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Search by model name only, and spelling counts. Protip: Type slowly and wait for the auto-complete.
Bonus: Since the ice screw length is part of the model name, you can search just a number to find all the screws of a certain length..
If you’ve already used other filters, this search bar will not override them.
Retired gear and unfilterable gear (missing key specs like price/weight) will not appear with this search.
It can be frustrating to find a piece of gear that you like, and then have no buying options. This filter aims to ease that problem. In the future we plan to add non-US retailers to this list and possibly call out each retailer directly.
We feel a little weird calling out Amazon separately as we're not huge fans of this mega-corp. We do this because we're partners with Amazon in multiple countries, so if somebody from the US, Canada, or UK clicks an Amazon link, it'll go to their country-specific Amazon page (when possible). At the moment, this is the only way to find non-US buying options on the site.
In grams, the weight, as stated by the manufacturer/brand.
The full retail price in US dollars as stated by the brand/manufacturer/US distributer.
With non-US products, we have statically converted the price to US dollars.
This static conversion also means it's possible that there will be some misleading figures at times. The original price and currency will be noted on the individual product pages.
Ice screws range between 6 - 30 cm. Generally speaking the sizes can be thought of as:
Short screws (“shorties” or “stubbies”) are for thin ice found on harder ice climbs and/or in crappy conditions.
With ideal conditions climbers will be able to plug medium-sized screws with no problem. They have a nice weight to length balance.
Long screws are most often used as anchors or in crappy ice conditions where they can go deep to find the real ice below. Mountaineers may also prefer long screws as they can gain better purchase in less than ideal ice and have less chance of melting out.
There is no standard of how many screws to carry of each size. It will vary depending on where you’re climbing, your style of climbing and what level you’re climbing at. Some climbers will get a variety of the sizes, while others might get a majority of medium screws, a few shorties for thin spots and some long screws for anchors and bomber placements.
Note: The amount of threading on each screw does not change even when the overall length changes (exception: e-climbs screws).
About 30% of the options
Pros: Cheaper
Cons: No “speed” handle/knob for faster threading
Note: This is not currently a feature to filter on (coming soon), but is important to see the difference.
About 24% of the options
Pros: There is an extra “handle” or “knob” for faster screw threading. Cheaper than folding versions.
Cons: Some of the knobs stick out substantially and could cause the rope or draws to get caught on the lengthened handle.
Around 42% of the options
Pros: Foldable handle allows for quick threading and reduces snagging potential by folding out of the way.
Cons: More expensive.
Nearly 70% of the screws are color-coded, and this represents nearly all of the screws that have handles/knobs (color coding can also be on the hanger or the tube itself).
Pros: Like on cams, color-coding makes for faster size identification.
Cons: Generally color coding only comes on more expensive screws (with handles)
There are 7 brands that follow red, yellow, blue, gray, green as a small to large standard, but that is not consistent across the industry.
Pro: You don’t have to carry quickdraws, so it saves weight and speed of clipping.
Con: The length of this sling may not be ideal and it is not adjustable
Pro: More clipping options, especially ones that are closer to the ice to reduce leverage in a fall situation.
Con: This comes standard on only a few screws so your options are limited. On some configurations this will also make the hanger much larger.
This is the most controversial feature. Grivel and CAMP (which make up 30% of the ice screw market) use reverse threading on all of their screws and claim that this angle is more effective at spreading an impact load across ice.
If you are interested in the merits of the “reverse thread” design, click to see photos of the concrete tests (reverse threading pulls out more concrete than standard threading) and read about the concerns of testing in concrete. Read discussion of the engineering that goes into thread design and the questioning of straight pulls while testing to judge if reverse threading would make a [significant] difference in the event of a fall on ice.
Nearly 90% of ice screws are made from steel because steel is stronger and more durable. Steel is the “workhorse” material while aluminum screws are designed for “fast and light” ascents.
Aluminum screws will dull and wear out much faster and are not designed for crag-style ice climbing.
If you'd like to narrow down your search by what others consider to be, "The Best Gear" this is your filter. We’re including all the media awards from the magazines like Climbing, Rock and Ice, and Alpinist, along with online resources like Gear Junkie, Outdoor Gear Labs, and more.
We scour the internet for new awards quarterly. If you know of some reputable awards that we’re missing, send us a note so we can check them out.
The list of manufacturers and brands that we have all the technical specs for.
If a brand is missing from this list (like Climbing Technology, Kailas, Ice Rock, Salewa, Singing Rock and Stubai), scroll to the bottom of this page to see all the unfilterable gear we track, and ideally it'll be there.
If you don't see the brand you're looking for in the unfilterable products area, definitely send us a note so we can look into it further.
We do our very best to find and display every technical spec for every piece of climbing gear in the world. But sometimes we just can’t dig up a spec or two (usually it's the official price and weight). Sadly, this means not every product is available for filtering and sorting :(
If we allowed products that are missing key specs to display in the results above, these incomplete products would need to appear no matter what filters you chose. This would make the filtered results cluttered and misleading. So instead of leaving out these incomplete products entirely, we're listing them below:
