The  Salewa Quick screw 19cm is an integrated ice screw that Salewa have launched as an ‘all in one’ style product that differs to the standalone ultralight and aluminium ice screws produced by other ice screw manufacturers such as  Black Diamond, Petzl, Simond and Cassin.

In short, the argument against more gear is that you have on a rack, the heavier you are, and the more awkward it becomes to hold certain moves if there’s lots of metalwork jangling around. Luckily, Salewa’s quick screw does what it says on the tin and could arguably be the quick piece of gear that can be deployed as a bit of a ‘thank god’ piece of ice climbing protection, due to its ease of having a built in draw and snap gate ready to clip onto a rope, ideal for when ice climbing can start to feel a bit spicy.

Where was it tested?

Visiting the ice crags of Krokan, in a world class ice climbing region of Rjukan in Norway , the ice climbing conditions were extremely cold. This meaning the ice screws were being put through some serious conditions as the ice was much harder than expected, due to an unexpected period of high pressure resulting in a brittle, hard ice. This meant that the ice climbing ( which was already pretty strenuous to practice using precise footwork on mono-points and kicked steps) was made all the harder with very hard ice for ice axe placements and for leading, protection was made even more precarious by the ‘bullet hard’ ice I was told placing ice screws was no easy feat, with the ice reacting to the  ease of movement due to the freeze - thaw that was taking place over the course of the day when the sun shone on the crag for two hours mid-afternoon before setting on the other side of the slope.

The formation of very hard ice – due to the temperatures dropping as low as -17 degrees overnight, sometimes not exceeding -13 degrees in the daylight, meant that for the ice screw to ‘bite’ meant physically having to put a lot of force through the ice screw, requiring more effort to try and get them to attach into the hard ice whilst wearing gloves. In conditions that cold, it’s also not advisable to put gear in your mouth as a means of multi-tasking as this can lead to serious injury , including skin being stuck on frozen metal!

Luckily, having a Salewa ice screw, with its sharp teeth and additional functionalities of integral winder, carrier and quick draw made it easy to deploy. It was convenient to deploy as the Salewa Quick screw for when the moves feel awkward, or just for the convenience of having an ice screw that's straightforward to clip to the rope.

The good things about it

What was noticeable about the Quick screw was how easy it was to identify on the rack. Colour coded, the screws are available in three colours and three different lengths. I had a 19cm red screw which was a good all rounder – not so short that it was worrying whether it would ‘fall out’ but also not ridiculously long that it would take ages to place. I also liked the carrier as it was a case of opening the winder, folding the ice screw out of the carrier then turning the ice screw into the ice before using the winder to turn the ice screw with some speed into the ice. Having the additional sling carrier and quick draw meant that I didn’t need to carry a quick draw for the gear, so it meant I was carrying less, although this still took space on the harness loops, making it more streamlined and one less piece of metalwork to carry with me. It’s worth noting that because of the additional sling carrier it makes clipping process a whole lot easier to do, particularly as ice climbing requires  you to climb  whilst wearing gloves for the duration of the ice climbing.

I also had no complaints from my second in the ease of removing the ice screw, who climbed up after me and took it out of the ice,  removing the gear to reclip to their harness. Mainly though, the ice screw was useful as I was shooting some footage on a static rope, so it was a really quick piece of gear I could use to clip myself onto the rope and not swing onto the route.

Another positive about the Salewa quickscrew  is the practicality of keeping the  snapgate clipped to the rope, preventing it from getting lost and accidentally getting dropped – making it ideal for committing multi pitch climbs where every piece lost could be highly consequential for completing the route. Placing of, as well as removing ice screws can be highly fiddly, especially when trying to reclip them back onto Black Diamond/ Petzl ice screw racking karabiners, which can hold around three ice screws on, but there is a greater risk of dropping the ice screws in the process. Having a Salewa Quick screw to hand meant it could be racked like a ‘normal’ piece of gear like how one might rack a cam, due to the built-in snap gate and sling.

Convenience whilst ice climbing can’t be stated enough - when leading, I noticed how much quicker it was to become ‘pumped’ due to the strenuous angle or awkward positions to try and find a rest. Having a piece of gear that could effectively be placed one handed ( with a bit of good technique) was worth it!

Finally, one of the favourite things was the screw tip protector that was integrated in. A huge part of learning to climb on ice was knowing how to rack my ice screws without it catching on clothing (such as coats, belay jackets, extra slings, harness etc) and protecting soft materials from catching. It’s also easy enough to slide this back one handed, so if you had to hang off an ice axe with one hand it was possible with the other hand to flip the ice screw protector and start placing it with that hand without losing balance.

One thing I noticed I’d like a slight improvement would be to have a slightly larger winder as this was ‘tucked’ into the handle and required quite delft handiwork to get this open then the action of screwing it in. Having a slightly bigger handle whilst it would look bulkier would improve the overall handling of the winder and getting it placed with ease.

The Quick Screw is a quick and easy all-in-one solution for ice climbing protection. It’s definitely a piece of gear which I found was reliable and versatile and became something I could deploy quickly without needing to carry additional elements of a climbing rack. I would definitely be tempted to get some in additional sizes to compliment a rack as it would be super useful to have different lengths for the different thickness of ice.

Features

• Integrated screw tip protection (patent pending) won't get lost, prevents injury and damage to clothing
• Integrated holster keeps screw in place on harness until used, easy to operate single-handed and gloved up
• Compact head and integrated quickdraw attaches directly to harness for a streamlined rack (no need for ice screw clippers)
• Ergonomic head for fast, efficient action
• Large winder handle for greater screwing efficiency
• Integrated quickdraw for immediate clip-in
• Screw can be left clipped to rope when unscrewed from the ice, preventing loss
• Colour coded for easy length-identification
• Available in three lengths