UKC

I recently decided to try ice climbing again after 20 years away from the sport. I visited some local mountaineering retail outlets in search of a pair of new ice tools, imagine my surprise at the bemused look on the face of the young (early 30s) shop assistant when I enquired about Hummingbird and Chacal tubular/semi-tubular ice picks! When I last went climbing on ice back in the 80s they were the 'in thing', plain ol' straight picks were so 1970s. What caused these picks to fall from grace? Why have axes Simmond, Salawa, Camp, Cassin (to name a few) dissapeared from the UK shops?

In reply to Vag:
just to confirm... where you dressed in 'stylish' magenta/purple lycra?

In reply to FrankBooth:

I had my yellow Ron hill tracksters on and a pair of Asolo Ortles boots.

In reply to Vag: haha

In reply to Vag:

They had a nasty habit of collapsing if they hit rock. Worked well for pure water ice though.

Most of those manufacturers still have a significant presence in Europe, but not here. SImond didn't have a UK distributor for a while, but there is some of their stuff around now.

In reply to Vag: Simmond have unfortunately stopped producing now, but more recently made some very well designed tools like the Piranha, Naja and Annaconda. Camp still produce axes as far as I know - Awax being a lightweight technical tool very good for ice, not so great for mixed and the Alpax which is also lightweight but flimsy feeling low grade tool. Cassin are making some superb axes at the mo, but haven't seen them stocked in the UK. Edelrid (Lucky) have also made excellent axes recently like the Katana, but again, hard to find in the UK. Shame, as they feel great. Most shops have accounts with a combination of Lyon Equipment (Petzl Charlet), DMM, Mountain Boot co. (Grivel), and First Ascent (Black Diamond) as these are big UK suppliers that are dependable/reliable for stock, and the tools they supply are very good. I'd still like to see Cassin and Edelrid get more of a look in though. By the way, If you'd like to sell me your Hummingbird axe, I would like one as I'm interested in previous axe designs and have quite a few.
Jamie

In reply to Jamie Hageman: simond are still going

In reply to gear boy:

Indeed they are and still making ice axes (Coyote, Anaconda, Naja and more), but I don't think they have a UK distributor. A few suppliers bring in a few bits and pieces though. Their Cubik belay device is still one of the best around

In reply to Vag:

Cotswolds stocks simond najas.

So I did some research after seeing the tubular ice ax pic here, how did it perform on neve? Very interesting.

In reply to Vag: decatholon sell simond

In reply to Jamie Hageman:

Ooh la la! Simond are definitely still producing, my hubby is a distributor for them.