Ryan wheeled out his new Petzl Ergos yesterday at Le Crag I had experienced trepidation at the thought of having to face a new French Super-tool this winter was anxious to see how the new multi-gripped Petzl doo-dad would perform.
Mixed Emotions that perennial Rocky Mountain National Park favorite of mine looked lean wet n' slippery. Assuming Ryan would be keen to lead I toddled off to solo a bit pitting my now well-used Fusion 2s to work in unison with a set of untested Cassin Crampons. A lovely gift from some of my inexplicably ardent Italian fans the cramps had come with impressive heel spurs which I had unceremoniously taken a hack-saw too even thus circumcised they looked imposingly medieval. After some warm-up laps it was decided I would lead I picked through Ryan's rack selected a few cams carefully inspected the three ice screws we had and set off knowing the thin ice above would be a largely unprotected outing at best.
Wet wild n' woolly was more like it (like all good things back when) I dry-tooled up left as high as I dared before the slushy ice out right began to fade from view then a big reach out a fine stick before I could sink all that Italian steel into the one empowering strand of ice on the route. Eking my way the thin ice climbing was off the chart even the exit held some mystery.
Ryan made good time to the drippy bit but once embarked upon the transition to the "ice" a snag ensued. There was (and still is) a yellow flake behind which a pick could be securely lodged, my F2 slipped right in here to a giddy depth, not so the newfangled Frenchy tool...
Indeed the new tool showed such a radical disposition in terms of bend that the pick could find scant purchase so radical a curve that the new toothy bottom hook contacted the rock first, no love there for Ryan. This pissed my mate right off so when he set to swinging at the ice he bonked the pick a sad few times...
Then there was that upper trigger, a Grivel throw-back if ever there was one. Positioned as such it was neither trigger nor pommel so matching was an unnecessary pump-fest for mon ami' he did fine on the upper ice though some large chunks came down.
Synopsis? Having seen the video of Etienne Grillot total-dry of Grenoble with the new Ergo I was resigned to getting owned on the hill by the Petzl hordes with their shiny new orange tools, now I am not so concerned. Why? Well for starters the radical bend looked impressive in custom-drilled pockets at the French total-dry crag not so at a crag with natural features. Mind you Ryan had only just got these so he had yet to tune them to his liking but I find it odd that a state of the art tool relies so heavily on the hardware store band-aid of rubber tape for much of its performance. Then there's the cost $325 US$ as opposed to F2's $279.95 tag, are you really getting a $90 per set increment in juice?
One climb does not a season make so we'll see...
Postscript: To be fair it takes time to learn to "drive" a new tool (particularly a French one) so judging a tool's performance based on one outing is harsh... Fair play, I do note Ryan is a superb boulderer, a modern-day Skip Guerin if I've ever seen one (with shoes & chalk) verily he absolutely knows how to dry-tool. Caves are different than smears so conceivably there may yet be a reckoning with the new French tool, "un 'Le Dernier Combat'", as it were.
Photos: Clockwise from top; Fusion 2 (with Laser pick) & Petzl Ergo (amount of wear is from one pitch of mixed climbing, note the deep bend right above the grip in the Ergo). Ryan on Mixed Emotions where deep is better. RCC on lead two-hands an F2, aaahhhh...
