So you know…Black Diamond is now shipping its second generation Whippets. I think Andrew Mclean had some influence on this one and Reed Finlay just got his in the mail last week. Not only does it have some significant improvements, but it now comes with a cool pick protector. 😯
Really though, two big improvements to the Black Diamond Whippet. The first being the riveting of the pick to the head. Older designs used to let you remove the pick, sometimes giving you the willy’s when you really might need to hang on one. I posted a how-to to the same thing with older Whippets…click here if you missed it. The second improvement is the addition of a little plastic around the top of the handle. The metal had a tendency to tear into gloves and the plastic keeps things warmer too. The only thing I could see to make it better is to have it come in a shorter length…or two sizes., because you’ll probably want it short for climbing the steepest couloirs…and I’d sacrifice overall length to have it compact shorter. And another thing…if I’m going to spend $100 for one…I think I’d spend $125 for it to be carbon fiber.
I’m relatively new with using the Whippets, only having a year or two under my belt, but I like the idea so far. Honestly though, I think it is more useful on the way up…than on the way down. Skinning can get pretty sketchy sometimes when things are firm and it would be easy to take a slide for life with just one slip.
Like when I was in New Zealand with Andrew McLean, Grant Guise and Chris Figenshau. We were on our way back to the hut and traversing a steep slope that was frozen solid. For some reason, we didn’t have our ski crampons with us. My edges slipped out and I was able to self arrest with the Whippet. Unfortunately I had a bugger of a time getting upright again and my edges just wouldn’t bite enough to stand up. Eventually I had to pull the Whippet and go for a slide down to the bottom of the slope and some softer snow. Luckily there wasn’t a giant crevasse below me. It was a little freaky.
Nice. I think I will be giving my old ones to my wife, and trading up for the latest model.
Girls with Whippets…that’s SO hot! 🙂
As a splitter, I’m dissappointed they don’t make a three piece pole (like the Expedition) with the whippet.
Good point Brad!
You should check to see if the Whippet uppers are the same diameter at the Expeditions. If they are, you could cut the Whippet upper…and then plug in your Expedition lowers.
My bro is in the process of modifing Expeditions in order to use the Whippet and is having serious issues. I guess 125cm Exped.(and not the 140cm) can be Whippeted pretty easily. Check out this thread if interested:
http://www.splitboard.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=3841&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30
I’ve got a pair of the second generation whippets for snowboard mountaineering.
I understand the logic for the changes, but there were some great things about the first generation.
First thing is, removable heads meant you could stow the heads in your pack and not worry about getting squewerd by them while riding with them attached to your pack. This was great–at least the way I use whippets, I only need the heads attached sometimes.
It strikes me that you could have the security of a fixed head, simply by using a removable pin through the handle–best of both worlds, security when engaged, and security when stowed. Since I only ride with the poles out sometimes, a great deal of the time I’m worried about the whippet sticking me in the glutius maximus if I should fall.
The next problem, is that the 2 segment design means they don’t fold up short enough to be attached to a pack. You can fix this by buying a very thin 3 segment pole and trading out the lower 2 sections. So, again, when I’m riding with the whippets on my pack, I have a very long pair of sticks prepared to squewer me in the neck as well.
A third generation whippet with a 3 segment design and removeable heads would be awesome.
mark…i agree with some of your thoughts…but when the time comes and you really need the whippet to save your ass…it’s nice to know that it won’t slide off the pole inadvertently. as a snowboarder…i’m not sure what the difference is between a ice axe and/or a whippet on your pack anyway.
i think you might be able to find some modifications to the whippet to make it a three sectional pole over at splitboard.com. check it out and ask around over there.
thanks for your thoughts mark!