Care & Feeding of a ULA Helix Ice Axe

You cheer me up, since I am taking a Helix to the Alps for our 4 months walking trip!@

> Alternatively, what about just a simple piece of vinyl tubing about 3" long? I would think if you bought the right tubing you could jam it on the pick and keep a spare or two in case of loss. Slice another tube open longitudinally and maybe it would stay on the adze … ?

Been there, done just that, with old steel razor-sharp Stubais. Works wonderfully. Tie the two bits together with some bungee cord to keep them both on.

Cheers

Re: "I'm a little less confident about plunging the carbon fiber shaft spike into the snow to help when carrying this in my uphill hand." I tried a little of this self-belay technique when crossing a couple of snow tongues that had covered the trail, leaving slippery footing over a bit of a drop-off. It worked better than having nothing at all. The hollow shaft does produce little ice cores. I should probably block the hole in the spike with some sort of glue. It took several slams into the snow to get it in far enough to feel solid enough to hold me if my feet slipped out from under me. I also chopped a few steps, and that also worked better than nothing at all.

You can cover the pointy bits of an ice axe with a little tape. Not so good for a lot of "back-and-forth," but fine if you need to protect the inside of your pack until the axe is first used and then stow the axe on the outside of the pack.

I really enjoy discussions like this, because there are so many informed and intelligent replies, which can still differ from each other. Really makes me think. I do not have much experience on snow and ice, so take my comments with a grain of salt. And I realize no one is suggesting using the Helix for technical terrain..

Ben: the Grivel Monster is a tech tool not considered to be in the safety chain, so it does not need to be certified.
Peter: I like your quote; Im going to use that.. and yes, first rule of an ice axe fight is bring an ice axe (not a potty trowel).
Brian: try a section of garden hose, it works for my ice tools. For the adze I use a piece of duct tape; and stick it on the shaft after I draw the axe. I also got a very light nylon cover which fits my axe; see picture below.

To paraphrase Chouinard, you don't carry an axe because of the chances (probability) of falling, you use one because of the consequences. That really made sense to me, so I carry a rated axe. Since self-belay is far more common than self-arrest, I chose a long-ish shaft by modern standards. And in self-arrest I want that pick to bite even after a day of mixed use on rock, so I choose steel and sharpened it well.

For myself, I chose the BlackDiamond Raven pro, 'B', 65cm. For my hiking partner who is half my weight and needed a lighter, rated axe, the Camp XLA 210, 'B', 60cm. If I thought the consequences of a fall were not serious, I would carry the lighter Camp. and just rope up my partner. (You must consider the chances of self-injury vs. the chance of needing the axe. One notable case from ANAM involved the shaft going through a ladies neck during a tumble.)

I would like to see BPL acquire a Helix and test it to failure, to see how close it comes to the UIAA standards. By the way, there are here and make interesting reading.
http://www.uiaa.ch/?c=188
The tests for a B axe are surprisingly weak; and no fatique testing at all!

Brian, here`s the pic of the head cover. I carry the axe inside the pack because I was unable to reach it with one hand when I am sliding and it is secured on the gear loops.

A follow-up to my earlier comment about covering the pick and adze of the Helix in a pretty U.L. manner — for carrying the axe on a delicate backpack, etc.

I wrote previously: "a friend suggested making a custom light rubberized cover using plastic dip, something like: http://www.plastidip.com/consumer/index.html
It says you can “apply as many coats as needed”, so I figured I might try applying a lot of them to end up with a sufficiently thick piece covering just the sharp bits, maybe one for adze and one for pick. I'm guessing that a good strategy could be to coat the metal with oil and then something like wax paper or something and dip that, to have some hope of getting the result to come off."

I tried the above and it worked great. I wrapped the pick and adze with seran wrap and put I think a total of six coats of the plastidip stuff on it, waiting a half hour or more between coats. After sufficiently dry, I pulled these covers off, pulled out most of the seran wrap, trimmed teh edges with scissors, and I've got quite a nice set of covers; the two of them together weigh 6 grams, or 0.2 oz. They'll stay on by themselves, particularly the one over the adze which requires a little stretching to get it on and off each time.

I think I'll use this stuff on my snow/sand stake too, a little to permanently stay on the top part and a removeable cover for the part designed to go into the ground. I want to carry this ready to hand as a cat hole digger (for when I'm not carrying the helix) and of course to use as a tent stake.

I just tried out Peter King's excellent suggestion for using pipe insulation to protect the c.f. shaft.

The c.f. shaft is pretty much exactly 3/4" in diameter, so my natural thought was to get pipe insulation that's made for 3/4" pipe. I fortunately thought to measure at the hardware store, and found that the pipe insulation intended for 3/4" pipe has an inner diameter (hole) of more like 7/8". I.e., it's apparantly intended to fit loose. The stuff marked as being for 1/2" pipe has inner diameter of about 5/8". What I want is somewhere in the middle of those two.

I got the smaller (nominal 1/2") stuff, and I'm glad I did. It fits on tight so while I'll probably throw a rubber band around it, I hardly even need that to hold it on. There's a gap of maybe just over 1/4" running lengthwise where the insulation doesn't join, but I don't think that compromises the protection much, and apart from staying on better this should be slightly lighter.

For my 55 cm helix, I cut a piece 20.75" long, and it (the pipe insulation) weighs 10 grams, 0.4 oz. Worth it.

Thanks to all for the comments and feedback. I finally have a spare Helix for testing, and some initial field test results:

Tests done on firm snow (running shoes could barely kick steps), approximately 40 degree slope (sorry, forgot to take clinometer), lightweight tester (<<60kg), 65cm helix.

8 arrests, 2 in each direction (face up/down, feet up/down).
10 falls on self belay (shaft plunged above, feet kicked out).
5 arrests during fast sitting glissades.
5 arrests during standing glissades, plunging the shaft while falling headfirst.

Result: no axe failure, so saved it for lab(garage) testing when time permits.

Thanks for the UIAA-152 reference, Brett. The pictures will suffice to approximate the tests, but does anyone have an electronic copy of EN-13089 to get more details?

Pete

I hope you had a safe run-out for your self arrest tests 8-O ! Thanks for being the lab rat—you are performing a true service for the SUL community and ULA should give you a lifetime discount and BPL, a community service badge of honor.

Thanks, Kevin. The only run-out problem was energy.

Hi Peter

> I finally have a spare Helix for testing, and some initial field test results:
Very reassuring! Thank you.
You didn't manage to get any pictures…?

No pictures of the arrests since I was alone, but here are a few shots from the trip (nothing very remarkable).

URL: (html to make link didn't work)

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/pspost33@sbcglobal.net/albums