Oakes on ice and mixed terrain in multiple venues across Montana. Of the ice tools, Nadav says, “The 2025 X-Dream feels like the continuation of a long evolution rather than a reinvention. It is instantly familiar yet packed with updates that make it more versatile, more customizable, and more refined than previous generations.”
Mountain Standards Gear Review: The C.A.M.P. Corsa Alpine Ice Axe comes in 45, 55, and 65cm lengths, has a curved shaft, is primarily made for snow climbing, is lightweight, and can be enhanced with a wrist leash and a Trigger Fast Lock pinky rest. IFMGA Mountain Guides Mike Lewis and Ben Markhart put this axe to the test in the European Alps, the North Cascades, and in the Colorado Rockies.
Whiteout spindrift avalanches, the cold temperature and bulletproof ice all made the climbing slow and progress doubtful as I skirted around the right side of some horizontal ice roofs. I prayed Dave wouldn’t fall following this pitch: my gear was in questionable, shattered ice, and I was belaying above the crux from my seventy-centimeter wooden-shafted ice axe, which I had pounded into the turf forty feet back from the top of the pitch.
