UKC

Good evening people. I'm after some advice on where to go with my axes?

I basically lost my fly hammer in the cairngorms last month when I stupidly placed it on the floor after completing hells lum and watched it slide off over the edge bye bye axe. So I need a new hammer.

I love the flys and at my grade 2/3 they do what I expect. I really do not like the chocker leashes on them. On one climb I was at full stretch and had my wrist stuck in the leash, I couldn't pull the axe out as at full stretch and I wasn't sure of the hold to commit to the move.

So my question is ? Would just having standard flys with clipped leashes into the bottoms of the axe without trig rests be good practise? with me climbing low grade gripping the shaft should be sufficient, if I need to let go to place screws or retrieve them then the axe is still attached via a leash to my harness. I can't be doing with the faff of chocker leashes.

I know maybe my technic is to blame rather then the dmm chocker leashes but after 3 years I need to move on.

Ben

In reply to Cadairmanuk:

Not sure what you mean by good practice but I used spinner leashes on my old flys as I also found the choker leashes that came with them a bit of a faff. If you don't want to splash on some of the fancy spinner leashes, plenty of my friends just use a big length of cord instead.

FWIW I upgraded to quarks and found the trig rests make quite a big difference on steeper ground, maybe worth keeping in mind if your replacing a lost tool anyway.

In reply to CMcBain:

Yeah this is the issues I'm having , do I upgrade to aes with trigrests or try and buy a second hand fly hammer and buy spinner leashes?

Need to make a decision soon to make the most of the conditions.

Ben

In reply to Cadairmanuk:

The rests make all the difference so you don't have to hold on so tight to your axes. And a spinner leach would make placing gear easier without the risk of losing an axe.

My advice find some quarks, usually some good second hand ones going somewhere then just pick up a spinner leach.

In reply to Cadairmanuk:

So are we saying rests are a must? I like the look and feeling the new flys but not the price lol

Ben

In reply to Cadairmanuk:

Not a must, people have got up some hard stuff with tools similar to fly's but personally I think trig rests offer alot of benefits. If you could get your hands on some tools in a shop, try hanging off a pull-up bar or something with trigrests and then without and see if it makes much of a difference for you.

I think the fly's are great tools for mountaineering/low grade winter stuff, arguably they are actually more suitable than a full on banana shaped tool but if you think you might progress onto harder winter climbs you may aswell pay a little more for a better modular tool such as a quark (or any of the other companies similar offerings).

In reply to Cadairmanuk:

Well thanks for the input, I will try and see what's available second hand. I'm happy climbing my grade 2s and 3s I can't see myself upping the grade but who knows.

Ben

In reply to Cadairmanuk:

I'm pretty sure you can retro fit pinky rests to the old flys. There was a thread about it a couple of years ago.

But seeing as you're buying a least one new tools, why not buy a new fly hammer (or other axe of your choice) and when you've saved up enough then buy the adze to match. Climbing with an odd pair isn't too bad, although obviously not ideal, but it's cheaper than buying two tools at once.

In reply to Cadairmanuk:

Get a pair of Quarks. Simples.

In reply to Cadairmanuk:

if you want to progress then chuck the leashes and get a decent modern pair of axes with a good grip rest. the main issue with the standard flys is they are fairly straight shafted which means your knuckles will take a bashing and you won't get good clearance on ice formations.

i have always been a fan of my dmm rebels but these have now been superseded by the apex which i'm sure is a good axe too. you might also consider the petzl and black diamond equivalents.

i generally don't bother with clipper leashes since they add something else to get tangled in.

i am not sure if standard flys with no triggers would be good practise for anything....it might marginally increase your grip strength over time but is a good way not to enjoy any of the climbs you do.

it makes sense to use the best tools at your disposal these days, so looking at the current dmm line up i am not sure how the fly does anything better than the apex? i think dmm are really just catering for traditionalists who don't want to update.

In reply to Cadairmanuk:

I still use old flys for mixed. I have improvised grip rests using a couple of jubilee clips really tight but with the sticky out tightening screws on opposite sides of the axe, then covered the whole thing in tape. Seems ok if you're looking not to spend much money at this time, though knuckle bashing does occur on steeper stuff

In reply to Cadairmanuk:

I have a pair of flys with improvised grip rests you could buy...havent used them for years and the shafts have been WELL used but nothing wrong with them otherwise...could do with new picks though.Worked for me on tech 6/7. If your interested email me and i will send you a picture

In reply to Cadairmanuk: Petzl Trigrests fit the Flys as a griprest if you just remove the little trigger and cut away a bit of rubber from the shaft. Then all you need is some 6mm cord and two old wiregates to make leashes, tie an overhand in the middle of the cord and all you do is lark's foot it to your belay loop with the two wiregates on the ends for clipping your tools. Cheap and effective, well, cheap aside from the trigrests.

+1 for quarks

In reply to weejimmy:

Sent you a pm. Thanks people for suggestions. I know now I. Which direction to go.

Ben

In reply to Cadairmanuk: I use my Fly's leashless and fitted the Grivel trig rest to mine and they are doing fine. I had to take a grindel to the trig rest in order to remove the back metal part as Grivel no longer make the standard pinky rest but its pretty much the same thing once you reverse it. Bought a couple of DMM mini krabs and a meter of 5mm bungy cord and was set to go. Climbed up to tech 4 in them and they are fine for the time being til i can afford to update to something new when my leading grade improves.

Here's a picture of mine with the pinky rests added.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=466948606705248&set=a.460567094...