Climbing Extreme

Some time ago I bumped into rumor about screws that have replaceable tips. As everyone knows there’s hardly anything more frustrating than a dull screw on a difficult climb. Besides it’s always the one that ends up to your hand whenever you’re in a really difficult spot desperately needing a fast protection… the one you kept, not with a real intention to use, but “just in case” you need an extra screw on belay station or descent. The fact that there actually are ice screws with replaceable tips might be common knowledge for some of you, but for me it was NEWS. So I ended up to manufacturer’s (E-climb) site and ordered couple of their Klau screws as well as couple of their reusable Dissip shock absorbers. The reusable shock absorbers were also a discovery for me.

I received the products just a few days ago and decided to write out a few first impressions of them along with some photos.  As an overall impression I can say that the E-climb gear seems pretty good quality, they were delivered promptly and the overall customer service was excellent. The web site of E-climb needs some improvement though, especially I hoped for more detailed technical specifications of the product on the product pages (they have most of that information in FAQ section). At this point I haven’t yet tested them in serious climbing conditions, so there will be few updates on this post towards the end of February.

Klau ice screws with replaceable tips

On a concept level a screw with reusable tip seems an excellent idea. While screws can be sharpened, it’s really difficult to restore the original bite without professional tools and plenty of experience. Furthermore professional sharpening machines such as Grivel’s are not readily available, not at least here in Finland. This being said reusable tip sounds such a concept that might involve several technical difficulties, including some that relate to material strengths and corrosion at connecting surfaces.

Picture above: E-climb Klau ice screw’s replaceable tip.

Overall E-climb has taken an interesting and novel approach. The screws tubes are made of aluminum and the tips coromoly steel. The aluminum tubes makes the screws exceptionally light, but as a down side the tube’s inner diameter seems to be narrower than “standard”.  In my case it means that I probably can’t use Grivel’s Candela to clean up the screws. The tip and the tube are connected by set of threads and the connection is secured by dry adhesive that takes about 6 hours to bond once connected. The hanger of the screw can be used as a tool to change the tips. Screws are color-coded using rubber band on hanger end of the screw and they have a handle for speedy placement that fold on the side of the hanger. The handle extends fairly far, which should give plenty of leverage while driving them in. The manufacturing quality seems pretty good, screws are sharp and despite being aluminum they feel smooth (which gives me hope that they’ll drive comparably to Grivel’s and BD’s – one of my principal concerns prior to having tested them).

Update 21.2.2011: After initial tests I and my climbing partner Jari were pretty happy with the E-climb’s Klau screws. As expected the far extending handle makes it breeze to drive the screws in and at least when new their initial bite seems to be good, perhaps not quite as aggressive as BD’s but still good. They rack fairly well and surprisingly the handle did not cause problems either. Out of all of my screws Klaus were also easiest to clean up, again something that might be just because they were the new ones. In any case I was positively surprised. Best of all Klau’s really are feather weight compared to other screws. You should note though that during our first testing session the weather was fairly warm; therefore we need of course to verify the results on hard ice before the final word. I also did not test how the tip replacement system works (I’ll get back to it, once I do). Finally I’m a bit worried about the durability of the folding handle, again something that I’ll get back to later on if there’s need for it. For now it’s thumbs up for E-climb’s Klau screws. If my feelings stay the same, I’m likely to purchase some more of these.

Dissip shock absorbers

We’ve had shock absorbers or screamers for some time. While Yatesh is the most known manufacturer, there are several different types of them produced by such companies as Petzl and Mammut. Typically shock absorbers rely on stitching that tears open in a controlled manner. As a result of this construction they can used to absorb the energy of one fall only – reusable shock absorber sounds like a great idea.

Picture above: Couple of E-climb’s Dissip shock absorbers.

Again E-climb has adopted interesting novel approach. Dissip consists of a dyneema sling and a curved aluminum plate through which is used to thread the sling trough. When a force that exceeds its activation force (about 3 kN) is applied to the Dissip the sling starts to run through the holes of the aluminum plate converting the energy of the fall to the heat. The sling that’s delivered with Dissip is quaranteed for five falls that fully extends the sling and there’s replacement sling available at the E-climb. While the approach certainly works in terms of shock absorption, I was unable to find actual facts related to shock absorption performance of the Dissip. When asked from the manufacturer they said that in case of a fall factor 0,5 fall, with 80kg mass and 3 meter rope length (i.e. 6 meters total fall) the reduction of the force would be around 30%. I suspect that the slight ambiguity in shock absorption abilities inherited from the build approach of it. In other words the performance is varying and dependent on multiple attributes. Still it would be great to have a set of comparison tests that would give wider visibility on performance metrics of Dissip. From the build quality point of view Dissip seems good and the good impression is further enhanced by smart details such the indicator markers that makes it breeze to remember the falls that the sling has already taken. Just use your ice screw tip to break / cut the indicator tag at the corresponding circle (see the comment below by Xarles).

Web stores that sells the gear in the article:

• E-climb Dissip Shock Absorber – E-climb
• E-climb Klau ice screw – E-climb
• Grivel Candela – Backcountry.com, Moosejaw, Needle Sports, Telemark Pyrenees, Barrabes

Few closeup shots of Klau:

Few closeup shots of Dissip:

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