Clothing

Gear

Accessories

Gear Review

Black Diamond Raven Ice Axe

Item #BLD0294 | 64 in Stock
3 Star Rating

good basic axe

By Ranked #580 - Backcountry Snowboarding October 20, 2009

Great basic axe. Strong shaft, enough weight in the head to thump into ice. One big problem I had was when we were trying to lower a friend with a broken ankle down a couloir after we were in a slide. We had one picket left, which we used as the initial anchor to lower him and myself a rope length. I boot axe anchored us with a clove hitch, and our buddy dug up the picket and descended to us, repeated by 9 pitches. We were trying to be as fast as possible, but the clove hitch knotted the wet rope up tight around the bottleneck of this axe and took a bit to get undone. Had the shaft been a solid piece up and down, it would have just slid off and we would have been out of the couloir faster. That's my only complaint. Maybe I should have used a different anchor method, I don't know. Either way, my next mountaineering axe will be a solid shaft from bottom to top.

Helpful Votes: 1 Yes

Close This Window

Tech Specs:

Shaft Rating:
Pick Material:
steel 
Shaft Material:
aluminum 
Weight:
(60cm) 16 oz 
Recommended Use:
mountaineering 
Manufacturer Warranty:
1 year 

Change me.