Black Diamond Reactor - Review

After twelve months of use I think I've put my pair of Black Diamond Reactors sufficiently through their paces to warrant a long term review. They can be seen on Black Diamond's website and are advertised as:

'An excellent all-around leashless tool at a great price, the Reactor delivers precise placements and exceptional control.

• Dual-pommel TPU grip for ice/mixed use
• Aluminum shaft
• Shaft is CEN-T certified
• CEN-B Laser Pick included'

I purchased the tools in December 2009 while living in Canada. At the time I was after a pair of more technical tools for cascade icefall climbing in the Rockies, and perhaps the biggest factor in me deciding upon the Reactors was their price. I wanted a tool with a dual-pommel style grip and while Nomics would of been (and still are) my first choice they were out of my price range, the other contender was the Fusion 1 however this tool while excellent on the mixed did not perform well on ice, and at this point in time the Fusion 2 had not been released.

Since then I've used them for a whole season of cascade icefall climbing as well as some continental style mixed climbing. They've also done a season of alpine climbing in the European alps and most recently have been climbing ice and mixed routes in the UK. I'll look at the advantages to using the tools in each of the above activities sequentially below. After a general overview.

Reactor with micro hammer.

The reactors are the heaviest (marginally) of the Black Diamond's technical ice tools, weighing in when set up with micro hammers at 675g per piece. This makes it 3g heavier than the Fusion 2, 50g heavier than the Viper and 87g heavier than the Cobra. For Petzl fans its 70g heavier than the Nomic and 125g heavier than the new (10/11) Quark. The shaft is stainless steel with a dual pommel TPU grip. At the base of this is a clip-able spike. The head is Black Diamonds modular stainless steel head which is common across its range. I added grip tape to the shaft above the upper pommel for better grip when matching, and for when swinging the tool from this position.

For cascade ice climbing I have the tools set up with laser picks and two micro-hammers. I've had a few comments about how I go on without an adze, but for pure water ice I don't miss it. The main use for an adze in cascade ice climbing is clearing rotten ice from the surface to get good screws and in my experience I can perform this task fine, if not easier with the pick. Two hammers mean both my tools are equally balanced, and given the choice, although neither is a appealing prospect I'd rather hit myself in the face with a hammer than a adze!

Climbing WI4+ with the Reactors in the Upper Evan Thomas, Canadian Rockies.

I enjoyed climbing on the tools, finding them similar to a pair of Vipers but with the advantages of the dual grip. They worked well from the easiest angle ice (where sometimes I found it easier to swing from the upper grip position) up to WI4/5. At this point I begin to feel the limitations of the tool, particularly on featured, vertical ice as due to the relatively shallow pick angle (when compared to tools such as the Cobra, Fusion or Nomic) meant the shaft would often impact the bulges as I tried to hook them or make placements on top of them. If your not constantly knocking out routes in excess of WI4/5 this won't really be an issue for you.

I packed the tools when I headed out to Chamonix for the sumer alpine climbing season, at first feeling they were perhaps a little overkill. They were however fantastic, and worked really well for me in the alpine realm. I used them on several routes, snow-ice faces to mixed ridges. Examples being the North Face of the Tour Ronde, routes on the Tacul Triangle through to the Kuffner Ridge on Mont Maudit. For predominantly snow/ice routes I rolled with the lazer picks but for routes with more of a mixed nature I swapped the lazers out for fusion picks. These are BD's aggressive T-rated picks, for general use Titan picks would be more appropriate - but here is a limit to the number of picks one can have! I also replaced one of the hammers with the standard adze. I could of used a micro adze, but if your going to buy an adze for the axes then your obviously planning on using it - so just buy the big one. When you add the adze though, there is a noticable difference in the swing as despite the head getting heavier the weight is now further back then forward. This is minor, but is noticable on ice, on mixed it isn't really an issue.

On the Kuffner Ridge of Mont Maudit, with Reactors and tethers.

