*The slider or similar pinky rests are useful when climbing steeper alpine terrain. Most modern technical tools and some general mountaineering axes are equipped with such a device*

I used a low powered “screw gun” to drill small holes about 1 cm up from where the spike is attached to the shaft (assumingly by pressure fit/glue) and was easily able to get through the grip and aluminum. The two screws are of course essential in keeping the slider from sliding off the end of the axe. The included hardware, tiny screws meant to thread into the rivets of Grivel axes, worked perfectly and sat more flush into the rubber grip than I anticipated.

The result is a fairly clean solution to an oft brainstormed problem. Overall, it seems like a good system and was installed without too much fuss. I could see having the Venom Hammer with a pinky rest being a really useful tool in moderate icy terrain.

perfect pinky rest terrain

Happy Tinkering,

Mike Bromberg

share

So how does a ski with only half the mass of similar boards actually perform? After quickly mounting the Stokes on my living-room floor (thanks to the inserts) with a fresh pair of Dynafit ST’s, I took ‘em out to experience some of Crested Butte’s finest lines. Stability has been good, so our terrain choices for the day also happened to be some of the steepest and tightest couloirs in the area.

Well, it was slightly unnerving or at least entertaining to step into new skis for the first time on a 45+ degree slope with a pitch of WI3 Ice awaiting my careening carcass below, but after getting over the initial excitement I was very pleasantly surprised. Not only did the Stokes afford easy hop turns due to their low weight, but also held their edges admirably. Torsional stiffness isn’t always a characteristic of lightweight skis, but the Stoke seems to be an altogether different beast.

After some fifth-class down climbing mid slope, the bottom of the couloir and the apron below tested the Stoke in about as heinous of breakable suncrust/windboard mank as one might expect with a transitioning spring snowpack. Again, the Stokes skied beautifully and handled the challenging snowpack without much effort.

With positive results after the initial test run, Chris and I decided that it would be prudent to explore another striking feature in the area and zipped over to a line known as “the pencil”. While not typically a spring objective, we were feeling “sendy” and gave it a go. What we found was a start zone comprised of similar heinous breaker conditions, followed by a couloir of east-coast hard s’nice and several chokes that were narrower than Chris’ 170’s and certainly more svelte than my 182’s. Anyways, a beautiful line despite challenging conditions and impressive performance on the firm stuffs well as the soft-ish avalanche debris below…

I can’t say that this testing method will become my norm for breaking in new skis, but I’m feeling confident that the Dynafit Stoke will become the ski to which all backcountry fat-ish boards will be measured and the perfect addition to my quiver…

share