I love this axe, light, made very well, durable as it is a BD product. I actually choose this over the Raven Pro as it is a bit heavier (which is a plus in my mind, but still light comparied to others). The Pro's adze is half as long and much narrower. I can't see it being very useful to chop steps. The Pro's very light weight definitely make it a plus for those weight conscious or high altitude climbers. The engineer who designed the head of the axe needs a well deserved raise. Very ergonomic in design, it’s as if it just conforms to your hand as you grasp it.

Customer Service

The best CS is the one you never have to use.

Similar Products Used:

Cassin Flash no comparison to the Raven heavy, the head hurts your hand using self beley/arrest grip. Its' only use now is as a decorative piece on the climbing wall with summit pics.

Strong, pretty light, adze chops hard ice well. Pick is easy on your hand in a self-arrest grip. Does everything it should. Going to last. A+.

Raven Pro which has a mirror polished and even additional material removed from the head to make to extra light. When I first picked the thing up, I was amazed at the weight. I tried the standard raven and was impressed. Lifting the 'pro' was like having nothing in my hand. It is designed to do everything it is supposed to do with minimal weight w/o trading durability. Takes some getting used to the low swing weight and short adze, but I can not find fault with the product. It is top notch...can't see why your get another axe for the mountains.

Customer Service

NA

Similar Products Used:

Omega pacific mountain lite. Camp Frontier. Charlet moser Guide.

There appear to be two versions of pick with this axe. I have the positive clearance version with the rubberised grip and a friend has a neutral/negative clearance pick without the grip. We bought both axes at the same time, so I don't know if clearance changes with the shaft or BD has just changed the pick design. Whilst the head is nicely designed to fit in the hand when walking, the positive clearance makes any sort of moderate climbing harder- the pick tends to shatter ice instead of sticking. Doesn't seem to make self arrest any easier, so I'd recommend going for a negative clearance axe like the Grivel Air Tech or just filing the point of the Raven.

Comfortable, light, bomber build quality. What more can you ask for in an axe? On Rainier I frequently used fellow climbers' axes around camp (chopping platforms, anchoring tents, etc.) and they all felt like Neanderthal tools compared to the Raven.

Customer Service

n/a

The Black Diamond Raven is the best general mountaineering piolet on the market right now, bar none. This axe wins on performance, weight, and even cost. Mountaineering axe design has always puzzled me--with some notable exceptions, these things seem to be designed by people who don't use them in the field. Why else include sharp protrusions that dig into the hand when the axe is carried by the head? Why include lumpy rubber grips that look cool in the showroom but impede plunging into snow slopes? Why include leashes attached with flimsy plastic sliders that lock up and can be counted on to give at inopportune moments? Black Diamond, on the other hand, gets it right. The most striking thing about this axe is its aesthetics. But they are functional aesthetics--the slim waist, rounded finger notches, and platform on the head make this axe comfortable to hold and easy to manipulate. Comfort is key on mountain ascents, and adept manipulation even more so--fumbling to get an axe into self-arrest position is no fun when you're rocketing down a snow slope. This axe is also light--so light that at first I worried it wouldn't stand up to full-bore use. But email exchanges with the designer and subsequent use convinced me that weight has been cut in all the right places. Downsides are difficult to find. Some might object to the functional aesthetics of the gray shaft, but personally I like the function-first look Black Diamond goes for with a lot of its gear. My guess is this axe wouldn't be a stellar performer in harder water ice, its pick really seems to be designed more with snow and glacier ice in mind. But that's really not what this tool is intended for, anyway--and one of the weaknesses of some other piolets is that their picks are clearly designed more for waterfall climbing, making them poor for self-arresting and other general mountaineering tasks. The Black Diamond Raven is clearly designed by folks who head into the hills on a regular basis. That's more than can be said for many of its competitors, and should speak for itself.

Customer Service

Black Diamond folks are very friendly--my guess is this would be one of the more pleasant companies to deal with customer service-wise.

Similar Products Used:

Assorted Charlet Moser axes, an old Chouinard Zero, and others.