They coped well with both moderate terrain and technical climbing. On easy angled slopes I tended to clip my tethers to the head to allow me to plunge the shaft. This nonsense about not being able to plunge tools like this is rubbish in my opinion, In soft snow they still plunge fine. In harder snow, or when I've got the tethers climbed to the spike I often simply invert the tools and plunge the heads. If the snow gets any harder than this I'm into daggering terrain - or swinging from the upper grip (a lot of critics cited this reason for not using such tools in Scotland - its Scottish Winter CLIMBING for got sake, not Scottish Winter Plunging...).

Next up was the UK winter season, which started for me with some early season mixed in the Lake District followed by several trips to Scotland. I had the tools set up in their alpine configuration, with fusion picks for this and found them to be fantastic. At first I had concerns about the teeth on the top of the fusion pick making removal from placements difficult but I haven't really found it an issue. For Scottish ice they've been great, having had them out at Beinn Udlaidth, the issues I had with them on really steep featured ice in North America haven't manifested yet over hear due to the comparatively lower grades and thinner ice. They've also done really well on the mixed having climbed consistently up to tech 5 in them. If your knocking out real hard mixed test pieces, VIII & IXs, then you'll probably be better off with something like a Fusion, as there is some pick shift when matching with these tools.

End of a day's early season climbing on Great End, the Lake District.

So in conclusion, the Reactors are an awesome all-round tool, especially for the UK based climber that perhaps dabbles in ice-climbing, mixed and alpine. If you want a tool specifically for hard water ice on the continent then there are tools out there that will do job better (Petzl Nomic).

Ski Cairngorm

Last day in the Cairngorms on Thursday I decided on an easier day as I was feeling the strain after climbing pretty much non stop since boxing day so headed out on the planks. After some debating I bought a ski pass (£22 for a student) and took the Gondola up to the Ptarmigan station. I did a few laps on the pistes first to get back into the swing of things as the last time I was on my skis was April. I could feel in my thighs that my ski legs had certainly diminished in the last 6 months! Conditions were good for Scotland, although there were patches of bullet hard ice around that you had to watch for as (with my blunt edges anyway) you struggled to hold and edge on them.

Whiteout conditions on Caringorm.

I then put my skins on and headed off up towards Cairngorm. The weather was pretty bad, with a strong winds and visibility down to about 10m. Skinning on a bearing soon had me at the summit, and I huddled behind the weather station to take my skins off and have a quick bite to eat. I skied off on another bearing East towards Corrie Cas, before traversing north and dropping into Corrie Cas itself and down to the ski area.

Last run of the day.

After a late lunch in the Ptarmigan restaurant I spent the afternoon skiing the pistes with the others from LUMC until the sun set, and excellent way to finish the trip.

Coire an t'Scneachda: Patey's Route

Wednesday we headed back into Scneachda for another day of climbing. I was climbing with Naomi and Claire, who had both never worn crampons before so we had a crash course in winter mountaineering down by the rescue box before heading up to our route. As they are both quite good summer climber I decided to forgo the usual first winter climb experience of slogging up a grade I gully and we headed up to do Patey's Route IV 5 *** on Aladdin's Buttress.

Myself on the second pitch, shortly before moving out left.

We'd had some snow overnight so the rock hard neve of the previous day was now covered in a few inches of unconsolidated powder, most of the rock and cracks were all still iced though. We set off up following a team of two above us. The first pitch rambles up easy ice in the gully gradually steepening until you reach the first chockstone, which is usually taken straight on by going over the bulge. The team above us however traversed out left as they couldn't make the move over the bulge and I did the same, this however was certainly not easier and involved some fairly tenous climbing on thinly ice slabs out left, then a some steeper moved up a mixed groove to get back right into the gully all with dubious gear - good fun though.

Claire about to come back right over the crux slab.

The next pitch is what is written in the guidebook as being the tech 5 crux (although it certainly felt easier than the variation on the previous pitch, which the party above us also agreed with). It follows the gully first up snow until it steepens into ice which is for a short section vertical. You get a good runner under the overhang below the chockstone before moving out left onto a ledge, clip a peg, and then the reachy crux move back right into the gully above the overhang. An awesome pitch. Easy grade II ground then leads up to Aladdin's Seat where we finished up Aladdin's Couloir I.

