[pct-l] ice axes

[CMountainDave@aol.com (CMountainDave@aol.com)]

Just read Jim's advice and found it sound. My advice for the PCT - short, 
cheap and aluminum. If you have the bucks get lighter titanium. For 
mountaineering and /or cross country travel - long and titanium. (Great as a 
walkiing stick through windfalls and steep heather covered and forested 
hillsides). Negative or positive - only matters to the gearheads. While wood 
is cool, classic, (and no longer sold), I saw a head snap off of one during a 
crevasse rescue practice. Good thing no one was in its way as it shot through 
the air!