A big thanks and shout-out to Alex Doaga, who sent us this Whippet modification.
(Note: This modification will most likely void the warranty.)
It’s that time of year again when Black Diamond Whippet poles can really come in handy. Whether it’s sketchy skinning on a firm and steep slope, or skiing a gnarly line, a Whippet can give you piece-of-mind that you might actually be able to self-arrest in the event of a slip. (FYI, BD Whippet poles will be in stock soon here.)
Alex Doaga’s modification fits like a glove.
Many of you have found out that Whippet poles are god’s gift to spring skiers, but there might be one flaw in its design…the strap. Unlike some, I’m a big user of ski pole straps and when you really need to use a lot of “arm-waxâ€, or put a lot of downward pressure on the poles, the configuration of a pole strap can really be important. For one thing, the strap on the Whippet is attached to the pick/pole not quite in direct alignment to the grip. When you’re really pulling (or pushing) down hard, it seems to want to pull your hand away for the grip and/or tweak your wrist.
Drill two holes on either side of the grip.
Drilling from the top down works best.
Also, drill a hole in the middle of the pick and then thread
some cord (4mm works best) through the holes.
What Alex shows us here, is a way to modify the attachment point of the strap to make them super comfortable and easy on the hands and wrists. Basically, he removed the strap from the pick, drilled holes in the grip, and then sewed the strap on to some cord that was threaded through the drilled holes. After a couple months of use and testing, Alex has informed me that the modification had worked great and I will probably make some adjustments to my own Whippet straps as well. Thanks Alex!!!
Sew the cord onto both sides of the strap.
Test the location of where to sew it first by inserting your hand
into the strap and holding onto the pole. FYI, you may account for
some stretching of the cord and sew the strap on a few millimeters
up from where you want it to end up.
To add, the strap used on the Whippet is not ambidextrous. Meaning that depending on how you thread the webbing through the buckle, it is only ergonomically correct for either your left OR right hand…not both.
One side of the strap is narrow, which is good for resting on your thumb, while the other side of the strap is wide, which offers good support for the other side of your hand. I like to switch the hand I have the Whippet in, so this can be a kind of annoying. Ideally, it would be nice to have one of the new-style straps that BD uses on their other pole offerings. You can probably get them from BD and then use them with this modification to make your Whippet straps the cats’ meow.
Slightly off topic:
Does these things really work? I have been eying them in one of the local shop…but the more I think about it, the more “worried” I get:
– if you have an uncontrolled fall there is the potential to be stabbed
– it is not uncommon to be able to arrest a slide by actually getting up on the skis, but that requires that you weight the skis…..i.e. the exact opposite from what you want to do with a whippet/ice axe
– when skiing steeps, you need to “get down and reaching”…and it seems that having a whippet would make you “ready for the self arrest” – i.e. ski more defensive, and therefore more likely to fall?
I do see the point of them going up e.g. skinning an icy traverse, as getting up on skis with skins and loose heals can be somewhat harder.
I haven’t actually used a whippet, so the above is just my theory…and the reason I started to eye them was that it initially seemed like it would be reasuring for really steeps. Comments?
How steep does it have to be for you to see the benefit of them?
Do you have two (guess not)? Shift which arm that holds it?
Christian…my take in bold.
Does these things really work? I have been eying them in one of the local shops…but the more I think about it, the more “worried†I get:
– if you have an uncontrolled fall there is the potential to be stabbed.
most skiers that i know who use whippets rarely fall. if you’re falling down a cliff…the whippet is the least of your worries and the who reason you have a whippet is to prevent yourself from falling over said cliff in the first place.
– it is not uncommon to be able to arrest a slide by actually getting up on the skis, but that requires that you weight the skis…..i.e. the exact opposite from what you want to do with a whippet/ice axe
not sure what you are saying here. yeah…using your ski edges prevents you from slipping…thanks. but the whippet often gives you a secure third point of attachment to the snow/ice/rock when you need it.
– when skiing steeps, you need to “get down and reachingâ€â€¦and it seems that having a whippet would make you “ready for the self arrest†– i.e. ski more defensive, and therefore more likely to fall?
some of the times on descent, the whippet comes in handy when you are sidestepping through an icy or rocky section. since these sketchy sections are usually steep, you don’t really need to bend down that much. and a lot of these times you are skiing defensively…aggressive, but defensive since there is usually exposure and some sort of technical section involved.