Belay on Aladdin's Seat at sunset.

I really enjoyed the route, its probably one of the best mixed routes I've done and I'd recommend it to anybody. Naomi and Claire were fantastic seconds, especially considering it was their first winter route. Two definite converts to winter climbing there.

Coire an t'Scneachda: Aladdin's Mirror Direct, The Runnel & Fingers Ridge

After my stint on the West Coast I had a quick turn around and headed back up to the East with LUMC on Monday for some climbing and skiing. The first day myself, Struggles, Joe and Toby headed into Scneachda for some climbing. Conditions under foot were very icy with some parties putting crampons on at the ski car park for the entirety of the walk in.

Struggles climbing his first IV.

We got to the rescue box in good time and geared up, before splitting into two pairs with Joe and Toby heading up towards trident gullies area and myself and Struggles heading up to Aladdin's Mirror Direct IV 4 ***. The route was in good conditions, giving a good 20m pitch of ice, of which about 12m was probably vertical, the rest being just off. I lead it and then Struggles followed and did really well for somebody whose only done a few easy gullys before, and he was climbing with two walking axes! Once at the top we chose to abseil back down as a pose to walking round on the Mirror as their is a good in-situ belay (3 pegs and block with a sling around it) in place at the top.

Struggles abseiling down from Mirror Direct.

Next up, we traverse across to the trident gullies area and chased Joe and Toby up The Runnel II ***. I think we did 5 pitches but we climbed quickly as conditions we nice firm neve with me leading and Struggles following. The narrow chimney at the top was good fun, we took the lefthand exit. Once on the top we made our way across to and then down the Goat Track before tucking ourselves behind a boulder for some lunch.

Struggles coming through the cornice on the Runnel.

We then headed over to Finger's Ridge IV 4 *** hoping for a quick ascent before we lost the light, Joe and Toby were on Broken Gully next too us. The first pitch was fantastic with great mixed climbing that was continually interesting, the rock was hoared and all the crack were filled with hard ice which made gear sparse in places but the climbing easier. Joe was having some difficultly below me having got off route so once at the belay I dropped him a loop and brought both him and Struggles up, and then Toby. The next pitch up to the Fingers looked awesome and I was keen for it but the other were pretty cold and the light was failing so made the decision to bail. We abbed off the the spike that can be threaded at the belay and got to the bottom (just!) in one 50m rappel. Certainly will be going back for another go as it was awesome.

Stob Corrie nan Lochan & Beinn Udlaidh

Andy, Mark and I headed up to Stob Coire nan Lochan in Glencoe to get a quick route in before that evening's celebrations (New Years Eve). We did the standard approach very quickly not stopping once between the car and corrie base taking around 1:10hrs. Conditions were poor with warm temperatures, the snow was fairly wet and most of the rock was black, ice was still clinging to lots of places though.

Leaving the car in drizzle on the A82.

We headed up for Twisting Gully III 4 *** which is a Cold Climbs Classic. The pitch was a simple steep snow/neve slope which leads you to below the tech 4 crux. From photos I've seen this usually is covered in ice or consolidated snow but for us there was only a thin layer and some old snow ice which made it quite sporting for 4, although still well protected. Above this another snow slope leads to a peg belay. The next pitch is the final hard one with a move through over a chockstone, this again was good fun, and thin, but easier than the previous. Two more pitches of around grade II lead up the finishing section of the gully before going through the cornice. I'd like to go back and do the route in fatter conditions I think as it would probably be more enjoyable.

A damp belay on Twisting Gully.

I pulled through the cornice at 2:10pm and then started bringing Mark and Andy up, we then legged it round and down Broad Gully I before de-gearing and heading back down the valley. We all pretty shocked when we were driving across the bridge in Glencoe at 4:10pm! Poor conditions but a good day, moving very fast.

