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).