Outdoor Gear Lab
The Black Diamond Venom is a capable model that excels at a broad spectrum of mountaineering objectives. This high-performing all-arounder is most at home on moderate waterfall ice, steep snow routes, and complex glacier climbs, where most of its design will truly shine. It will still perform well for moderate routes but is a bit on the heavy side. It's also friendly on the wallet, and provides similar performance to our favorite modular tool, the Petzl Sum'tec, but for a lower price (and is..." go to full review
While specialized, the Petzl Gully is a rad option for the right types of routes; it's tough to beat for the types of applications that it's designed for. While specialized, it does perform well for WI4 and can disappear inside your pack on an alpine rock climb with a tricky approach or help assist on your descent on techy ski mountaineering endeavors. The Gully is ideal for steep snow or moderate ice routes where weight is of great concern; don't cast aside that this model is super..." go to full review
The Petzl Summit is a sweet all-around axe that will perform well for a wide range of trips and conditions. This former Editors' Choice winner remains a strong contender for our award and is still lighter than our current winner, the Petzl Summit Evo. This axe works just as well on 85% of routes that the Summit Evo excels on; unless you are getting into complex glacier routes or routes with extended steep snow climbing, the Summit is a worthy choice. While it's entirely possible to utilize..." go to full review
The Black Diamond Swift is a stout ice axe that excels on complex glacier routes and steep snow climbs. It's burly, and its heft does have several benefits when it comes to digging snow anchors, pounding pickets, swinging it into firm snow, and inspiring confidence. With that said, it's not as versatile as other high scorers due to its weight. For those who have a lightweight axe in their quiver for alpine rock climbing or ski mountaineering, the Swift will complement it nicely; it's one of..." go to full review
The Sum'Tec is the best option for folks who want a more technical ice axe or a lighter-weight ice tool for moderate routes. The Sum'Tec is stellar for a wide-range of mountaineering and alpine routes that truly blur the line between an ice axe and an ice tool. It can be used independently for basic glacier climbs, provides security on steeper snow routes, and can be used as a pair for steep alpine climbs, moderate alpine, and waterfall ice. Its weight and price mean it might be a little..." go to full review
One of the best all-around mountaineering axes out there, the Air Tech Evolution does nearly everything well and was very nearly our Editors' Choice, only barely losing out to the Petzl Summit Evo. We liked the ergonomics on the shaft of the Summit Evo better for steep snow climbing, and it was slightly lighter; however the Air Tech Evo remains a very close second and a rad all-around option. If extreme toughness and top-notch steep snow performance are priorities, then this is a fantastic..." go to full review
The Petzl Summit Evo is our best scoring all-around ice axe and stands out for its overall performance. If you have a quiver of ice axes, you can buy specific models that will excel at distinct applications better than the Evo; however, no other models in our fleet will provide the range of applications that the Summit Evo will. Simply put, if we could only own one ice axe, (or even multiple for that matter), the Summit Evo would be it.go to full review
The Sterling Nylon Sewn Runner is a quality product that is a solid choice for budget conscious dirtbags who can't afford to spend an extra $30 on their rack of extendable runners and buy a product made from Dyneema. However, if money is that big of a deal, then you can also buy the Black Diamond Nylon Sewn Runner for even less, which is a no brainer. You could also consider buying strips of one-inch webbing off the spool at the climbing shop and simply tying your own slings for even less..." go to full review
The Camp USA Nut Tool takes a basic nut tool design and adds some ergonomics. The result feels like holding an ice tool made for babies. The rubberized handle feels nice, but our testers didn't find themselves actually holding the tool in its intended position and prefer a tool with a more rounded end for hammering on to bash out stuck nuts.go to full review
The aptly named Metolius Feather is the lightest tool in our review, and while it does compromise a little in the durability factor, we feel it's plenty tough for freeing the occasional stuck cam in the alpine or working out a nut or two your partner weighted after whimpering our favorite four-letter word for shame (take). We didn't try to break this tool, but it sure feels like we could if we tried hard enough. It got pretty bent out of shape after freeing a stuck tri-cam, so for most folks..." go to full review