In reply to Cuillin Calling:
Like you, I bought them at the start of the winter and had to wait till last weekend to use them. I'm comparing them with a second hand pair of 15 year old BD tools so perhaps slightly unfair but they were amazing. In 800m of vertical ascent I mashed my knuckles once when I punched a rock buried in soft snow. Other than that the clearance on the handle was superb, leashless was a revelation (just be aware if using springer leashes not to clip the rope over your leashes).
A couple of times they needed persuading to come out but that was probably more due to my state of mind convincing me each placement needed to be at least 2/3 of the pick
they certainly weren't as hard to clean as my old ones.