Black Diamond Raven Ultra Ice Axe – Climbing Gear Review

I have used the Raven Ultra mainly for ski touring and ski mountaineering and it’s lightweight simplicity, makes it perfect for this. It has a stainless steel head and pick which actually work on proper ice, unlike some of the lightweight aluminium axes I have used. The shaft of the axe is aluminium, has no rubberised grip or handle and can feel a bit slippery when you actually need to pull on it on steeper ground but you could add some self amalgamating plumbers tape for extra stickiness if you found this to be an issue. On terrain that was AD+ or harder, I’d usually carry a proper ice tool anyway.