How steep does it have to be for you to see the benefit of them?
man that is a hard one. it all depends on the terrain and conditions, and often the whippet comes in handy for “getting through the crux” or “negotiating that tricky section or steep switchback on the skin track”.
Do you have two (guess not)? Shift which arm that holds it?
I do have two, but most of the time I just use one and it switches hands. hence, it’s nice to have an ambidextrous strap.
I don’t use them all the time or for general powder skiing.
i’d say buy one and throw it into the mix. when you get confident in it’s use, i bet you will start leaving your ice axe at home to save weight and GO FAST!!!
Thanks, for thorough repsons.
Regarding my two first questions:
– I hardly ever fall myself, but if there is no fall, then there is nothing to “self arrest” from….so, I (still) don’t quite see their use when skiing…..but for sidestepping I can see it.
– My second point was also assuming that you have actually fallen. If you are sliding down on your side with the skis beneath you (as you would have to if you were to self arrest with the whippet), I was just saying that you would probably be better off trying to get up on your skis and not thinking about using the whippets to arrest the slide…..
So, if I summarize: they are usefull when navgating up or down gnarly sections with (or without) the skis on…but maybe not so much when you are actually linking turns. Roped glacier travel on skis would maybe also be a good application (i.e. you have to use your poles, but still have someting to arrest a crevass fall with…?)
I’ll reconsider them.
@Christian,
You are making a lot of assumptions. If you fall, you may not have your skis on anymore. Also, you may fall head first. In that case you can use the whippet to reorient your feet downhill. Then you can get up on your skis.
Axes and the whippet are best used as a self belay when climbing so you never fall in the first place. If you fall on descent, self arrest can be a low probability thing to accomplish, so don’t count on it (but practice it anyway or there is Zero chance).
steve,
im trying to figure out how you have the pick protector attached. did you cut the bungee then re-tie it through the original strap slot? did the other mod yesterday. it always bothered me how the new strap works and where it was originally located. ps i moved from bozeman to hood river oregon. if you ever make it out and want to ski adams or hood hit me up! already had a few people compliment the tetonat visor
@christian-ive taken a few slides for life usually while skiing in steep corn snow that i didnt time right and the decent was maybe to late in the afternoon. its easy to slide while linking turns if the conditions are super soft or a hard crust is underneath the softer snow. NOTHING compares to the security of skiing steep terrian with a whippit. it will help improve confidence in many diferent senarios
joseph…it’s not my whippet, but it looks like alex did what you say.
and christian…don’t over think it. if you often find yourself skinning, skiing, booting in steep terrain…you will probably find a whippet handy.
reasons to use whippets…..ask and you shall receive….just today in little cottonwood canyon, Wasatch range Utah.
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=15503524
thankfully no one is dead.
Whippet…I said whippet…whippet good! couldn’t resist.
Wow…amazing no one got hurt.
It would be interesting to hear stories of how people actually arrested a real fall while skiing in steep terrain (over 45 degrees). It’s probably happened but I have never heard an anecdote concerning one. I have, however, recently witnessed a partner fall head first while skiing very slowly, one turn at a time, on a soft, 50-55 degree slope. She accelerated so fast it made our heads spin. She had no whippet but it’s hard to imagine it actually helping even if she had one. We’ll never know. She flew out of sight over the drop I was about to rappel, landed in soft snow and tomahawked 100 meters down the apron. Interestingly, her skis remained on the whole time.
So, it’s hard to know if they have much utility for actually stopping. I doubt it after watching the above. But for providing stability while climbing or side slipping I think they rock.
@joseph_ I just untied the elastic and threaded through the sling slot. One can also remove the pick protector, but I still keep mine.
A later mod on the sling was to completely replace the wide/large BD sling with a narrover one. I also stitched a “triangle”(U can notice in one picture) on the sling so sling would feel more comfortable.
Whippet is now much more friendly to use. Make sure to stitch with strong syntethic tread, not sure how much shock the new sling systen could take.
thanks alex, this is a good one.
I use new straps on old whippets and attach them with a quality keyring. Simple. Fast. Removable.
