Feedback on ice climbing experience by athlete Will Gadd Black Diamond

Thecomic book athlete Will Gadd has wonice climbing world cups and climbed the most extreme ice cascades on the planet. He has been at the forefront of ice climbing equipment for 25 years. In addition to his outstanding skills, Will is also highly professional and maintains a close relationship with the product engineers of Black Diamond. For nearly 30 years, Will Gadd has been testing the equipment... Black Diamond and thus helped invent the future of ice climbing.

WILL GADD TELLS US ABOUT HIS EXPERIENCE AS A PRODUCT TESTER. BLACK DIAMOND

I won the X Games more than twenty years ago with prototypes of BD Cobras ice axes. At the time, they had a radical look and an atypical curvature. At that time the trend was rather classic. They were made of carbon, a material that cost a fortune but was very sexy. It felt like they were being propelled in our hands and came from a futuristic world that had just fallen from a top secret military jet. Everybody was convinced that the heads would break off because they were glued on. Gluing carbon to steel couldn't work, could it? I still have those things. Together we've climbed thousands of lengths of ice, whether it was in the fjords of Norway or in the great outdoors of Canada, we won the Ice World Cup in 2000, we've hit pitons in alpine routes, and our relationships have been more lasting than some of my couples or my cars. Hit after hit in ice, earth, rock and even wood (I'm not kidding, one night I even split wood to make a fire in the Ghost route) they survived. The glue held, as I was sure it would.

Photo: Christian Pondella

I was convinced that the glue would hold because I had attended a test conducted by Chris Harmston, the quality manager at Black Diamond at that time. He took the Cobra ...and attacked a concrete curb and managed to blow it up. It was a form of product testing with violence similar to premeditated murder. There were pieces of concrete spouting out everywhere, bits of carbon jumping out, a desire to destroy the device radiated in everyone's eyes, but even as the body of the device dangled with carbon wires scattered in the cold wind, the head stuck to the steel. Since that time, the way the quality department performs its tests has become more sophisticated and the laboratory has made good progress, but the spirit remains the same. It's all about over-stressing the material so that it survives in combat, in extreme conditions in the field and not just in the laboratory, and also involving designers and athletes as test pilots.

For more than 25 years, I have been testing and participating in the development of products Black Diamond. When I was a child, my parents gave me a new toy such as a truck and I couldn't help but push it to the limit by blowing it up to the point of breaking it. And of course, I felt great sadness. At Black Diamond My job is not only to encourage the development of innovative products, but also to test the material and push it to the end, until it breaks. I've always enjoyed doing this even if there have been times when I've been surprised. I remember once in New Hampshire where I had almost finished a solo routine that linked Black Dike, Lake Willoughby, Cathedral and Frankenstein in addition to Cannon. Everything was going well, I was enjoying the prototype studs, let's call them 'Tuna'. They were impeccable, very light and efficient, like a knife under your foot.

Suddenly, the front spikes on one of the studs were no longer gripping. All of a sudden my foot slipped and I thought I'd made a mistake when I put my foot down. I put it back in place, but it didn't fit. I looked at the spikes and they looked normal, but when I hit the ice again, they didn't fit. Apparently the plastic parts I was testing had broken and every time I hit the foot, the spikes were deforming. This was very reassuring, knowing that I was solo at over 400 feet (about 120m) from the ground. The crampons had held without problem for 49 of the 50 pitches I had just climbed. The feedback test I did on this experience was so angry that Black Diamond could have stopped our collaboration due to the lack of delicacy in my remarks. The team understood my anger. Since my first day and during the 25 years of exchange that I have had with the team of designers, climbers of Black Diamond they have always understood that climbing is not the same as playing golf, even though both sports use carbon gear.

Climbing is not just a sport, nor a lifestyle. When I say "I am a climber" it is a definition of who I am, of my freedom to move around in a vertical environment, of a commitment to something important, meaningful, true, difficult, bloody and even desperate, and above all of the immense joy that overwhelms me when I keep climbing, when giving up would be easier. I am not a conservator of material, but the relationship between a climber and his gear is sacred. I keep these Cobras as a reminder of where we've been - remembering the pitons I hit, the routes I cursed on the way up and down, the routes that demanded the best and worst of me and my fellow climbers, the competitions won and lost, the friends of today and of yesteryear.

I still sometimes write emails to the engineering team today. Black Diamond to congratulate them on their innovations. The new climbing product manager, Kolin Powick, is a good friend and long-time climber. He says, "I suck." He doesn't say that because he thinks he really sucks, but because he's figured out what I want, and everyone wants the equipment of the future, right now. Today, more than ever, I realize that... Black Diamond has a whole range of futuristic and innovative climbing equipment prototypes in their drawers. You're going to love what's coming on the market in the years to come. There are some really amazing pieces from an engineering point of view that I've been unable to push to the limit. I plan to continue testing this winter, with planned trips to China and Greenland to look for new lines and new material ideas. I will continue to keep testing and living my dream, because to say that the last 30 years are anything but a dream would be an illusion. I'm lucky and I'm fully aware of that. I appreciate everything I have. Whether it's winning climbing competitions or losing loved ones, the path of my life has been filled with adventure. Many thanks to Black Diamondbecause thanks to them material and dreams have become a reality. So, now all we have left are the carbon ice screws....

Will Gadd, September 18, 2017