Ice Axe Accessories
With a little DIY skill, it is possible to adapt say Petzl accessories to eg DMM axes and vica versa and so change your older Scottish mixed tools into continental style leashless climbing axes. Here is a chart of what we feel works in this respect - if you have successfully made an adaptation not listed please let us know and we'll add it. It should be noted that any adapting of parts to fit axes other than those they were intended for will almost certainly invalidate any manufacturer's warranty that comes with those parts.
Handrests: Handrests (also known as Griprests, Fangs, Horns etc) are the hand-resting/protecting hooks that are designed to be fitted to the bottom of the shaft of icefall axes. Although they are only made to fit certain axes, there are plenty of botch up jobs out there where people have fitted them to axes such as the DMM Fly - check out the UK Climbing Gear and Winter Forums for examples of how to do this.
Bolt on extra to convert older style Quarks for leashless climbing, or just to protect your knuckles from the ice.
Griprest for the 2010/11 Nomic and Ergo. Will fit older models.
Griprest for the 2010/11 Quark.
Plastic hook to attach to the bottom of your Viper shaft for greater hand support on steep ice to enable leashless climbing with knuckle protection.
Grivel's version of the Petzl/Charlet Griprest. It bolts onto the bottom of a Grivel axe or hammer shaft giving a rest for your hand so that you can go leashless and protecting your fingers from the ice.
The Slider is a hand rest that can slide up and down the shaft/handle. Sorry - this item is no longer made.
A cunning combination of a Single Spring Leash and a sliding hand rest and ideal for an alpine axe where you need to alternate regularly between walking mode and climbing mode, change hands according to the slope, want to keep your hands free and don't want to risk dropping your axe.
Shaft Rests & Triggers: Shaft Rests are small rests fitted about halfway down the shaft to enable easy hand changes when climbing leashless. They are also quite useful when climbing leashed as they enable the axe to be gripped differently. Triggers are intended to be fixed to the shaft of your axes in such a position that your index finger rests on them and gives great control and accuracy.
An upper grip attachment for use when climbing leashless, to enable switching hands and resting more easily.
Exert extra control over your axe on hard cascade and buttress climbs with the Trigger.
A trigger designed for the 2010/11 models of Quark, Nomic and Ergo, but which could probably be persuaded to fit many other axes.
Sliding Trigrest designed for Petzl Sum'Tec Axes but which would probably fit on many other axes of various makes as long as they had shafts of the correct size.
Axe Grip: Rubber or other material to make axe heads and shafts easier to grip.
Latex rubber protector for the head of a walking/alpine axe, providing insulation and a better grip. Particularly useful at high altitude where bare metal can get very cold indeed.
Self-adhesive rubber grip tape for customising ice tools (or replacing worn out hand grips). Each roll is 1 metre long by 19mm wide.
Pack of four self-adhesive strips of very rough sandpaper like material (actually very similar skateboard decking) that can be applied to axe shafts to give extra grip.
Headweights: Extra weight that can be fixed to the head of an axe to increase its penetration into hard ice.
Extra weight designed to bolt on to Petzl's new picks. Fits the 2011 range of Petzl axes (Quark, Nomic and Ergo).
Tough webbing axe holster - simple to attach to a harness or rucksack.
Ingenious rubber thingie for protecting your axe head that stays attached to your axe when not in use so that you don't lose it.
Black rubber thingy made to protect the point and adze of any mountain axe.
Small black triangular ice axe ferule protector.