Ice Screw Sharpening

Despite the fact that many of us experienced a warm, comfortable day
yesterday at Rumney, I have to admit I feel the ice clasp of winter
approaching. Fortunately, I also feel feverish excitement for the
upcoming ice season. In the last few years, my ice rack has seen some
use, and I've been trying to figure out how to sharpen my screws.

Last year, I found somebody who would sharpen screws via mail, but as he
went out of business, I'm on my own now. There are other people who claim
to sharpen ice screws out there, but with all the mumblings I've heard
about bad results and machine sharpening, I don't trust them. Like most
people, I have an all Black Diamond rack of Turbo Express ice screws (some
of the older ones, some of the newer ones). According to BD (personal
communication), each screw is machine cut, and then hand sharpened. They
recommend against the use of machine sharpeners or grinders because the
heat generated can damage the temper of the steel.

BD gives some instructions for how to sharpen them on your own:
http://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en-us/customer-service/faqs#climb

I tried it this afternoon and my impression is as follows. Any bozo, such
as myself, can sharpen screws to a mediocre level. It's easy to remove
any offending burrs, rust spots, or dull edges. However, it's very tricky
to get the screws back to their original geometry. If one carefully
inspects a brand new screw, it's obvious that there are subtle little
contours which end in a relatively sharply pointed tooth. These contours
were very difficult to replicate in my inexperienced hands. My sharpened
screws are still relatively sharp, but the teeth are not as agressive as
before. Still, according to BD, such screws will work much better than
their unsharpened counterparts.

In any case, I think there's a limited amount of sharpening a screw will
take before further sharpening will start biting into the threads. In the
future, I just plan to be very careful about not damaging the teeth of my
screws. The other thing is that screws are prone to rust damage, so
drying them out promptly after climbing is important, as is lubricating
their insides. I've settled on two quick shots of WD40, once from the top
and once from the bottom. I think this not only facilitates ice removal,
but also repels water and rust. I don't think the WD40 is very good for
the rest of my climbing gear, so I flicked and wiped the screws dry as
best I could afterwards. Too much oil probably means the screws will
start accumulating all sorts of dirt.

Flesh

I'm still working Flesh for Lulu. I've fell on the last (serious) move for the fourth time today. I worked the top for about an hour though, so I think if I rest up it'll go. I hung out with Brayton and Devin and had a really fun, chill day. I feel winter coming soon, so I'm looking forward to making the transition to ice climbing.

Dunbar jugging a few weeks ago. Yay for aid climbing!

Brayton hooking hard on Riviera (5.13d).

Crow Hill Aid

This weekend was really wet, so I just did a half day with Dunbar today at Crow Hill. It was pretty simple: I led Crow-Magnon, Dunbar jugged it, Dunbar led Jane, I jugged it, and then we both top-roped Jane. Dunbar had never led any aid or jugged before, so I think he was psyched. The gear at Crow Hill is tricky. There are a lot of flaring pockets. Fortunately, there was hardly anyone there to disturb us, which was surprising, given that the sun was out. We almost got Jane (5.11ish). It was getting dark and the holds seemed quite greasy, but I almost got it on toprope. I should think about leading it. I need to figure out exactly what gear it needs though.

Winter is coming! Winter means ice! Ice means ice climbing!