Pageviews past week

The cold world of skimo & alpine climbing

The cold world of skimo & alpine climbing

Monday, January 30, 2012

Grivel? ...What is happening there?

A few friends have climbed on these and everyone seemed to like them dry tooling.  My buddy Jack Roberts was pretty excited switching from a Petzl sponsorship to Grivel this winter.  I know from our recent conversations that he liked climbing on the new tools as well.

I see Will Simms is now on the Grivel line up.  His buddy Jon Griffith off Petzl and on BDs.

"Never the arrow always the Indian."

Anyone climbing on any of the Grivel versions of this one here in North America?


"Grivel has for nearly 200 years led the development of Ice Climbing equipment, but to move ahead in this rapidly changing “fast &furious” new age of technology and materials, we decided to make a radical improvement in our approach to development. This is the reason we decided to create a new dept. a real Laboratory for Development, a place where we can explore the possible and beyond. With all these recent changes in materials and design we chose to invest in this bright future, brought about by mixed climbing, competition and rising standards. To head this new department we have brought in a new face, Stefano Azzali a man devoted to climbing and climbing equipment, no stranger to high tech radical materials. Stefano’s work in this field of new technologies and avantgarde design qualifies him to lead “Grivel’s Racing Development”. (Grivel Reparto Corse) It’s almost second nature to a man coming from Modena, the home of design, engineering and above all “Speed”. We look forward to the future as we are proud of our past."


    

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The new "force" ice tools look very similar to the Ciesse Saldature or "climbubu" ice tools. Wonder if they got bought out? Either way they look really cool.

link...
http://www.aciessesaldature.com/saldature/saldature_speciali.asp?Lang=EN&Sez=Cli

luirri said...

I'm a Grivel fan from the eightys, but...anybody knows at CT that "Reparto Corse" axes are, actually, Mauro Bole designed axes (see climbubu.com)?

Gear:30 said...

Haven't climbed on that tool in particular, but I saw it at the OR show in SLC last week. Picks look similar in thickness to the picks on the quantum tech, which I have climbed on a little. They seemed to displace a lot of ice compared to the tools that I normally climb on (Cassin x-all mountains). I bet they'd be great drytooling though.

Dane said...

There is a reason I intentionally called it "the Grivel versions of this one" :)

Anonymous said...

Grivel obviously makes good gear but what's up with the design? Butt ugly! This one's no exception.

Ian said...

Too rich for my blood. I'd love to try them out though.

Jon Miller said...

Jack loved his for dry tooling and heavily hooked out ice. In vertical ice he said they had a tendency to hit with the top of the pick rather than the tip. He hadn't had enough time on them to really try out different swings though. They are ridiculously light and expensive though!

Dane said...

Jon, if you have a chance send me an email or call will you? Been trying to reach you this week. thanks Dane

Anonymous said...

Just because climbers are given axes for free or paid to use them doesn't mean they are necessarily the best axes.

Dane said...

"Anonymous said...
Just because climbers are given axes for free or paid to use them doesn't mean they are necessarily the best axes."

ya, I thought I pointed that out already..."never the arrow (or axe) always the indian (climber)"