vorpal

“And you will come to find that we are all one mind
capable of all that’s imagined and all conceivable.”

“Reflection” by TOOL

I guess it was on THIS outing last season that I really decided it was time to try and create the tool I’d imagined in my head.

In ski mountaineering the tools of the trade are the ice axe and the Whippet. There’s a time and a place for both. For me the whippet is a great tool for ascending firm snow. In my embarrassing, but luckily not fatal experience the Whippet isn’t an effective self-arrest tool. When there is real ice involved, or you want a true self arrest device you need an ice tool. The difficulty is when descending and you want to switch between the two. You either take your pack off and fuck around where you’d rather not, or you were smart enough to place your axe He-Man style between pack and your back so you can easily draw it forth. Then you’re still stuck with a whippet to jam down your back, or strap to your pack?

Anyway, it seemed simple enough to create an axe with a ski pole lower that could be easily removed. This would also eliminate having to carry two whippets and an axe. Now you just carry one whippet and one Vorpal (the sword that killed the Jabberwocky) for slaying dragons.

I found this tool by Petzl online, but it doesn’t solve the problem since the pole portion isn’t removable so you can’t thrust it in firmer snows and the head is too light for real ice.

I chose the Black Diamond Raven Ultra because it’s relatively lightweight, has a steel head and a straight shaft that could easily accept the lower section of a pole (and I had one laying around). I’m sure there are may axes that could work.

With the help of Rosenberg and his mill we quickly cobbled the two pieces together. We took a warm up run on an older tool.

Simple five step process-

1- Drilled out the base of the axe shaft to the diameter of the ski pole so it will slide inside. You could use any ski pole lower as long as it’s aluminum.

2- Drilled out three small diameter holes on the back side of the shaft to allow the pole to adjust to three different heights. You could do more I guess, but three seems adequate. Just make sure the hole nearest the tip is the length you’ll want to ski with.

3-Next we drilled out four holes on the side. These were filled with threaded spacers to keep the ski pole from warbling around inside the axe. It turns out that two holes are adequate.

4-  Then I drilled out a small hole in the ski pole and added a tension pin (no idea what it’s really called) that I stole from an old shovel. This allows the pole to adjust to different heights.

5- Added a grip. I guess this is optional, but seems pretty nice to have. I found this non-adhesive wrap that magically sticks to itself and stretched it over a small piece of cord.

And there you have it! A totally niche tool that I’ll probably only use a few times a season. But I’ll be glad to have it when I need it.

Product review-

I used the Vorpal on Rainier a few weeks ago and I like it! We skied the Success Couloir and though we didn’t find ice, we had very firm snow and it was great to have the axe handy at all times. I had a little bit of slippage with the grip, but other than that it preformed well.

“We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.”

-Marshall McLuhan-

Comments-

It’s heavier than a whippet, but I switched off hands repeatedly and didn’t notice it.

The grip needs to be a little further down the shaft so the adze doesn’t hit your wrist when pole planting.

I didn’t ski with the plastic pick and adze guard, but one could do that to avoid impalement in areas where you don’t need axe capabilities.

Seems like a good tool for non skiing mountaineers on Hood and Rainier that often carry poles and an Ice Axe.

I haven’t plunged much with the shaft and I’m worried it would fill with snow and become an issue? Could probably knock it out easily though.

Maybe it’s just a good way to disembowel oneself?

Fun project! Would love to hear if anybody has done something similar, or has modification ideas.