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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:
Pictured are my personal set of new Quarks.
