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Black Diamond Venom Adze

Black Diamond Venom Adze description

A long snow route with a couple pitches of ice is the hardest type of climbing to select an appropriate tool. You can either have a good ice tool that sucks for self arrest or a standard ice axe that can barely climb a pitch of easy ice. Not anymore. The Black Diamond Venom is an ice axe that's designed self arrest and plunge into the snow easily but offer good ice performance. The interchangeable, classically curved pick is designed to provide solid placements while ice climbing and to self arrest securely. The Venom's slight bend at the top of the shaft increases vertical performance without sacrificing the ability to plant the shaft in the snow. A perfect alpine leash, the Lockdown, is included with this versatile axe.

Bottom Line: Truly the best of both worlds.

Used this on a climb of Early Morning Couloir on North Sister in the Oregon Cascades. Worked well for steep snow. The ice was in good shape just below the summit and it worked beautifully for the pitch of ice climbing, well-balanced for swinging. Caught a crampon descending the steep snow slope to the south and it self-arrests well. Great tool for these mixed conditions with minimal technical ice climbing and lots of snow. My other axe was a longer, straight axe which was too long for the steep snow and didn't swing well when the snow got steeper or while climbing the ice pitch.

...does not swing as nicely as Grivel Air Tech Evo. I also have a concern about the durability of the rubber grip when plunging it repeatedly into hard snow because the grip is not completely flush with the shaft. I really like the replaceable blades though.