XLA 210

To my knowledge the lightest axe on the market at the time of writing (at least in the EU). Firstly i think it should be said that this axe is very good at what it does but it is not a good all rounder. Due to it's light weight and small head it does not swing well and has trouble gaining purchase in ice. But take it on long mountain and glacier trips with slight to moderate slopes and it will come into it's own.
The carved grip in the shalf does not really work all that well,but as i said above this axe has not been made to hang from. Yhe habit of taping your boots to deball them get very noisey, which seems like a stupid thing to say but after 10hrs of walking on snow it starts to get to you.
I've filed the pick a fair bit to help when hooking on rocks, the factory "teeth" are very average...
I've done a few practice arrests withit and it does fine despite the small pick.


As with all light weight gear i'll be interested to see how it holds up over time.

I am very contented with this ice axe. It is very light and it is very useful for easy ravines and couloirs. Maybe it is a bit too short for using it on the glacier walk. It has only 200g.