Howey Tool X-Dream Pick Review

Now with a few days under my belt on new picks for my Cassin X-Dreams from Howey Tools, I thought I'd post a review up here for a great small business.

After burning through about 1-2 picks a season on the Mixt picks for the x-dream, I was beginning to consider selling my tools for either Grivels or Nomics. Frankly, I was getting sick of having to tune the picks after every climbing day, and sometimes mid-day. I love the x-dreams, but the reality of spending somewhere around 100-200 bucks a season to keep my picks sharp, the nomic or tech-machine was starting to look appealing.  Krukonogi's had been around awhile, but at $70 a pop and having to order them from Russia, I was a little gun shy. I found Howey Tools, and at ~$40/pick USD, I thought it was worth a shot before selling off the tools.

I ordered the picks from his website, and with the roughly $15 shipping for expedited shipping (just $2 more), they arrived in under a week from Canada to Montana.  They mounted easily, and come with bolts (higher quality than stock X-Dream bolts).  The ice picks don't extend quite as far down the tool as the stock Mixt picks, but otherwise the geometry is very similar.  They are slightly narrower than the Mixt, and have a very different cutout pattern and drilled holes which allow them to use petzl massolettes if you want to add pick weights.  One of the picks was slightly harder to install - the hole seemed ever-so-slightly out of line, but it only took a few seconds of fiddling to get it one.

My first day out on them, the ice in Hyalite was wet and plasticy for the first few routes, all which were WI3.  The sticks were solid - almost all 1 swing hits - but the ice was so wet, that I really don't think picks would have mattered. Cleaning the tools in this ice was just as easy as the mixt, if not moreso.  I have heard kruk picks need to be detuned on the teeth closer to the shaft - not so for the Howey picks.  Toward the end of the day, though, I got on a route that was more sheltered and the ice was a bit harder and much thinner. I found I was able to gently tap into the harder, colder ice and get very solid sticks.   As the ice got thicker, I was still able to get 1-swing sticks on almost every hit.  Compared to my Mixt picks, I was definitely displacing less ice.  Most impressively, I took a swing into what I thought was deeper ice, and hit rock below.  When I looked at the pick after, it was barely dinged at all.  That would have blunted my mixt pick, and required a tune up that shaved a centimeter of length.  The Howey pick was barely scratched.

This weekend, I got some colder climbs in early in the morning.  The picks on cold ice still displace ice compared to a nomic pur'ice pick, but man, they are leagues ahead of the Mixt.  Still mostly getting 1 swing hits on ice that was pretty picked out.  I got on a steeper WI4/4+ with a mixture of ice that was dripping wet and ice that was old and brittle, and was able to either bury the tools to the head in the wet ice to get a screw in, or gently tap into the old, brittle ice for solid sticks.  

Overall, I would highly recommend these picks for x-dream users. They are about the same price, and way more durable.  They outperfom stock mixt pick and the ice pick on ice, and have comparable performance on rock.

I have posted so much about how much I like the Howey Tool picks over the stock X-Dream picks, Howey should give a commission. It took me awhile to get used to climbing multiple days in row without needing to file my picks, my files are getting lonely.

After upgrading to the Howey picks, buy the Petzl pick weights:  https://www.petzl.com/NL/en/Sport/Ice-axes/MASSELOTTES and ice climbing will become so easy you'll need to start mixed climbing.

Howey, still can't wait for those here-any-day-now X-dream picks with hammers...

I've used a Howey pick on my Nomics for most of the season.  For comparison, one tool has a Pur Ice pick, the other has the Howey.  At first I thought the Howey worked very slightly better (good sticks, good cleaning) than the Pur Ice in various ice conditions.  After using it extensively, I really can't tell the difference with the Pur Ice.  Upon receiving the picks, the pick design, with the claw-like first tooth, concerned me as to its durability.  With the claw design, you have very limited resharpenings before the tooth is gone, unlike the Pur Ice which has a longer first tooth. Upon hitting a rock a few days ago, my concerns were supported--the tooth was beat down, and sharpening took a lot of life out of the pick. Although the steel is supposed to be tougher, I have not been able to detect any difference from the Petzl pick via sharpening with a file--doesn't seem to be any harder steel, and sharpens easily.  I haven't hit a rock with the Petzl pick, so no comparison there. Sooo, I'll go back to the Pur Ice pick--seems to last longer with no degradation in performance.  Regarding the Pur Ice, it does seem to be a lot nicer in thick ice than the standard Petzl Ice pick.

TLDR: howey tool picks for x-dreams are much better than the picks from Cassin and you should buy a pair