
They could easily become damaged from repeated impacts with a hard surface, or rusty through exposure to moisture. Wood carver’s adzes are not designed to be used for this purpose.

It’s less likely that you’ll be using an ice adze in your home or garden, but if you happen to have one, you now know what to use to chip your car out of compacted snow drifts!

Hammers are usually only used as a pair with an adze on the other axe (hammers are much more common in ice tools than ice axes). They have been designed to be effective where other tools would fail, thanks to the shape of their blades. An adze will allow you to break ice by chopping or shoveling in a specific area, and they also provide more room to hold on to the head than a hammer does. Ice adzes can also be used to dig holes in ice. You should repeat this process until you reach the top or bottom of the ice slope. You can then move your trailing foot into the step it just vacated. This will make the step more sturdy by compacting the snow under your foot. Once you’ve cut your step, you can kick into it with your closest foot. The first part of the swing brings the adze head into contact with the ice, while the second part removes the material that has been smashed off. Swinging an ice adze is like swinging a hand adze. You’ll be swinging the ice adze to the side of your feet this time, rather than between them. If you’re travelling uphill, you can just stand normally. If you’re going downhill, you will need to use your knee to brace yourself so that you can reach to cut steps in the ice.

They are not sharp, but shaped so that they can hack through compacted ice and snow.Ĭutting steps in ice gives a mountaineer a flat surface to stand on, which is much more stable than an ice slope.ĭepending on whether you’re travelling up or downhill, you will find that the ice you’re cutting is either closer to you or further away from you. Ice adzes are attachments on the reverse side of ice axes or ice tools. It’s all too easy to slip over without the right amount of grip on the slope.Īn ice adze is a tool that can be used to carve steps into snow. Climbing up slopes of compacted snow can be both difficult and dangerous.