We began the journey home on Sunday 2nd after a rest day on New Years day. I'd always wanted to climb on Beinn Udlaidh which is small hill near the Bridge of Orchy, but which offer some of Scotlands best pure ice climbing so we went for a look. Due to the recent thaw a lot of the lines weren't in and some had only jsut started re-forming with the last 24 hours of cold temperatures. We went for Quartzvein Scoop IV 4 *** which gave us 3 pitches of climbing, with the middle being the steep and sustained crux. The quality of the ice varies with it being plastic in some places and brittle in other, good screws could be found where needed though. We climbed fairly slowly as I led all the pitches and brought Andy, Mark and Martin up in a continuous line. We topped out just as the sun was dipping below the hills, de-geared and headed down to meet Lewis at the cars.

Myself leading the crux pitch on Quartzvein Scoop.

So in summary of the last two posts an excellent week spent climbing in Scotland in good company. I think we achieved a good balance of climbing and having a bit of holiday. For me the thing that made the trip was the chalet we rented at the Inchree Center - far superior to camping!

Aonach Mor & Creise

Tuesday (28th Dec) myself, Martin and Andy headed up to Aonach Mor catching the climbers Gondola up at 8am. There are two approaches to the West face, either the traverse in, across the climber's ridge into Corrie an Lochain or to slog up to the summit and abseil/down-climb down Easy Gully I. In the past I've always traversed in but that day we decided to try the latter which actually felt much easier and quicker despite more ascent. The cornice was fairly sizable so we dug a snow bollard to abseil over the cornice, and down-climbed from their. Apparently it can often be passed without abseil on skier's left but due to poor visibility we couldn't see this.

Myself leading up towards the mixed chimney/groove on the second pitch.

Once below the West Face we traversed until underneath the Ribbed Walls area. We decided on White Shark IV 4 ***. The first pitch gave two fairly short but steep ice pitches and ends at a good peg belay on the left on the snowfield above. For the second we climbed the mixed chimney to the right which had ice in the back and a crack on the face to torque to give 10m of fairly sustained just off-vertical mixed climbing. Above the snow conditions began to deteriorate a bit, I imagine this pitch is usually either good ice or perhaps turf and neve but on this day it was unconsolidated snow ice which made for some quite scary runout climbing. After this a final short pitch over the cornice, which was easily passable to the right led us to the top. It was an excellent route, if a little tricky in the warm conditions we climbed it in.

The nest day (Wednesday) joined by Lewis and Mark the 5 of us headed up to Creise at the Eastern end of Glencoe. We parked at the ski center and walked a little further rather then trying to cross the river Etive further to the West. The approach took us a while but we got good views of the King's Tear which looks like a awesome easy ice route on the North Face of Stob a' Ghlais Chorie. We played on ice falls which have formed on the stream on the approach to the corrie and Lewis got his first taste of pure ice.

Inglis Clark Ridge on the skyline, with the ice pitch partially visible at the start.

Once geared up we made our way to the base of the Inglis Clark Ridge III, with Lewis and Andy climbing with me and Martin and Mark climbing as a pair. The first pitch is a pure ice pitch of 30-40m depending on where you start, with the crux being at the top. Due tot he warm temperature the ice was plastic which made the climbing fairly easy. Lewis took a bit of a tumble seconding one of the short vertical sections but gamely got back on and finished it. After this the line is open to several variations. My team kept crampons on and we climbed a series of snowed up turfy chimneys and grooves to the left of the crest moving together and short pitching, whereas Martin and Mark ditched the spikes and stuck to the crest which was scoured of snow and ice for most parts. Both were satisfying and we ended up at the summit at 4pm just as the light was fading.

Taking a rest on the descent.

We descended a snow gully a few hundred meters skier's right of the ridge which lead us into the Corrie base, before crossing the river and gaining the path which eventually led us back to ski center just as the weather began to deteriorate. This was quite tedious and due to Lewis hurting his ankle tripping up we moved fairly slowly and only reached the car around 8pm.