Hammers for the Petzl Quark?

Having climbed on the Nomics for so long now,  my favorite ice tool from just a few years ago, the Quark has been ignored as of late.

In fact the last pair of Quarks I did climb on had been chopped up pretty dramatically to take advantage of the best of everything I thought Petzl offered at the time.

Details here from the Spring of 2009:

http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/850659/How-to-trash-a-300-ice-tool

The end result?  Awesome Alpine tool!
These two were eventually passed on via "Pay it Forward" along with thousands of dollars in new and used gear that was donated on CCcom.   Fun project that!

http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/923346/1


Same tools spent the past season in Patagonia.  By the looks of it they were put to good use.

http://jensholsten.blogspot.com/2011/01/jardines-japoneses-new-route-on-mermoz.html

http://colinhaley.blogspot.com/2011/01/jardines-japoneses.html

So I guess it comes as no surprise that I really like the newest Quark based on the original Nomic's head.  I was never a big fan of the head shape or hammer and adze combo on the old Quark.  So I put my money where my mouth was and made both a lwt weight hammer and a light weight adze for a Nomic 2 years ago.  (Just the one adze, mine, sorry!)

Very cool that Petzl decided last winter that what I was doing,  was what they also wanted to do.  Great minds think alike and all ;-)

So now you can buy the production version of a design I thought was a great ice tool several years ago.  Big improvement on the old Quark I think.  But the one place I still think Petzl missed the boat on the new Quark is in the hammer and adze.  So it is really fun that the hammer I designed for the Nomic fits the new Quark perfectly.  The lwt weight Cold Thistle hammer makes a much better balanced and super sweet alpine ice tool. 

This version of the Quark is one of my main alpine tools.  Petzl delivers the best production picks on the market.   What is not to like on this tool?    Nothing!

Production runs sell out quickly.   If you are off to Alaska this spring.  It is time to get your order in now.

The Cold Thistle hammers can be purchased here:

http://coldthistletools.blogspot.com/2010/08/ice-climbing-gear.html 

Pictured are my personal set of new Quarks.

Nomic, Quark and Ergo low profile Hammers?

"Colin Haley photo of Bjørn-Eivind Årtun on their new route, Dracula, Mt Foraker, June 2010."

Finally!

At Bjørn-Eivind Årtun's suggestion after his successful '10 Alaskan season, we have redesigned the C-T Nomic hammer to make it even lighter with a 4mm hammer face instead of the previous 7mm face. The new hammer will also fit the newest Petzl Nomic, Quark or Ero tool heads and the newest picks cut for a hammer or adze.   The hammer face is thinner to shave some weight and balance better but the hammer still gives complete coverage to the back of the Nomic.

We are FINALLY shipping them AGAIN!













This hamemr will fit the previous and current production Nomic, the new Quark and the new Ergo.
With the 7mm hammer I preferred a one hammer set up. The newest 4mm hammers have changed  that.    The balance is better with the 4mm hammers.  A technical tool like the Nomic will never be ideal for pounding pins (that won't change) because of their large clearance of the handle shape, but our smaller profile hammers certainly make it a lot easier and save the head of the tools from damage. They are easy to attach with perfect fit and finish.

The C-T makes the newst Quark an even better (sweet!) tool for all technical climbing.

For long committing alpine climbs they are a minimalistic option that works.   On the scrappy mixed route where you need to pound the occasional pin or your own tool, they work.

Our current 4mm hammers *easily* fit the newest picks from Petzl. They are CNC machined from bar stock chromoly steel and then heat treated to hammer hardness and hand finished in our shop.

Not all Petzl heads are created equally.  I have found a few that require very minor hand fitting the pick and hammer with a file.  It won't take much  and is easy to do.  If you can sharpen a pick any fitting required will be easy.  The new Petzl picks require cutting the back off  the hammer interface from .15" to .04" on the bolt hole.  Again easily done with a hand file.  Just cut enough material to  line up the bolt hole on hammer and pick.   You want to be just shy of the bolt hole when done.  Way easier than it  looks or sounds.

Hammers are $60 ea.   These will fit the current production picks and is now even lighter with a 4mm hammer face...@ 30g per hammer and much easier to fit than the Petzl offering

Buy them now while I have them in stock and ready to ship.  We do four production runs a year and generally sell every run out before the next.

More here:

http://coldthistletools.blogspot.com/2010/08/ice-climbing-gear.html