Black Diamond

Ultralight Ice Screw

Not sure how I feel about these yet. I love how lite they are! I have used them on two trips so far. I had a couple trips where they jammed up in the ice and were very difficulty to screw in. Intermittently while screwing into the ice this would happen. However, there were two other climbs with different ice conditions and whether where they performed just as well as my other screws. Not sure why this is, maybe it has to do with weather/ice conditions. Not sure yet, still experimenting with them.

The light weight is great! I do find the screws slightly harder to place than the express screws.

Ultralight ice screws

Great screw! Crazy light, good for most types of ice. Haven’t had any issues with them binding up in wetter ice, but have heard of it happening. Highly recommend, but wouldn’t climb with just these, would have several steel screws as well.

Super Light but Weird to Screw In

Bought these for a now canceled trip to Denali. They have quick bite and screw in for the initial few mm. The ice we were testing them in caused them to turn easy and then stop like you were screwing into dirt or rock. They weren’t it was the aluminum and moisture in the ice causing problems. We had regular BD screws also and they didn’t have the issue. In all a great screw and you can’t beat the weight.

Best on the Market

I posted a review after first getting a couple of these last season, and have since replaced most of my steel screws with these. I've used other brands aluminum screws, and BD have the best feel. The wire gate extension feels more durable and solid that other "express handles" and the extra leverage makes them easy to place quickly. definitely an improvement from the steel screw express handle. A few reviews have talked about them getting stuck. This seems to be an issue with aluminum generally rather than these specifically, and I have had the same issues with competitors screws. I do find that in really wet ice they will freeze in place more readily than steel screws, and feel almost like they bottomed out. with a good twist to break the resistance they will usually drive the rest f the way as normal. The longer screws provide meaningful weight savings. For V-threads the larger bore is somewhat helpful, and the green anodization makes seeing the screw path in the ice easier than steel screws. Finally, since these have a larger diameter than almost anything else on the market (petzl UL is slightly larger), the ability to rebore holes is nice, especially in areas that get Swiss-cheesed every weekend. as more people use UL screws this advantage will diminish.

Outstanding

I've used the express screws for the past 5 years to anchor my spearfishing darkhouse. One of the best investments I've made in spearing equipment...anchor screws into the ice very quickly...like screwing into butter!

Good at times, terrible at others

With dry ice these are great. Quick to bite, easy to drill. However in any ice that is wet or has a lot of moisture in it, they will almost certainly have issues getting placed. In wet ice they will often become literally stuck and you cannot place them fully without really hammering on the hanger. I know aluminum screws always have more friction, but these are noticeable worse than my petzl aluminum screws. I'll take the weight of steel screws, at least they can be fully placed in all ice conditions.

Awesome Screws!

Ordered a few of these about a month ago. Awesome screws. Light weight, bite quickly, lever is snappy and feels solid. They don't go into wet ice as well as steel screws, but that's pretty normal for aluminum screws. No complaints!

Drill baby drill

Super lightweight, sharp right off the shelf & knob spins great. I've heard about the screws not being placed & removed easily, I did notice some resistance but nothing beyond normal while leading ice

Gets stuck mid-way

I bought these screws a couple of weeks ago and got to try them. They are amazingly light. The handle is great, it has a spring action to come back to its rest place. The teeth are aggressive and dig very fast in the ice. It is almost unbelievable how quickly the screw holds in place. But...for some reason after a few turns, or even midway into insertion, the screw just gets stuck. It halts a bit less suddenly than if you were to hit rock. But it is quite stuck. It takes a lot of force to get it to turn again, to the point that I sometimes think the handle could break. Sometimes I was not able to get it unstuck using the knob, I had to wrap my hand around the screw plate and really put a lot of force to get it moving again. Sometimes it happened 2 or 3 times during the placement of a single screw. In the same ice I placed BD Express screws without any such problem. I am not sure why this is happening. My guess is the type of material allows the water to refreeze on it easily. And the large diameter of the screw (largest I have seen so far) means more surface the ice can grab on.