Love Whippets.Million uses: Hang on to a tree with whippet, hook dropped glove, hook dynafit lever up, hook snow on steep climb, hold pole from sliding down icy hill, lay skins on handle stuck in snow, open energy bar wrapper with pick, stick in snow to hang pack from sliding away, hanf pole in tree with whippet, hook your oth pole you just dropped, hook hat you just dropped, scoop glove sliding down hill, use as teowel tool to scrape snow to cover for cat dropping, use as tent pole, use instead of probe as per instructions, rip you new ski pants with pick, pick up dropped keys under car, hack at beer cans, open beer bottles, .last but not least look super bad ass…etc. Once you fall the whippet is the last of your worries.
jim. thank you…that was awesome.
and yeah…i’ve ripped my ski pants with a whippet before. luckily, they were soft shell pants, so it didn’t really matter.
With cold temps setting back in, I am thinking about trying to ski the Grand this week, however I wouldn’t mind linking up with someone else whose headed that way to nail out the slog into garnet, not to mention I am skittish of hungry springtime bears right now. Any bad bear experiences rando?
sam…looks like maybe some snow in the forecast this week. could be pow-ish on the gt!!!
no bad bear stories. you occasionally see bears on the garnet canyon trail coming from lupine meadows, but with some extra noise and patients, they often get off the trail and out of the way,
to add to jim’s list: protection from coyotes stalking you at 4 AM; tent anchor in the wind; really last resort emergency piton…
Probably bad bear protection, overall, but a Whippet gives you a fighting chance… kinda like w/ self-arrest. But I concur ~ much more effective on the tricky uphill sections and for a more stable third point in cruxes.
Much props to the beta, too… Trying to time a(nother) Grand trip up there when conditions and weather get normal… whatever that means.
~rc
I just cut off the the straps. Don’t want them flailing around.Use them cane style,like an old man pushing up hill.
i’m addicted to straps.
TWo weeks ago I took a bad fall on a 50-45 degree 2000 ft. couloir, a few inches of pow on top of an icy crust.
I was trying to make med radius turns, but got back, picked up speed, and my tails washed out, fell backwards, head first and started cartwheeling right away. I had a whippet in my right hand, with a strap, but I lost my grip immediately, and never recovered it. I was trying to stop, but it took about 600 ft until the snow got softer and the angle below 45.
I remember being worried about getting impaled, but luckily never happened.
I think the whippet might work if you just slide, but when it’s steep, often you start cartwheeling, at which point the whippet is useless, or at least for me it was.By the way, I had ft-12s,locked up, normal setting is 11.
One ski came off, the other one not. Small ankle bone broken and ruptured achilles tendon made getting out an ordeal. (6 miles on skis), but the worst was getting out of the couloir, couldn’t ski so I downclimbed, then glissaded…
I’d be a bit careful about skiing with your straps between your thumb and index finger as shown in this picture. That significantly increases your odds of getting a “skiers thumb”, or ulnar collateral ligament tear of the thumb. The old plastic handle ski poles used to have a large thumb “ridge” on them that had the same problem. That is why most poles, including these, don’t have a thumb ridge anymore. It is not a very fun injury to have, takes a long time to heal, and sometimes requires surgery to fix.
rod…glad you made it out okay.
i think whippets make good anchor/belay type points on descent…but self arresting after a fall on anythings steep and firm seems iffy.
jimmylittle…too late.
http://tetonat.staging.wpengine.com/2009/02/16/skiers-thumb/
this one happened on this descent…
http://tetonat.staging.wpengine.com/videos/chouinard-couloir-middle-teton/
I found this page searching for this year’s redesign of the Whippet Pole. Since I am a big, big fan I thought I’d answer Brian’s question above.
I was skiing a 40+ degree couloir this spring in powder conditions. I experienced a quick series of events (still haven’t quite sorted out what happened), but it involved my skis running a bit fast, skiing over a boot pack, and crossing a windloaded pocket right around the same time. I fell either before or after a nice-sized slab avalanche ripped out underneath me.
Fortunately I had just been practicing my self-arrest techniques that morning, so while I was in the white room I had enough wits about me to get my feet faced downhill and my stomach against the slope.
I happened to have a Whippet pole in my hand, and even with the pick protector on, was able to use it to arrest my fall. The snow continued to move quickly below me on down the slope.
Thanks Whippet!!! I love you.
thanks lindsay…it’s good to know that whippets can work in the right circumstances. luckily i haven’t had to use it in full self arrest mode…except for when skinning.