Stephen Koch

I have used these tools for a few seasons now and love them. The one drawback for me, as an alpinist, is that they don’t offer a hammer. I solved this by removing the Nomic head and replaced it with a Quark head, which accommodates a hammer. This process was tricky but worked and now I have an even better tool that I can pound pins with. The added weight and slight angle change helped if anything. These tools climb ice very well. I use tethers to prevent droppage. Leashless is the way to free yourself and to be way more efficient. One drawback – no spike on the bottom of the tool, which, so long as I am aware of it, has not been a problem. When mixed climbing the Nomics excel…whether matching on one tool or gripping up high, these tools love every minute of it and when you reach the ice you are NOT bumming from the “bounce you the fuck out of the ice placement you just made because the tools were engineered solely for rock climbing,” which some other mixed tools give. Instead, you are laughing your way to the top of the climb…

Enjoy!

Check out the Nomic at Backcountry.com!