CASSIN X-ALL MOUNTAIN ICE TOOLS

My usual tools have a curved shaft very similar to the Cassin X-All Mountain tools, so the slightly altered swing was very natural for me. The thing I noticed right way was how clean they stuck in the ice. The first time I used them the ice was pretty brittle, my usual tools would have been knocking dinner plates down from the wall left and right. The X-All Mountain tools have a slightly thinner pick. The teeth start about 1cm from the tip giving a nice clean stick, making that confidence inspiring thunk again and again. Laws of physics still apply and brittle ice will still break and crack, but these Cassin ice tools definitely have an edge over other designs. The fairly exaggerated angle of the shaft helps with hooking and keeping hands out of harms way when working around bulges and features. This also puts the hands in a pump-friendly position making the grip more horizontal than vertical and thus easier to hang onto without an overly tight grip.