Tools
I have a confession to make: I'm a tool user. And possibly a tool geek.
It's not something you would admit in public, like at a cocktail party, or at a PTA meeting. But if you're reading this, chances are you have the same "inclination".
So what is a tool? From Wikipedia we find: "A tool is a device that can be used to produce an item or achieve a task, but that is not consumed in the process. ...Tools are the most important items that the ancient humans used to climb to the top of the food chain; by inventing tools, they were able to accomplish tasks that human bodies could not, such as using a spear or bow and arrow to kill prey, since their teeth were not sharp enough to pierce many animals' skins.
I got to thinking about tools the other day when, due to the lack of a proper one, I was frustrated in "achieving my task". Luckily technology has advanced so that I generally don't need to create my own tools, I can just zip down to my local Harbor Freight or Sears Hardware and purchase one.
So big deal, everybody uses tools. A car is a tool that transports humans from one place to another. A bowl and spoon are tools for eating Grape-nuts in the morning. My racecar is a tool to (hopefully) win races or catch on fire. If you're human and alive, you're using tools. What slides this normal process toward the beginnings of geekness is the derivation of pleasure in viewing and most of all, in the use of a well designed tool. For most people, the tool is secondary to their task. Assembling an IKEA bookshelf they grab the cheap phillips screwdriver they keep in a drawer that they received when they bought 25 gallons of gas one day, or the pliers that came as a 14.99 auto repair kit Xmas gift. This often leads to an unsatisfactory experience, rounding the head of the screws, etc.
But for a true tool geek, using a good tool is a sublime experience, that not only "achieves the task", but enhances it. A good tool typically is dedicated to one purpose. While a Leatherman multi-tool can be useful and functional in many situations, it's very nature compromises and dilutes the tool experience. I admit I own multi-tools, such as screwdrivers with multiple bits stored in the handles and the like. And they are useful in normal day to day activities. But when it comes to an important mechanical task, I also own several full sets of screwdrivers, each one dedicated to one particular task. The selection of the proper tool for a job, involves an endless set of factors, of which is outside of scope for this. But when the right tool is selected, and bought to bear on the problem, a well designed tool melds the user and the activity together. It's subtle, but definitely there.
The Wiki article on tools got me to pondering the evolution of a another set of tools I have been using for many years, my ice axes. This is, after all, the "Alpine" Garage.
I started climbing back in the 70's. Just like everything else, technology was starting to touch this area of human activity. Unlike Rock climbing, where the tools (harness, rope, carabiners, chocks) are secondary, used for safety and backup only, in Ice climbing, tools are an essential component of the sport and play a huge role. As ice climbs become steeper, approaching and exceeding vertical, tools are necessary. No ice axes == staying on the ground. This focus on tools as part of the sport was one that attracted me.
In the picture above is state of the art technology for the 1970's. The bottom tool is a Mountain Technology ice axe from Scotland. This is a general purpose tool, patterned on the same technology all the way back to the 1800's. Edward Whymper climbing the Matterhorn in 1865 would have immediately recognized it. But even here we are seeing stirrings of technology creeping in. The tool is much shorter than a typical ice axe, allowing it to be swung above the head like a hammer, allowing steeper terrain to be attacked. The shaft is no longer wood, but metal, and coated with rubber, affording a better grip.
The top tool is a Lowe Hummingbird hammer. One side is a hammer head for banging in screws to vertical ice. The other side carries a drooping pick for lodging into the ice. Compare the tool to the Mountain Tech below. It's shorter more compact, no spike in the bottom handle, the pick is straight and sharply angled down. This is a specialist tool, useless for tromping along a glacier, but superb for attacking frozen waterfalls.
While the Hummingbird is relegated to the back of the closet, the Mountain Tech axe is a timeless design, like a good vintage car, and is still brought out to occasionally play in the mountains.
Here's my tools from the 1980's, a pair of Chouinard X ice axes. Technology is fully in play here now. Both axes are much shorter, thus becoming less useful in general mountaineering, only useful on nearly vertical terrain. The heads are forged, not cast and feature a locking system for mounting different picks depending on the ice conditions. The shafts are hollow steel and lighter. The leashes are designed to lock the hands on the shafts giving better grip, but also release to slide up the shaft for flexibility. These were good designed tools that I used successfully for many years.
