Micro Adze is great for the icy alpine

Familiarity:

I've put it through the wringer

Got a Micro Adze just in time for for my May 2014 climb of Peak 11,300 in Denali National Park and was quite glad that I did. I've used my Cobras with hammer heads for numerous water ice climbs in California, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Canada, and Alaska. Love 'em. Some alpine climbing, too. Since we weren't the first party up Ham and Eggs and Shaken, Not Stirred on the Mooses Tooth in May 2013, my Cobras with hammer heads were great. It was obvious, though, doing some winter climbing in Scotland in February 2014 that an adze would have been really helpful in carving away snow and ice to find gear placements. On Peak 11,300, I used my new adze repeatedly camming it in cracks too wide for picks and quite effectively excavating away surface snow and cruddy ice (sometimes a foot or more thick) to expose better ice beneath for setting V-threads for our many rappels getting our two parties of two down. Chopped stances, too. If I were chopping ice to create a tent platform, a larger and sharper or more easily sharpened adze could be nice, but the Micro Adze is relatively unobtrusive (tho don't whack yourself in the forehead or an eyeball with it) and removes ice and snow far, far better than merely picking at it. An excellent addition to my alpine kit.

McC