people climbing in non sticky rubber now a days is there. You may as well give your self an advantage,
"Vipers are great (I did my first ice route of the season last night using mine!) but people getting into winter climbing seem to fetishize gear somewhat, considering most people's first seasons tends to involve a lot of wading around in snowy gullies where quarks, vipers or nomics over a 50 cm walker axe won't make a blind bit of difference."
No, but the arguments against are:
- New axes should last a decade so no point in buying a new axe that you'll likely want to upgrade in 2-3 years time
- It's good to learn on the same axe you'll progress to using, in theory at least you should learn faster as you don't need to adapt to a different axe.
- Most people now a days want a leashless system, most second hand axes that are a good deal are not leashless ready.
Personally I think it depends how sure you are you'll like winter climbing, if you're not sure it may be better buying a cheaper second hand pair of axes first.