Now we move into the realm of totally specialist tools. These are Charlet Moser Quasars, the hot tool of the 90's. The first time I swung these tools into steep ice I was in love. The perfect example of all the components for human/tool unity. Light weight to reduce fatigue, but still heavy enough in the head to penetrate the ice. Notice the curved shaft which allowed full swings over edges without bashing your knuckles, a common occurrence on straight shafted tools. The head was fully modular to accept different picks, hammer heads, aze heads and the like. Grippy rubber at the bottom of the tool with a slight bump to settle the little finger of your hand on. They were a delight to use. After a few whacks into the ice, they disappeared as separate objects and became extensions of my body, manifestations of my desire to ascend upward. No greater compliment can be given to a tool than to become so invisible that they become expressions of your will.
While the Quasars were the perfect tool for me and great technology, ice climbing is a sport, and just as the tools evolved, the sport itself evolved. As the tools got better, the challenges became diminished. Feats that were impossible years ago, become commonplace. Once the limit was a 50 degree snow slope, today vertical and even overhanging ice is considered routine and accessible by any reasonably fit athlete. Up until the mid 2000's, climbing ice meant attaching yourself to your tools with some sort of leash. The leashes were used to hang from your tools so you didn't have depend on having death grip on the handle. Often during a ice climb you needed to remove your hands from the leash to place ice screws and other protection, so elaborate locking and caming systems were devised for the leashes. One day somebody thought, Why don't we just get rid of the leashes?
And so a new chapter was born in the sport. My current tools, the BD Cobras, are very similar to my Quasars, but adapted for the new world of leashless climbing. When you have a good tool design, stick with it. Once again this is a highly focused, specialized tool design. Crafted with carbon fiber shaft and forged heads, they are immediately recognizable by a tool geek. Even if you have no desire to set a pick into a frozen waterfall, the visual appeal, the craftmanship, the purposefulness, the feel as you pick up the tool, all bring a smile to a discerning tool user. And that's another mark of well crafted tool, the purity of its design will come through.
It's not something you would admit in public, like at a cocktail party, or at a PTA meeting. But if you're reading this, chances are you have the same "inclination".
So what is a tool? From Wikipedia we find: "A tool is a device that can be used to produce an item or achieve a task, but that is not consumed in the process. ...Tools are the most important items that the ancient humans used to climb to the top of the food chain; by inventing tools, they were able to accomplish tasks that human bodies could not, such as using a spear or bow and arrow to kill prey, since their teeth were not sharp enough to pierce many animals' skins.
I got to thinking about tools the other day when, due to the lack of a proper one, I was frustrated in "achieving my task". Luckily technology has advanced so that I generally don't need to create my own tools, I can just zip down to my local Harbor Freight or Sears Hardware and purchase one.
So big deal, everybody uses tools. A car is a tool that transports humans from one place to another. A bowl and spoon are tools for eating Grape-nuts in the morning. My racecar is a tool to (hopefully) win races or catch on fire. If you're human and alive, you're using tools. What slides this normal process toward the beginnings of geekness is the derivation of pleasure in viewing and most of all, in the use of a well designed tool. For most people, the tool is secondary to their task. Assembling an IKEA bookshelf they grab the cheap phillips screwdriver they keep in a drawer that they received when they bought 25 gallons of gas one day, or the pliers that came as a 14.99 auto repair kit Xmas gift. This often leads to an unsatisfactory experience, rounding the head of the screws, etc.
But for a true tool geek, using a good tool is a sublime experience, that not only "achieves the task", but enhances it. A good tool typically is dedicated to one purpose. While a Leatherman multi-tool can be useful and functional in many situations, it's very nature compromises and dilutes the tool experience. I admit I own multi-tools, such as screwdrivers with multiple bits stored in the handles and the like. And they are useful in normal day to day activities. But when it comes to an important mechanical task, I also own several full sets of screwdrivers, each one dedicated to one particular task. The selection of the proper tool for a job, involves an endless set of factors, of which is outside of scope for this. But when the right tool is selected, and bought to bear on the problem, a well designed tool melds the user and the activity together. It's subtle, but definitely there.
