In reply to beardy mike:
My Technical axe was one of the very first and just had a hard plastic cover on the shaft rather than the later rubber. This chewed up quite badly and became a little annoying as it would snag on slings and clothing. Sometime in the nineties it was lost on a call out but not before I had paired it with the hammer version which developed a crack on the head, though thankfully Clive Rowland Sports (Inverness) exchanged it with little fuss.
Moved onto a pair of Vertige after my Cassin Ice System set but could never fully trust the hammer after a team mate enthusiastically hammered it vertically into snow to create a belay. The head, being alloy, was festooned with dents and it struck me then that some form of steel hammering plate would have been a better design. I did compare the Vertige back to back with Simond's Chacal/Barracuda and they appeared to have the same pick angle and tooth design. Purely coincidental.....
Still use a 50cm Technical axe as the best "go to" for walking/mountaineering days, having struggled to cut steps efficiently with the BD Raven Pro, good looking as it is!
Brilliant though the Technical is, I'd go for the aluminium shaft Chouinard Zero, 55cm, on the ML "technical ground/ice axe arrest" days. Great weight and massive adze. Only a shovel is better for digging snow! Just don't carry it on the expedition.