UKH

Not sure why, but I've decided to have another bash at ice climbing.  Got some new boots and my old crampons seem fine.

I do however recall smacking the shit out of my knuckles previously and was wondering if anyone could recommend some handrest/ trigger things that might fit on a Quasar to save my knuckles?

I fully appreciate that I should sort out my technique, but für the sake if argument, what gear could I buy in the meantime to compensate for my lack of technique?

I don't want to buy new axes as these ones are pretty new in my mind ( let's leave aside the fact that they have stickers on the side saying 899 FF Solde for now.  In my mind they are new

I don't think they ever made a handrest for Quasars as they were only ever designed to use with wrist loops. They had to retrofit Quarks with the grip rest because they were originally designed similarly. It would have to be a bodge job or DIY solution I think. 

Some gloves have padding over the knuckles like BD Punishers but that's always struck me as a bit of a desperate solution to a problem that most people avoid easily enough by just swinging better. 

When you say ice climbing are you thinking of winter climbing here in the UK or going to Rjukan or similar for waterfall ice? For both modern leashless tools offer loads of advantages. Your tools might be hardly used, but they are a really outmoded design now because the rely on wrist loops. 

Thanks Toby. I had assumed I could just take the wrist loops off and usd them without. I guess they would br harder to hold than Nomics o something, but hadn't realised the difference would be crucial.

Had a play at masson lees today and TBH abandoned any attempt at using the quasars, just used Murio's Nomics.

But I had assumed that on less heinous stuff, eg III/IV I could just uses the Quasars sans leash.

Will that actually be obscenely difficult?

Edit: just Scotland/Lakes. I did use them in Rjukan to reasonable effect with leashes, but only on easy stuff up to G4 fat ice.  But that was 20 odd years ago@

Hmm. This could get expensive 

These look super for 130 each https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/ice-axe-for-ice-climbing-mamba/_/R-p-304800?m...

And these are decent all round tools and now just 90 quid! https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/technical-mountaineering-ice-axe-anaconda-pan...

BTW, even the M6 "warm up route" at Massons I couldn't do without loads of rest and a very tight top rope! I would have thought that hanging onto tools with no griprest and no wrist loops would be close to impossible on stuff like that.

On whether you can use them for III/IV and the like - not sure. I think that it was adding hooks to the base of ice tools that essentially allowed leashless ice climbing to happen. The curve of shafts on mid - late 90s ice tools like Quasars (perhaps beginning with the DMM Pedator?) isn't so different from those on modern all round tools like Quarks and Apexes, it's just that little hook/grip rest that at the bottom that makes such a huge difference. It's basically doing the same thing as a wrist loop - letting you not grip the handle of the tool too tightly while still allowing you to use it momentum to swing it relatively hard without it flying out of your hand!

Lots of guides and instructors here in the UK seem to be going over to using mountaineering axes without wrist loops but I can't imagine you can swing them or pull on them that much if they have no or minimal grip on the handle, if they don't have a griprest or a wrist loop. I treated myself last year to a new mountaineering axe - a Blue Ice Bluebird. It works perfectly as a walking axe, but has one of those clever sliding grip rests, which means you can swing it and haul up on it on moderately technical ground like a 'proper' ice tool, despite it being leashless. I soloed a reasonably techy grade II buttress and it work perfectly for that sort of thing, so it just brought home to me how important a griprest is.