The Wiki article on tools got me to pondering the evolution of a another set of tools I have been using for many years, my ice axes. This is, after all, the "Alpine" Garage.
 |
| 1970's ice axe technology |
I started climbing back in the 70's. Just like everything else, technology was starting to touch this area of human activity. Unlike Rock climbing, where the tools (harness, rope, carabiners, chocks) are secondary, used for safety and backup only, in Ice climbing, tools are an essential component of the sport and play a huge role. As ice climbs become steeper, approaching and exceeding vertical, tools are necessary. No ice axes == staying on the ground. This focus on tools as part of the sport was one that attracted me.
In the picture above is state of the art technology for the 1970's. The bottom tool is a Mountain Technology ice axe from Scotland. This is a general purpose tool, patterned on the same technology all the way back to the 1800's. Edward Whymper climbing the Matterhorn in 1865 would have immediately recognized it. But even here we are seeing stirrings of technology creeping in. The tool is much shorter than a typical ice axe, allowing it to be swung above the head like a hammer, allowing steeper terrain to be attacked. The shaft is no longer wood, but metal, and coated with rubber, affording a better grip.
The top tool is a Lowe Hummingbird hammer. One side is a hammer head for banging in screws to vertical ice. The other side carries a drooping pick for lodging into the ice. Compare the tool to the Mountain Tech below. It's shorter more compact, no spike in the bottom handle, the pick is straight and sharply angled down. This is a specialist tool, useless for tromping along a glacier, but superb for attacking frozen waterfalls.
While the Hummingbird is relegated to the back of the closet, the Mountain Tech axe is a timeless design, like a good vintage car, and is still brought out to occasionally play in the mountains.
 |
| The Reagan era, the 1980's |
Here's my tools from the 1980's, a pair of Chouinard X ice axes. Technology is fully in play here now. Both axes are much shorter, thus becoming less useful in general mountaineering, only useful on nearly vertical terrain. The heads are forged, not cast and feature a locking system for mounting different picks depending on the ice conditions. The shafts are hollow steel and lighter. The leashes are designed to lock the hands on the shafts giving better grip, but also release to slide up the shaft for flexibility. These were good designed tools that I used successfully for many years.
 |
| The Internet arrives, the 1990's |
Now we move into the realm of totally specialist tools. These are Charlet Moser Quasars, the hot tool of the 90's. The first time I swung these tools into steep ice I was in love. The perfect example of all the components for human/tool unity. Light weight to reduce fatigue, but still heavy enough in the head to penetrate the ice. Notice the curved shaft which allowed full swings over edges without bashing your knuckles, a common occurrence on straight shafted tools. The head was fully modular to accept different picks, hammer heads, aze heads and the like. Grippy rubber at the bottom of the tool with a slight bump to settle the little finger of your hand on. They were a delight to use. After a few whacks into the ice, they disappeared as separate objects and became extensions of my body, manifestations of my desire to ascend upward. No greater compliment can be given to a tool than to become so invisible that they become expressions of your will.
 |
| My tool of choice today - Black Diamond Cobras |
While the Quasars were the perfect tool for me and great technology, ice climbing is a sport, and just as the tools evolved, the sport itself evolved. As the tools got better, the challenges became diminished. Feats that were impossible years ago, become commonplace. Once the limit was a 50 degree snow slope, today vertical and even overhanging ice is considered routine and accessible by any reasonably fit athlete. Up until the mid 2000's, climbing ice meant attaching yourself to your tools with some sort of leash. The leashes were used to hang from your tools so you didn't have depend on having death grip on the handle. Often during a ice climb you needed to remove your hands from the leash to place ice screws and other protection, so elaborate locking and caming systems were devised for the leashes. One day somebody thought, Why don't we just get rid of the leashes?
And so a new chapter was born in the sport. My current tools, the BD Cobras, are very similar to my Quasars, but adapted for the new world of leashless climbing. When you have a good tool design, stick with it. Once again this is a highly focused, specialized tool design. Crafted with carbon fiber shaft and forged heads, they are immediately recognizable by a tool geek. Even if you have no desire to set a pick into a frozen waterfall, the visual appeal, the craftmanship, the purposefulness, the feel as you pick up the tool, all bring a smile to a discerning tool user. And that's another mark of well crafted tool, the purity of its design will come through.
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